![]() ![]() Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division LC-W86- 58 Before they ever attempted powered flight, the Wright brothers were masters of the air.Ī 1928 reproduction of the Wright brothers' engine for 1903 Flyer. These flying skills were a crucial component of their invention. In Wilbur's words, "It is possible to fly without motors, but not without knowledge and skill." With over a thousand glides from atop Big Kill Devil Hill, the Wrights made themselves the first true pilots. It was the Wrights' genius and vision to see that humans would have to fly their machines, that the problems of flight could not be solved from the ground. They relied on brute power to keep their theoretically stable machines aloft, sending along a hapless passenger and hoping for the best. ![]() Yet Langley, as others before him, had failed to achieve powered flight. They labored in relative obscurity, while the experiments of Samuel Langley of the Smithsonian were followed in the press and underwritten by the War Department. Since 1899, Wilbur and Orville Wright had been scientifically experimenting with the concepts of flight. ![]() Samuel Langley testing off a houseboat in 1893. ![]()
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