We visited the Wright Bros. Memorial at Kill Devils Hill, Kitty Hawk.

I was particularly moved by the exhibits.  The Wrights, Orville and Wilbur, residents of Dayton Ohio, transported their flyer to Kitty Hawk North Carolina, due to reports of wind conditions favorable to powered flight.  On the remote sandy beach in 1903 Orville flew a heavier than air machine under good control.  The stable flight lasted for 12 seconds, reaching 120 feet.

Now we fly in order to get around.  Military planes routinely break the sound barrier.  Flight presently involves orbital trips into space.  Society would not exist as we know it apart from the vision and the passion of Orville and Wilbur Wright.

Several things particularly impressed me from the exhibits.

The Wrights conceived/recognized that a propeller was not a “screw,” but was a “wing.”  The concept of a rotating wing to produce forward momentum was a paradigm advance over thinking of a propeller analogous in form to the mechanism which provides forward momentum for a boat.

I felt moved when viewing the aluminum alloy crankcase, all that remains of the engine that powered the Wright flyer.  Aluminum is a strong light metal and is still used extensively for aircraft manufacture.  The photo shows the crankcase along with a full scale plexiglass mock up of pistons and drive shaft of the four cylinder engine.  The engine produced 12 horsepower at 1200 RPM.  It weighed 170 pounds, the cylinders displaced 201 cubic inches.  The propellers, moved in counter rotation at 350 RPM.

The labor of the Wright’s genius can be viewed close at hand from all angles in the reproduction of their flyer displayed in the visitors center.

If we all worked on the assumption
that what is accepted as true
is really true,
there would be little hope
of advance.

— Orville to George A. Spratt, June 7, 1903