The Wright Brothers

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Although many people tried to do what the Wright Brothers did they failed in comparison. What the Wright Brothers did was amazing. They had a plane that could fly longer than any other plane built at that time.  That is why the Wright Brothers are heroes.

The plane that was as you can say now famous and even at the time was a very big step to something much larger.  This plane had a weight of around 50 pounds. Nowadays, most planes weigh well over a ton. This light weight would help a lot because people could get places faster than a bike, car, wagon and anything else that they would use to get around at that time.

This great accomplishment happened in the year 1899. That was when they built the plane and the first flight was in 1902.  The reason for the long delay was so they could make sure that this plane would work and they had to get permission to have a first flight.  To build the only plane that worked, they kept fixing what they started and made changes. They didn't get rid of it; they just kept building on the same one and made it better. So they made an old plane that didn't work to one of the biggest accomplishment of that time era.

The Wright Brothers spent a great deal of time observing birds in flight. They noticed that birds soared into the wind and that the air flowing over the curved surface of their wings created a lift.  Birds change the shape of their wings to turn and maneuver.  They believed that they could use this technique to obtain roll control by warping, or changing the shape, of a portion of the wing. That was one way they thought of how to make a plane, or to even make a prototype of how to make a plane that would work and that wouldn't fail like many people in that time period.  

Over the next 3 years, Wilbur and his brother Orville would make a series of gliders which would be flown in both unmanned (as kites) and piloted flights.  They read about the works of Clayey, and Langley, and the hang-gliding flights of Otto Lilienthal.  They corresponded with Octave Chanute concerning some of their ideas.  They recognized that control of the flying aircraft would be the most crucial and hardest problem to solve.  To fly  a successful glider test, the Wrights built and tested a full-size glider.  They selected Kitty Hawk, North Carolina as their test site because of its wind, sand, hilly terrain and the remote location.