Small Town News

When world believed in flight

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The eyes of the world were on North Carolina's Outer Banks as Wilbur and Orville Wright demonstrated that they had mastered the challenge of controlled powered flight.

The year was.1903?

Wrong answer.

Although the Wright Brothers and a few Outer Bankers had seen the Wright Brothers' "First Flight," most of the rest of the world put the stories of the Wright's 1903 successful flights in the category of scores of other unproven claims that man had flown.

So, what is the correct answer?

According to East Carolina University history Professor Larry Tise, the year that most of the world came to believe the Wrights could really fly was 1908. Tise's new book, "Conquering the Sky: The Secret Flights of the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk," explains why public recognition of the Wrights' achievements came in 1908 and why it took so long.

According to Tise, fame came very suddenly to the Wrights in 1908. Ironically, they became celebrities at the very moment they were doing their best to work in secret. In the spring of 1908 the Wrights came back to Kill Devil Hills to test and adjust their airplane in preparation for demonstrating to the U.S. Army the machine's capabilities. Their contract with the Army provided that they would only be paid if the plane could carry a passenger, reach a speed of 40 miles per hour, and travel 125 miles. Similar demonstrations were planned in Europe.

The Wrights had long shunned publicity. They did not want anyone taking pictures of their airplane or learning how they controlled their machine in the air. They were worried that someone would steal their ideas, plans, and invention and claim credit for the breakthroughs the Wrights had achieved. The Wrights wanted recognition and the wealth that would come to anyone who could gain patent or other legal protection for "secret" knowledge that made flight possible.

In 1903, the remoteness of the Kill Devil Hills had made it possible for the Wrights to work without attention. But things had changed by 1908. The presence nearby of an active telegraph station had made possible instant communication with the rest of the world. Also, the use of newly available gasoline engines to power small boats had made it much simpler for visitors, including newspaper reporters, to reach the Wrights' camp and temporary workshops.

Not long after the Wrights arrived in April 1908, word slipped out that they were planning new flights. By the time they began flying in early May, reporters and locals were in position to telegraph reports to distant newspapers. Many of the reports were based on rumors and were wildly exaggerated. But they made they front pages of the New York and European papers. The Wrights were suddenly famous,

On May 14, from a secluded area, a group of reporters observed the Wrights successfully complete two flights with a passenger aboard and then a longer (five mile) flight. Although the longer flight ended in a crash, the eyewitness reports and a new photograph of the plane in flight proved to the world that the Wrights' accomplishments were real.

Later, an article in Collier's magazine described the experience of the reporters who had hidden all day in the sandy woods "along with the flies and busy 'chiggers' until there was just time to tramp back and catch the chug-chug home. Then, bedraggled and very sunburned, they tramped up to the little weather bureau and informed the world, waiting on the other side of various sounds and continents and oceans, that it was all right, the rumors true, and there was no doubt that a man could fly."

Tice's smooth, clear writing and his storytelling talents made "Conquering the Sky" a special pleasure.



Copyright 2009 Spring Hope Enterprise, Spring Hope, North Carolina. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from SmallTownPapers, Inc.

© 2010 Spring Hope Enterprise Spring Hope, North Carolina. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

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