Wilbur & Orville Wright:Dreams of Fly

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Summary: Possibly the most incredible story in American history
Review: Having lived in North Carolina my whole life, you'd better believe I knew who the Wright Brothers were even as a child. They may have been from Ohio, but they took flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, and we're pretty darn proud of that fact. This Biography video will be a real eye-opener to many, I'm sure. You would assume that the whole world went wild when Orville and Wilbur invented the airplane and that they were instantly hailed as geniuses and wined and dined by anyone and everyone. Do you know what actually happened in aftermath of that first flight on December 17, 1903? Nothing at all, basically. There's proof in the form of a snapshot of the plane taking flight, but only five newspapers across the country even mentioned this mother of all inventions, and few of those folks who did hear the story believed it ? even back in the Wright brothers' home town in Ohio. Just days before history was made in Kitty Hawk, the great scientist Samuel Langley, director of the Smithsonian Institution and the recipient of a huge $150,000 grant, made his much ballyhooed attempt at flight and failed miserably, convincing most of the public that man would never fly. Back in Ohio, the brothers start building a new plane, but they were only able to fly it 25 feet in front of invited press. Without the kind of winds that made Kitty Hawk an ideal test site, the brothers used a catapult to give their new plane the speed it needed to take off. This worked, and the brothers were taking flights of over half an hour by 1905. The Wrights sought a contract, but the American government ? unbelievably ? basically snubbed them; meanwhile, the brothers stopped flying altogether in order to keep their secret design safe. They eventually had to turn to Europe, and five incredibly long years after inventing the airplane, the government (along with French financiers) finally gave the brothers a chance to prove their claims. Wilbur went to France to show an exceedingly dubious French public that he was not a fraud. Finally, in 1908, the Wrights' accomplishment was recognized and the brothers became international celebrities.

You'll learn a whole heap of fascinating information on the Wright brothers in this video. It takes you through their initial work with gliders, the ups and downs of making a plane that could not only fly but could also be controlled by the pilot, their failures and even disasters, and the lives they led following their amazing success ? it was not a completely happy one, especially after the stress of a law suit against a competitor contributed to Wilbur's premature death at the age of 1945 in 1912.

On the first test run in December 1903, Wilbur crashed the plane before getting anywhere, and it took two days to repair it for another try (this time with Orville at the controls). There were several flights on that historic day, the first three of which failed to travel the required 300 feet. The fourth try was pure magic, though, as Orville flew 852 feet in 59 seconds. Here comes the most interesting story of all, however. The brothers and a witness named John Daniels were so elated that they forgot to tie down the light (605 pound) airplane. A gust came up and Daniels tried to hold the plane down, suddenly finding himself catapulted head over heels and stuck in the wires of the plane as it blew down the field and all but disintegrated. Fortunately, Daniels received only scratches, and the frightening experience provided him with the opportunity to later boast that he flew the historic fifth flight that day in Kitty Hawk. In 1908, the world's first airplane passenger flew alongside Orville and became the world's first airplane fatality when something popped and the plane plummeted to the ground ? Orville himself was seriously injured.

The above are just a few of the incredible facts you may never have heard about the building and successful flight of the world's first airplane. The video further highlights the fact that the Wright brothers were two relatively unknown bicycle makers with a personal obsession with the idea of flight, yet they succeeded where respected, well-funded, highly educated scientists and professionals failed. The story of the Wright Brothers is the quintessential story of good old American know-how.