“With a short dash down the runway, the machine lifted into the air and was flying.
It was only a flight of twelve seconds,
and it was uncertain, wavy, creeping sort of flight at best;
but it was a real flight at last and not a glide.”
1903
This is a three view drawing of the Wright 1903 Flyer that was made during its restoration at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Archives Division.
In 1903, on a cold, blustery day, Orville and Wilbur Wright made history with the first controlled, powered flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. This year, 2003, we celebrate the centennial of flight. That “first flight” started an era in which man traveled above the earth and into space.
America's first human space flight program was announced on Wright Brothers Day, December 17, 1958, fifty-five years after the events at Kitty Hawk.
