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Winter Holidays 2021!


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For those who are fans of aviation history--like me--this day could be considered a holiday, even if nobody gets off work.  It was on this day in 1903 that Orville and Wilbur Wright flew the first successful heavier-than-air flying machine.  Yes, there were other inventors who attached an engine with propellor to a pair of wings, but it was the Wrights who developed the "wing-warping" system that would allow a plane to be controlled in the air, rather than limited to just straight-line flight.

 

The telegram they sent to their father summed up the accomplishment perfectly--even if they did get Orville's name wrong.

 

""Success four flights Thursday morning all against twenty-one mile per hour wind

started from level with engine power alone average speed through air thirty-one miles

longest 57 seconds inform press home Christmas.

 

Orevelle Wright"

 

It may not have changed the world right away, but it did change the world forever.

 

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This was the day.  December 17, 1903.

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5 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

It gives one pause to think that there's probably no one alive today who remembers a world without powered aircraft.

 

When does someone start to remember?  
If you're setting that date as per Kitty Hawk, then you can strike "probably."  The oldest living person at this time, was born in January of 1903...so would've been less than a year old.  But the first *commercial* flight was 1914.  That would be a reasonable latest date.  

 

BTW:  that person is the ONLY one.  The next oldest was born in early 1904, according to Wikipedia.

 

 

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8 hours ago, Starlord said:

Fun fact:  My wife is Brazilian.  Brazilians do not acknowledge the Wright Brothers as the first powered flight.  They only recognize Santos Dumont in that capacity.

 

While I do not wish to cause discord in your household, the fact of the matter is that while Alberto Santos-Dumont invented the dirigible and built one of the first successful monoplanes--the Demoiselle--his flights in the 14bis took place in 1906, three years after the Wrights flew at Kitty Hawk.  There were witnesses on that day.  There was the photograph, one of the most famous ever taken.  And while the Wright Flyer itself was destroyed by high winds on that day, the Wrights were able to build other aircraft that surpassed anything else being built, including those by Santos-Dumont.

 

The Wright Brothers were first.  They were the fathers of modern aviation.  And the date of birth was December 17, 1903.  Então lá.*

 

 

 

 

*That's Portuguese for "So There."

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50 minutes ago, wcw43921 said:

 

While I do not wish to cause discord in your household, the fact of the matter is that while Alberto Santos-Dumont invented the dirigible and built one of the first successful monoplanes--the Demoiselle--his flights in the 14bis took place in 1906, three years after the Wrights flew at Kitty Hawk.  There were witnesses on that day.  There was the photograph, one of the most famous ever taken.  And while the Wright Flyer itself was destroyed by high winds on that day, the Wrights were able to build other aircraft that surpassed anything else being built, including those by Santos-Dumont.

 

The Wright Brothers were first.  They were the fathers of modern aviation.  And the date of birth was December 17, 1903.  Então lá.*

 

 

 

 

*That's Portuguese for "So There."

 

Never speak those words in Brazil if you want to get out alive.  :D

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15 hours ago, unclevlad said:

 

When does someone start to remember?  
If you're setting that date as per Kitty Hawk, then you can strike "probably."  The oldest living person at this time, was born in January of 1903...so would've been less than a year old.  But the first *commercial* flight was 1914.  That would be a reasonable latest date.  

 

BTW:  that person is the ONLY one.  The next oldest was born in early 1904, according to Wikipedia.

 

 

 

:whistle:

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On 12/17/2021 at 7:52 PM, unclevlad said:

 

When does someone start to remember?  
If you're setting that date as per Kitty Hawk, then you can strike "probably."  The oldest living person at this time, was born in January of 1903...so would've been less than a year old.  But the first *commercial* flight was 1914.  That would be a reasonable latest date.  

 

BTW:  that person is the ONLY one.  The next oldest was born in early 1904, according to Wikipedia.

 

 

 

First commercial flight would be a reasonable standard, but you would still have to have been old enough to realize that aircraft are a thing, hence at least several years older than 107. The ones you mention would have been 10 or 11 when that first commercial flight was made, so I concede they might remember earlier than that. If their memory is still functional, of course.

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