Dan Snow's History Hit - The Unlikely Fate of the Wright Brothers

Episode Date: December 17, 2021

On a winter day in 1903, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, two unknown brothers from Ohio changed history. The Wright Brothers took the world's first engine-powered flight. It didn't take long for countries around the world to realise that the Wright flying machine had the potential to revolutionise warfare and soon everybody wanted flying machines of their own. But the US didn't have the advantage; Historian and TV Consultant Gavin Mortimer tells Dan that after that first flight, the Wright Brothers spent more time in court trying to protect their patent and ground other aviators than they did in their workshop. Not only did it make them largely despised by their contemporaries, they quickly fell behind in the race to master the air.For more about those dramatic days of pioneering aviation, Gavin's book is called 'Chasing Icarus: The Seventeen Days in 1910 That Changing American Aviation'If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.

Some things just take too long. A meeting that could have been an email, someone explaining crypto, or switching mobile providers. Except with Fizz. Switching to Fizz is quick and easy. Mobile plans start at $17 a month. Certain conditions apply. Details at fizz.ca. Hi everyone, welcome to Dan Snow's History. It's a big anniversary. You know I love an anniversary. It's Daniversary Snow on the line here. This is a big anniversary. You know I love an anniversary. It's anniversary snow on the line here. This is a big anniversary today. In 1903, on the 17th of December, the Wright brothers took their first heavier-than-air flight, revolutionizing the world as we know it. I mean, imagine that. There are people alive today whose parents lived in an era before heavier-than-air travel.

It is extraordinary. We are accelerating, folks. We are on a mad journey that began with someone accidentally discovering some bronze in a pretty hot fire. Anyway, and it is getting faster and faster. What is going to happen next? I don't know. But we've now got over 120 years of heavier than their travel. This podcast is all about that moment. It's all about the Wright brothers and how their contemporaries did not like them very much as they spent more time fighting over their patent, suing people, and grounding other aviators than they actually did working out what the next generation of aircraft was to master the race for the air. So this is a weird story. The Wright brothers, litigious, they gave up inventing to sue people. Not a good look. They were the two successful american aviation pioneers they built and they flew the world's first

successful engine operated airplane they made the first controlled sustained flight of a powered flying machine the right flyer on the 17th of december at kitty hawk in north carolina they were the first to invent aircraft controls, so they made sort of fixed-wing powered flight possible. And that first aircraft, which I love, I just love going to this museum. It's one of my favorite museums in the world. It's in the National Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian. That first aircraft is preserved there. In this podcast, I'm going to tell you all about that fateful day, but I'm also going to interview Gavin Mortimer. He is the author of Chasing Icarus. That is just about early aviation, really. He's a best-selling historian, he's a writer, TV consultant, etc. And he's interviewed a lot

of aviators from the early days of aviation. He's an absolute ledge. He points out to me in this podcast, the Wright brothers first flew in 1903, by the time of the First World War, which is 11 years later, so not long afterwards. Aircraft were not super common in the armed forces of the world's superpowers. The USA had two aeroplanes in its air forces under 1914. They had one dirigible as well, basically what we call an airship. Britain had two aeroplanes and two dirigibles. The French, absolutely cutting edge of innovation. 29 airplanes, folks, and seven dirigibles.

Well, little of Germany, just five airplanes falling well behind. But their dirigible game was strong. They had 14. That's why the German strategic bombing campaign against Britain, as the months of the First World War tended to years, in early 1915 onwards, that Germans sent their dirigibles over to bomb targets in Britain. Anyway, back to the podcast. If you want to watch documentaries about the First World War or early

aviation, you can do so at History Hit TV, world's best history channel, available anywhere in the world where there is internet. Go to historyhit.tv, historyhit.tv, sign up, world's best history channel. It's like Netflix for history. You're going it tell a friend and you can give the gift of history tv this Christmas no supply chain issues here simple you just go online you gift it you give it to your auntie on Christmas day she's happy you're happy you probably have to wrap it up everyone's happy in the meantime though folks here I'm talking about the Wright Brothers, and you'll be hearing from Gavin Mortimer. Enjoy. The Wright Brothers were born, one after the other, obviously, in 1867 and 1871. Wilbur first, and Orville, his younger brother, second. They're born in the American Midwest, and they were the sons of an ordained minister.

When they were young, they were encouraged to pursue intellectual interests, to investigate whatever really sparked their curiosity. It's a lesson for all of us parents out there. As long as kids are learning, as long as they're thinking, as long as they're exploring, that's fine. They became interested in flying at a very young age. As children in Dayton, Ohio, apparently they loved a little sort of helicopter-like toy. It was powered by a rubber band, And they loved the mechanic's toy. They took it apart, they put it back together several times. And one day, their dream was to build a flying machine

big enough to hold both of them. They were independent thinkers. They were filled with confidence of their own talent and an unshakable faith in the soundness of their judgment. And they've got that from their father, this evangelical, very independent preacher, this minister. And like them, their determination to persevere in the face of disappointment and adversity. It's pretty tough being a kind of itinerant preacher in a non-established church. And these qualities made them great inventors. They were mavericks. They began with bicycles. That was the craze of the late 19th century. In 1892, the two brothers opened a bicycle repair and sale shop, and they began to build bikes in 1896. They started inventing straight

away. They developed a self-oiling bicycle wheel hub, which actually I need because the chain on my bike is a shambles at the moment. So self-oiling sounds good to me. And they installed a number of light machine tools in the shop. So they seized the means of production in that respect. The profits from this operation went straight into aeronautical experiments. They reinvested and take profit out of the company, folks. More tax efficient that way as well, I learned. And working with metal, working with wood, trying to make lightweight, precise mechanisms was the ideal preparation for constructing flying machines. Now, they're very interesting, the accounts of a German glider pioneer, Otto Liesenthal at the time. He was a pioneer in the 19th century. He was doing all sorts of

experimentation in the 19th century. Perhaps inevitably doing all sorts of experimentation in the 19th century. Perhaps inevitably, he died in a glider crash in August 1896. And the lads became determined to keep his legacy alive, really. By 1899, I love this, they'd exhausted every single book in their local library. And they wrote to the Smithsonian Institution for suggestions as to further reading. They knew that an aircraft like this would require wings because they generate lift. It's taking advantage of the difference in pressure

underneath the wing and on top of the wing that enables planes to fly in the sky. Now, you need a propulsion system to move it through the air and create that pressure differential. And you also need a system to control the craft once it is flying. It's all very well building that paper airplane, but you need to drive it and to steer it, take it in the craft once it is flying. It's all very well building that paper aeroplane, but you need to drive it, you need to steer it, take it in the direction you want to go.

They worked out they needed wings, as I said, but also it needed to be light enough to be driven by an internal combustion engine. They experimented with a small kind of biplane kite in Dayton in the summer of 1899. A biplane obviously has two wings running the whole of the width of the aircraft. Using that, they realized their kite could climb, it could dive, and it could bank

right or left. And so with that, they decided to build their first full-scale glider. It's dangerous business, folks. In 1900, they traveled from Ohio to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, and they began their full-size flight experiments. On the ocean side dunes at Kitty Hawk there were regular breezes and importantly there was a soft landing. The sandy soil was perfect for their experimentation. They started on tests, they moved up to gliders and they both separately piloted gliders during the testing process to take it in turns. In 1903 the brothers built an aeroplane. It was called the Wright Flyer 1. It had wooden propellers that the men had designed and carved themselves. Beautiful things. It had a gasoline engine. Fuel was becoming lighter. You didn't have to take great big bricks of rock, coal anymore. You could use fuel, liquid fuel, gasoline, the new wonder fuel of the 20th century. What could

possibly go wrong, fellas? Let's just burn loads of gas. It's going to be great. Anyway, seemed like a good idea at the time. And at 10.35 on the morning of the 17th of December, 1903, Orville was at the controls. He lay down on the plane's wing surface and brought its engine to life in preparation of launching it and himself into history.

His diary tells the story. it and himself into history. His diary tells the story. When we got up, a wind of between 20 and 25 miles was blowing from the north. We got the machine out early and put out the signal for the men at the station. After running the engine and propellers a few minutes to get them in working order, I got on the machine at 10.35 for the first trial. The wind was blowing a little over 27 miles, according to the government anemometer at Kitty Hawk. On slipping the rope, the machine started increasing in speed to probably 7 or 8 miles. The machine lifted from the track just as it was entering on the fourth rail. Mr. Daniels took a picture just as

it left the tracks. I found the control of the front rudder quite difficult on account of it being balanced too near to the center and thus had a tendency to turn itself when started. As a result, the machine would rise suddenly to about 10 feet and then as suddenly, on turning the rudder, dart for the ground. A sudden dart went out about 100 feet from the end of the tracks, ended the flight. Time, about 12 seconds. The lever for throwing off the engine was broken and the skid under the rudder cracked.

After repairs, at 20 minutes after 11 o'clock, Will made the second trial. At just 12 o'clock, Wilbur started on the fourth and last trip. The machine started off with its ups and downs as it had before, but by the time he had gone over 300 or 400 feet, he had it under much better control and was traveling on a fairly even course. It proceeded in this manner till it reached a small hummock out about 800 feet from the starting ways, when it began its pitching again and suddenly darted into the ground. The front rudder frame was badly broken up, but the main frame suffered none at all.

The distance over the ground was 852 feet in 59 seconds. He covered around 120 feet, that's just under 40 meters, flying through the air in 12 seconds. Wilbur flew over 50 meters in 12 seconds on his first attempt. Orville's second attempt saw him in the air for 15 seconds. On the fourth and final attempt of the day, Wilbur flew 259 meters in 59 seconds. The four flights were witnessed, don't worry everyone, five local citizens were there to confirm this happened. So for the first time in history, a heavier than air machine had demonstrated powered and sustained flight under the complete control of a pilot. The Wright brothers should have now been in a position to dominate this entire new industry,

this entire new dimension that human beings had been launched into. But it didn't go quite as planned, as you'll hear after the break, when I'm talking to historian Gavin Mortimer. Hello, if you're enjoying this podcast, then I know you're going to be fascinated by the new episodes of the history hit warfare podcast. From the polionic battles and Cold War confrontations to the Normandy landings and 9-11, we reveal new perspectives on how war has shaped and changed our modern world. I'm your host, James Rogers, and each week, twice a week, I team up with fellow historians, military veterans, journalists, and experts from around the world to bring you

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Hey everyone, you're listening to History Hit. hey everyone you listen to history we're just talking about the wright brothers first flight the flight that changed the world but things didn't quite go as planned after that i'm here with gavin mortimer gavin thank you very much coming on the pod a pleasure dan good to be with you is it me or do we sometimes underestimate? We remember people as inventors and pioneers, but we then downplay their business acumen that they were also entrepreneurs, showmen, often with quite pointy elbows. Well, absolutely. And this was a great flaw in the Wright brothers is that they were inventors and they certainly were not entrepreneurs. And in the years after their Kitty Hawk flight in December 1903, they allowed themselves to be overtaken by rivals because they weren't visionaries. They didn't understand quite the potential of what they'd invented.

Yeah, I'm always so interested. It's like those quotes from people who pioneered computers who said there may be a computer in every city by the year 2000. What do you think that they thought they were trying to do? And that was it. And that really was what it extended to. And that they were both engineers. And of course, that was the secret in a way of their success is that they approached the problem of flight from an engineering point of view, not a scientific point of view. Orville in particular was a great bicycle engineer, the bicycle craze of the 1890s, particularly in the States. And then that began to peter out at the end of the 19th century. And so they looked to another challenge. And it was only in 1899 that they wrote to the Smithsonian Institute to say, we're interested in jumping on the aviation bandwagon, if you like, please, can you recommend some books for us? And so they recommended the books.

It hadn't been that for years, they'd been like some mad genius slaving away in his attic at the problem. They just sort of moved on from the bicycle. Oh, well, let's have a go at getting something into the air. How was the news received? It was very competitive at the time. Was it like the space race would become later? Were people waiting for every single... Was it clear that records were about to be broken? So how did they handle that publicity? Initially, no, there wasn't much publicity. And when you say the space race, Dan, I think that's a very important aspect of this. This was, of course, at a time, the turn of the 20th century, when particularly in Europe,

obviously, you had Germany, France, and Britain, empire tussling, if I can put it like that. America was very much coming to the fore. And there was a great deal of nationalism in this, in the race to be the first to get something up into the air. But again, as I said, they didn't really understand the possibilities, particularly from a military point of view. And this is something that I discuss in Chasing Icarus, that the battle, if you like, and the sudden realization in 1910 that, wow, this is going to change the face of warfare. And the Wright brothers didn't understand that. And that wasn't their objective. As I said, their objective was simply to get something up into the air. As I said, their objective was simply to get something up into the air. I mean, Louis Blériot, when he flew across the Channel and absolutely terrified the Brits

in 1909, he was an entrepreneur. He wanted to sell planes. He was quite switched on, wasn't he? Tell me about the Wright brothers after that first flight. As they say nowadays, how did they monetize that invention? Well, they didn't, Dan. What's often forgotten is that after the initial success in December the 17th, 1903, the year that followed was an anticlimax. They were trying to evolve and develop their invention, and there was more failure than success. And it wasn't until July 1905 that when they changed, they adapted the elevator elevator the forward part of the airplane and they flew

oh it was for about 39 minutes that was when they also one has to say Dan that there was a certain reluctance to monetize their invention initially because they didn't quite believe in it too yes they've got something up in the air for a brief period. And it's quite interesting that finally, for first to really see the possibility, the First Nation was Great Britain. And they sent Lieutenant Colonel John Capper over to the States in 1904, I think it's the St. Louis exhibition. And he approached the Wright brothers and said, listen, I'm here on behalf of a war office. We're interested in developing your machine, your invention. And the Wright brothers rebuffed him saying, we're not ready to do business yet.

Now, they did later, they approached the US military, but the US military would only get involved if the Wright brothers funded it. So they didn't monetize it because there was still a great deal of work to be done in it, which in 1905, it had this successful flight of 39 minutes, by which time, of course, you mentioned Bleriot, the French were involved. And the French, of course, had been the biggest rivals to the States in inventing the aeroplane. And I think it was Gabriel Voisin who just a few months, March 1904, so just a few months after the Wright brothers, he had a glider flight and that really spurred on the French. And the French was certainly much more attuned to not just the

military aspect, but also their monetizing their product, which is what they did. And by which time the Wright brothers had begun to see the rivalry. They didn't like it. They were very litigious. They came from a litigious family. Their father had waged a 10-year battle against the church. And so they then really, I suppose, channeled their energies as much into legal disputes as into developing their aeroplane. They must have made themselves very unpopular, just suing everybody and being very litigious. There's a great cartoon that appeared in 1910. There was a big Aviation Cup meeting in New York, which brought together the best flyers

of the world, mainly British, French, a couple of Germans and Americans. The meeting only took place after the organizers had gotten assurance from the Wright brothers that they wouldn't sue any of the foreign aviators. And a cartoon appeared in one of the New York papers, and it was of the Wright brothers standing on the ground, looking up at the sky, shaking their fists and shouting, get out of my air. And that was very much, they were mocked in the end. It was a bit sad because they weren't charismatic people, the Wright brothers. They were very earnest, they were very pious, and they were totally unprepared for the fame that came with their invention in every aspect. And it got to the

point in around about 1910, which as I write in the book, was really the seminal year for the development of the aeroplane, that they were being mocked as fuddy-duddies and just, I suppose, almost Victorians in this new exciting age. How interesting. So their dream was that they would basically be able to patent heavier than they air flying. So they thought they should be the only people to fly. Absolutely. And this is what set back American aviation and why the French just suddenly rushed ahead in those crucial years between 1910 and 1914, obviously the outbreak of the First World War. There's some extraordinary figures, Dan, of the, in 1910, the respective air strengths of Germany, they had 14 dirigibles and five aircraft. France

had seven dirigibles and 29 aircraft. Britain had two dirigibles and two aircraft, and the United States had one dirigible and two aircraft. So that was the strength of the Air Force. And of course, again, it just shows you the extraordinary development of the aircraft. Within five, six years, you had the fighter aircraft, the Red Barons, the McManuchs and bombing aircraft that were going across, quite crude bombing aircraft, just dropping a shell over the side of the aircraft. But nonetheless, this is the extraordinary strides that were made in those years. And America were left behind, really, because the Wright brothers, I should say just quickly, Dan, is their biggest rival,

their biggest competitor was Glenn Curtis, a fellow American who produced some of the great aircraft in the interwar years. He was in a long running legal battle with the Wright brothers. And all it did was it hindered the development of American aviation industry. Speaking of dirigibles, I learned from you, I knew that Alcock and Brown, 1919, the first transatlantic flight, unbelievable story in its own right. But that was not where it all began. Tell me about the first attempt. This book, Chasing Icarus, that I wrote a few years ago, which I have to say was, I'm more of a military historian, but it was a wonderful book, particularly to research and to write. And it was about this 17 day period in October 1910, when the world still wasn't sure if it was going to be the dirigible or the aircraft. Now that sounds completely mad to us now. But I first developed an interest in early flight, going to REF Hendon.

I'm from that part of London. And as a young boy standing underneath the old Sotworth camels and thinking to myself, my goodness, I would never have gotten one of those things. And they were very, very brave explorers, these men. But they were sort of looked on as, well, not slightly wacky, completely wacky. Anyone getting into those things. And the dirigible, just by its very nature, seemed more stable, seemed more solid. An American man, Walter Wellman, in 1909, he'd attempted to sell to the North Pole in a dirigible, which ended in disaster. So, and humiliation, he was widely ridiculed. So he thought to himself, right, I'll show them. I'm going to sell, become the first person to make

a transatlantic flight. So it was in a, I think it was about 220 foot dirigible, the America with a crew of five or six, one of whom was an Englishman, the radio operator. And they set out from Atlantic City and they made about 400 miles before they ran out of gas really and they came down and they were very lucky because well a bit of luck a bit of skill they steered towards the Bermuda to America passenger mail ship that came twice a week I think and it was quite a dramatic rescue. They were picked up early one morning and photographs appeared in the newspaper. But that really put an end to the idea that the dirigible, a week later, you had this extraordinary aviation meeting at New York where the high point was a race around the Statue of Liberty and back. So going over Brooklyn, Manhattan, not a great distance,

I think about 35 miles in total, but 1 million Americans lined the route. Every single conceivable vantage point was taken and they were just staring up. There was a medical affliction called the airplane stare because people would click their necks as they looked up. called the airplane stair because people would click their necks as they looked up and to see only three aircraft took part in it but it was a wondrous sight circling the statue of liberty and coming back in 29 minutes and reaching speeds of 75 miles an hour it was just unheard of and so this was really the defining moment in aviation history when they realised the potential of the aircraft and the futility of a dirigible. Although everything new is old, the airships are coming back apparently. It's a great green way of moving around.

Yeah, of course. Yeah. But let's finish up, I guess, with the Wright Brothers. So this revolution just takes place and there's aircraft being produced and there are thousands who are in the First World War and then civilian aircraft after the war. What role did the Wright brothers have in that? Did they die rich men? Tell me. blamed to a large degree, Glenn Curtis, for driving him to an early death, that he was worn out. He just spent all his energy on fighting these legal battles. Orville carried on, but really Wilbur, I suppose the best way of putting it, Dan, is that Wilbur was the intellectual force and Orville was a physical force. And without the brains, Orville, like so many great double acts or partnerships, when one goes, the other is left diminished. And that was certainly the case.

And by the time, of course, they'd fought these legal battles, the First World War was upon us. The French had made huge strides, Bleriot and Léon Marat. I mean, you had the Dutchman Fokker who worked for the Germans. And so the First World War really left the Wright brothers behind. And they did continue. Actually, ironically, they merged with Glenn Curtis, the Glenn Curtis company after the war. But one of the key weaknesses in the Wright brothers was their inability to see the potential for the monoplane. They believed it was the biplane was the future and that the monoplane. They believed that it was the biplane was the

future and that the monoplane was fundamentally weak. Now, it did have its weaknesses. And in 1912, the French military actually put a ban on the monoplane because of a series of accidents. But in fact, it was a case of more testing. And because what would happen is it wasn't that the monoplane was inherently weak, but certainly the downward force when it dived, when it descended, it needed work in it. And that work came in, of course, perfect time in 1912, just before the war, so that these problems were ironed out. So really they became relics, Dan. And that's what's so interesting about the Wright brothers, that one of the most famous inventions in the world, everyone, schoolgirl and schoolboy, knows the Wright brothers that one of the most famous inventions in the world, everyone,

schoolgirl and schoolboy knows the Wright brothers. And yet they didn't capitalize on their invention and they actually quickly got left behind. And that's a tragedy of a way for the Wright brothers. Fascinating to compare them to like Thomas Edison or George Stevenson, his son who, so Edison obviously founded General Electric or helps fund General Electric. Stevenson has made railways and yet poor old Wright brothers never quite made that transition. No, never. They didn't. Can I just mention quickly, Dan, someone who's one of my historical heroes, we talk about, and he's the complete opposite of the Wright brothers, who, as I said, everyone knows. Now there was an Englishman, Claude Graham White, who for a couple of years, in a way, he was the embodiment of the Belle Epoque, the Edwardian age, a very good looking man, very dashing, a bit of a James Bond character. And he was one of the top aviators in 1910.

And he flew in that Statue of Liberty race. The Wright brothers loathed him because he was everything they weren't. He was a bit of a dandy and very charismatic. Now, he wasn't a designer. He was an aviator, but he was a visionary. And he, in a series of interviews in 1910 and 1911, he outlined his vision of the aircraft. And he said, for example, the time will come when transatlantic aircraft will be as common as steamers are today, perhaps more so. And on the subject of its military potential, he actually said in one newspaper interview, I really don't like talking about it because I'm always laughed at. But people don't realise the importance of this branch of military service. It is enough to say that the airplanes filled in military and naval work is unlimited. Eventually, the airplane will be the

feature in every war. Guns and powerful bombs will be carried on them and the greatness of a modern battleship will be useless. I mean, just how prescient was that? And this is in 1910, 1911. When the British Navy was building a lot of big battleships. That's not a voice they wanted to hear. Absolutely. And there was a lot of, as I believe there is today, Dan, there was a great deal of animosity and rivalry between the Navy and the Air Force, particularly with the Navy, who exactly saw the threat

and saw their funding taken away from them. Well, we're building big aircraft carriers today. saw the threat and saw their funding taken away from them. Well, we're building big aircraft carriers today. And anyway, I don't want to get into that debate. I don't want to destroy my mentions for the rest of the year. Listen, man, that was great. Thank you very much indeed for coming on. What's the book called?

The book is Chasing Icarus, the 17 days in 1910 that forever changed American aviation. Well, a mouthful, but it also deals a lot with Britain and France and just generally the global aviation industry. Thank you very much indeed for coming on. Thank you, Dan. A pleasure. I feel we have the history upon our shoulders. All this tradition of ours, our school history, our songs, this part of the history of our country, all were gone and finished. Thanks, folks. You've reached the end of another episode. Hope you're still awake.

Appreciate your loyalty. Sticking through to the end. If you fancied doing us a favour here at History Hit, I would be incredibly grateful if you would go and wherever you get these pods, give a little rating, five stars or its equivalent. A review would be great. Please head over there and do that. It really does make a huge difference. It's one of the funny things the algorithm loves to take into account. So please head over there, do that. Really, really appreciate it. Someone explaining crypto or switching mobile providers. Except with Fizz. Switching to Fizz is quick and easy. Mobile plans start at $17 a month. Certain conditions apply.

Details at fizz.ca.