Short History Of... - The Wright Brothers

Episode Date: June 25, 2023

As long as humans have observed creatures in flight, we have dreamed of taking to the skies ourselves. But Wilbur and Orville Wright were determined to be the ones to turn the dream into reality. So what did they need to learn from the early aviation pioneers who preceded them? And how did these two bicycle makers with no college education succeed where others had failed? This is a Short History of The Wright Brothers. Written by Linda Harrison. With thanks to Alexander Rose, author of Empire of the Sky: Zeppelins, Aeroplanes, and Two Men’s Epic Duel to Rule the World.  For ad-free listening, exclusive content and early access to new episodes, join Noiser+. Now available for Apple and Android users. Click the Noiser+ banner on Apple or go to noiser.com/subscriptions to get started with a 7-day free trial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's the afternoon of Monday, the 14th of December, 1903. Standing on a remote sand dune in North Carolina in the U.S., two brothers, Orville and Wilbur Wright, prepare to flip a coin. Dressed in their customary smart, dark suits, ties, and starched white collars, their hair is whipped by the breeze from the Atlantic Ocean, stretching out behind them to the horizon. On advice from the experts they've contacted, they've traveled more than 650 miles by train from their home in Ohio to this remote stretch of coastline called Kill Devil Hills. Beside them stands their pride and joy,

an 800-pound homemade machine called the Flyer. With the help of three other men, they've just hauled their invention a quarter of a mile across the sand to the top of the slope. It's massive, almost 20 feet long, and with a wingspan of twice that. But it's rudimentary, too. A bundle of wire and cables with a wooden frame and two muslin-covered wings. After building it in sections in their bike shop at home,

they transported it here and painstakingly reassembled it. Now they're ready to try it out for the first time. But only one of them can be the pilot. 36-year-old Wilbur, the elder brother, launches the coin and they both watch it spin high in the air. They hold their breath as it glints in the light. This coin toss will decide their fate. Whoever wins will be the first to test the light. This coin toss will decide their fate. Whoever wins will be the first to test the play.

Wilbur catches it as it falls, and Orville peers over. He pats his older brother on the back. Wilbur has won the toss. The pair walk over the sand to the machine. As the flyer has no wheels attached, it sits at the top of a crude 60-foot homemade wooden monorail, from which it will be launched using two modified bicycle wheel hubs. They start their homemade four-cylinder gasoline engine and crank up the two wooden propellers, which they've

designed and carved themselves. Wilbur climbs between the two wooden propellers which they've designed and carved themselves. Wilbur climbs between the two wooden propellers and in among the truss wires. He takes up his position at the controls, lying flat on his stomach next to the engine. When he's ready, he nods to Orville, who takes hold of an upright bar at the end of one of the wings to help balance the delicate machine. The plane starts moving forward down the rail, Orville running alongside, holding on as long as he can. The younger man then releases his grip. Panting, he watches the flyer as it surges forwards and then upward at the end of the launching rail. But something isn't right. The flyer is rising at too steep an angle. Wilbur corrects it, except now it's nosing downward, and again it's too abrupt.

All Orville can do is watch as the plane stalls and plummets into the sand. He runs over to his brother, laughing in relief as he finds him uninjured. Wilbur may have failed in his attempt at controlled flying in a powered plane and has only been in the air for three seconds. But the brothers are delighted. They've proved that all their years of research, design, experimentation and building have been worth it. They just need to perfect a few things. The flyer only crashed because of Wilbur's lack of experience. Without wasting any time, they start assessing the damage, already with their eye on the next trial. Maybe tomorrow, maybe this week,

maybe in a month or longer. It doesn't matter. But they're determined that one day they will achieve controlled, powered flight. Despite the best intentions of engineers, artists, and scientists, as the 19th century headed towards its close, controlled, powered flight still seemed a distant fantasy. Though early pioneers were often ridiculed for their attempts and the idea of flight was nothing new, Wilbur and Orville Wright were determined to be the ones to turn the dream into reality. They dedicated their lives to making it happen. So how did two brothers, bicycle makers with no college education, succeed where others had failed? What happened after that first flight on a North Carolina sand dune? And, knowing that each flight could be their last, what was it that drove

on these early aviation pioneers to risk their lives time and time again? I'm John Hopkins, and this is a short history of the Wright Brothers. As long as humans have observed creatures in flight, we have dreamed of taking to the skies ourselves. Hundreds of years B.C., the first known kites were flown in China, made from silk and bamboo. Over the centuries, the fascination leads many people to undertake desperate acts. Some cover themselves in feathers, others design homemade wings and jump from rooftops and towers, sometimes to their deaths. The 16th century artist and inventor, Leonardo da Vinci, was fascinated by birds and obsessed over finding a way to fly, designing several flying machines in his notebooks.

Years later, the box kite proved that controlled flight was possible. Its strong drag could lift a person into the air. But it's not until two French brothers, Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier, stage a public display of their new hot-air balloon invention that the idea, literally, takes off. It is the 19th of September, 1783, at the Palace of Versailles in France. In the courtyard of the royal residence, a young woman walks around the base of an elaborately decorated hot air balloon in the final stages of inflation. Made from taffeta and canvas, it's been painted a vivid sky blue.

As the smoke from the carefully tended fire beneath it swells the fabric, she takes in its complex embellishments of ribbons, zodiac signs and suns. She also notices the golden fleur-de-lis, or lily flower, an emblem long associated with the French crown. Around her, thousands of other curious onlookers have gathered in the grounds, many of whom have travelled, like her, from nearby Paris. It's hard to hear over the din of chatter and excitement. The wealthy drift around in their clouds of perfume, with fans at their faces, sharing the space with their poorer, unwashed neighbours.

People of all backgrounds have flocked to witness the first flight of a balloon with passengers, invented by French brothers Joseph and Étienne Mongolfier. Behind her, someone looks up and points. The woman follows his gaze to see a bewigged King Louis stepping out onto the balcony to observe the scene. As usual, he is dressed in the finest clothes, silk shirt and waistcoat, bouffant breeches,

the latest design in high-heeled shoes. He is joined by his wife, Marie Antoinette, unmistakable even from this distance with her rouged cheeks and extravagantly high-powdered wig adorned with feathers. As the crowd below bow and curtsy their respects, the king holds a handkerchief up to his nose. The stench from the smoke underneath the balloon has reached him too, it seems. It's enough to make the young woman's eyes sting. Wool, straw, and old shoes are being burnt in an attempt to make the densest smoke possible. She's heard the Montgolfier brothers believe that it's the smoke that causes the balloon to rise. Suddenly, the bang of cannon fire makes the young woman jump.

Startled, she turns to see the crowd parting. The shot was to signal the arrival of the balloon's passengers. But as she cranes her neck to see past the sea of wigs and hats, she sees that it's not human beings getting in the basket, which is suspended from the balloon by a rope. The crowd watches in amusement as a sheep, duck and cockerel are loaded into the round wicker creation. And then, with a second blast of the cannon, the balloon lifts off. The audience cheer, and children are lifted to get a better view as the 30-foot globe lurches into the sky. The young woman glances back to the balcony, where the king watches the spectacle in wonder

through his binoculars. His wife and children stand as transfixed as the ordinary people below them, as the balloon rises up and up. It's estimated that it reaches almost 2,000 feet in the sky before, around eight minutes after taking off, it descends back to Earth, landing safely in woods a few miles away. Amazingly, the unwitting passengers all survive. The trip earns the creatures the title of Heroes of the Air and a place in Versailles' Royal Menagerie. The following winter sees an eruption of balloon mania in Europe. The public, caught up in the romance of ballooning, scramble to buy anything festooned with aerial imagery,

jigsaws, walking sticks, and even chamber pots and bidets. Huge balloon-shaped straw hats gained popularity, while the rich impressed their friends with the latest balloon-themed coaches and furniture. Public interest is further stoked as the first manned hydrogen balloon takes flight that December. The following year, various balloons are launched over the rooftops of Edinburgh, London, Madrid, and Berlin. In 1793, North America sees its first balloon flight, which travels from Philadelphia to Gloucester County, New Jersey. flight which travels from Philadelphia to Gloucester County New Jersey but while there are successes this mode of transport is still new and risky with

many balloonists killed or injured in crashes inventors continue to search for more practical and safer ways of traveling through the air in 1867 less than a century after the Montgolfier's brothers' demonstration, Wilbur Wright is born in Indiana. He is the third child, and four years later, the family welcome another brother, Orville. The four Wright boys, plus Catherine, the baby of the family, to whom Wilbur and Orville are particularly close, grow up in a country still recovering from the American Civil War. Their father, Milton, is a bishop in the Church of the United Brethren, who takes a firm

stand on political and moral issues, such as alcohol and the abolition of slavery. Their mother, Susan, is highly intelligent but painfully shy. Before getting married, she studied literature at college. Though the bishop is a strict disciplinarian, both he and Susan are also warm, loving, and protective. From their earliest years, all five Wright children are encouraged in their intellectual interests. Wilbur and Orville are inseparable from childhood, and when their father brings a toy helicopter home one day, it provides the spark to their shared fascination with flying. The boys, aged 7 and 11, take turns winding the simple toy, a stick with twin propellers and powered by twisted rubber bands. They watch it rise, hover and descend, all the while imagining what it will be like to be inside it. Straight away they start working together to build larger versions.

In 1884, when Wilbur and Orville are teenagers, the family moves to Dayton, Ohio. It is a growing city with a population of almost 40,000, set on a broad rolling flood plain on a curve in the Miami River. Their family home is basic. With no running water, meals are cooked on a wood stove and baths are taken in a tub in the kitchen. The house is only a few blocks from the railroad tracks and the whistling of trains can be heard from their beds at night. Though they live simply, the Wright family's book collection is far from modest or typical. As well as theology, the shelves are crammed with Dickens, Mark Twain, poems by Virgil, natural history, travel, and encyclopedias.

Their father instills in them the importance of perseverance and faith in their own judgment, but it's their mother who teaches them their early technical skills. The daughter of a carriage maker, she is very mechanically adept and shows her children how to make all kinds of things. This is a winning combination for Wilbur and Orville's later life. This is a winning combination for Wilbur and Orville's later life. Though the brothers' shared love of mechanics will come to define them, there are clear differences between them. The gentler Orville, though cheerful, optimistic and endlessly inventive, is shy with others and very sensitive to criticism. Wilbur is his father's favourite and excels in everything he tries.

Tall and slim, he's a star athlete in football, skating and gymnastics, and an outstanding student. There's even talk of him going to the prestigious Yale University. But that ends abruptly one winter. While Wilbur is playing hockey on a frozen lake, his face is smashed by a stick, knocking out his upper front teeth. He needs many months to recover. Whether from the physical pain or the depression which follows, he becomes reclusive. At the same time, their mother's health is deteriorating, and Wilbur spends his time caring for her. In early 1889, at the age of 18, the entrepreneurial Orville starts his own print shop in the carriage

shed behind their home. He designs and builds a printing press using an old gravestone, a spring, and some scrap metal. A little later, Wilbur joins him, and they start publishing a local paper, the West Side News. They're devastated when their mother dies later that year, but find solace in each other. The brothers continue to live together, eat their meals together, and work together six days a week, but never on Sundays. They even have a joint bank account. but never on Sundays. They even have a joint bank account. Like their father, they are perfect gentlemen and neither drink, smoke, or gamble. Dressing unremarkably in suits, ties, and bowler

style hats, there is nothing, just yet, that sets them apart from their peers. Alexander Rose is the author of Empire of the Sky, Zeppelin's Aeroplanes, and Two Men's Epic Duel to Rule the World. So what was interesting about the Wright brothers at the time was that they were so uninteresting. And the fact is that they just looked like normal, like the sons of a Midwestern bishop. That's how you would imagine them. That's how they looked. They were highly respectable. Everyone dressed like that. Everyone wore a tie.

They were kind of buttoned up. They looked unexceptional. And yet, never judged by appearances. Though time is ticking on, neither brother shows an interest in starting a family of his own. Orville says it is up to the elder Wilbur to marry first, while Wilbur, who's said to be nervous around women, says he has no time for a wife. Perhaps they prefer to be married to their work. In spring 1893, when they're in their 20s, Wilbur and Orville open a small bicycle business near home. They soon move to bigger premises, and as well as selling and repairing bikes, they begin

making their own. It brings them a decent income, and they learn much about mechanics in the process, the need for a strong, light design, the importance of balance, control, and wind resistance. They remain much closer than most siblings, and are happiest working alongside each other at the same bench, wearing shop aprons to protect their suits. In the summer of 1896, at the age of 25, Orville contracts typhoid. For days he lays delirious, close to death, with a fever of 105 degrees. He pulls through, but his recovery is slow. five degrees. He pulls through, but his recovery is slow.

To pass the time, Wilbur reads aloud to him. They become particularly interested in German glider enthusiast Otto Lilienthal, who has been killed in a gliding accident. This aviation pioneer learnt from the birds, building more than a dozen different gliders and making 2,000 flights. As well as reading extensively about ornithology, they become interested in studying early aviation pioneers, opening their eyes to new ways of thinking about the possibility of human flight. Lilienthal's research would become a starting point for their earliest designs. They would read a lot of technical manuals and they kept up with the literature and they did a lot of experimentation.

Everything was a lot more hands on in those days. You know, that's one of the reasons why Scientific American was set up. If you read all the copies and other popular science journals at the time, it was all about, hey, you can build explosives at home. Wouldn't this be cool? Or they would have competitions to see who could design a better train or airplane or something like that. And, you know, it usually ended up with, you know,

ridiculous inventions that would never, ever work. But they printed them all. There is a sort of a DIY aspect to these things of just hammering stuff together and seeing if it works. But the Wrights were different in that they were up to date with the scientific theories of aeronautics, things like wind tunnels and so on. It wasn't all just on a wing and a prayer kind of thing.

Every evening after work, they settle down to study inventors and aeronautical pioneers. By the light of gas lamps, they pore over designs and descriptions of flight experiments, taking in calculations of lift and drag and wind speed. Inspiration comes from the investigations into gliders by the English gentleman Sir George Cayley and French-born US civil engineer Octave Chenute, with whom they later strike up a friendship. They're also fascinated to read about how an Australian used four box kites tied together to lift himself off the ground, proving controlled flight was possible. What kept the early aeronauts going and doing these experiments was the quest for immortality that the person who broke

aviation the person who launched the first great controlled powered flight would be in the history books forever and attain eternal glory but it was also just the spirit of adventure and and again, a scientific endeavor. It was just, could it be done? But possibly the most important arm of their studies leads them to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington. From his base there, eminent astronomer Samuel Pierpoint Langley has studied mechanized flight, but he's also been conducting experiments of his own. In 1896, the year of Lilienthal's death, he launched a plane by catapult from the roof of a houseboat. With its small, steam-powered engine, it flew more than half a mile before plunging into the water.

Captivated by the idea, in May 1899, Wilbur sits at the small, slant-topped desk in the front parlor to write one of the most important letters of his life. They wrote to the Smithsonian Institution, and there's a kind of a funny letter from them asking the secretary of the institution, saying, oh, excuse me, sir, can you possibly send us any articles or any correspondence you have about aviation? And he obliged. And that's one of the reasons why the Wright brothers and the Smithsonian Institution, even to this day, are very, very interlocked, interlinked together. The assistant secretary of the Smithsonian not only replies to Wilbur's two-page letter, but also sends pamphlets and recommends certain books on aviation and birds. Now, every Sunday, Wilbur cycles to a rugged stretch on the banks of the Miami River

to observe birds taking off, flying, and landing. The dream has taken hold. Wilbur and Orville decide to build their own flying machine. It's a warm evening at the Wrights' house on Hawthorne Street in Dayton. Outside, the leaves on the tall linden trees lining the road rustle in the breeze. Behind the shuttered windows, wright relaxes on a wooden rocking chair sipping coffee she turns to greet her friend harriet as she walks into the room harriet has come to visit the two studied together at oberlin college in northern ohio one of the first colleges in the u.s to admit women now catherine the only right sibling to

get a college degree is training to be a teacher. Harriet flops down on a chair, and the pair look fondly at Catherine's older brothers, Wilbur and Orville. Heads bowed, they are deep in conversation as usual. While Catherine is outgoing and sociable, the men are happiest spending time together, and have been working on ideas for their new experimental glider kite for most of the day. As the polished wooden Gilbert clock on the mantelpiece chimes the hour, Wilbur looks up and notices them. He holds out a small cardboard box

and asks if they would like to hear their latest theory. Catherine puts down her coffee as her brother comes and sits beside her. She loves learning and has grown up watching her brother's demonstrations. As she pushes her wire-framed glasses up on her nose, he shows her how the ends of the box have been removed. Wilbur presses the opposing corners of the box in a slight wringing motion, bending it a little out of shape this way and then the other way without damaging it. This, he explains, is how the double wings of a biplane glider can be twisted or warped. It means the wing surfaces can be presented to the air at different angles or elevations, just like birds do. If one wing meets the wind at a greater angle than the other, it will give greater lift on that side, making the glider bank and turn. Catherine nods,

impressed, but it'll be some time before any of them realize just how crucial this discovery will brother's quest to fly. What Wilbur has discovered is wing warping, or wing twisting. In those long hours spent watching birds, he's noticed how they angled their wingtips to make their bodies roll right or left. They were building on technological knowledge that had been acquired over many generations. But their breakthrough was that they worked out that if you want to fly, don't copy a bird. Instead, you need to think like a bird.

So they were bird-brained, if you want to put it that way. And the fact is that they watched birds very closely for a very long time. And whereas most of their competitors, and they had many, many rivals and competitors around the world in France and Britain and in the US, everywhere, Russia, what they worked out was that their competitors believed that flight was all about taking off and flapping your wings. That was what it came down to. What the Wright brothers focused on was that the taking off bit and the landing bit of birds, of how they act, is a very small part of their behavior. If you watch them carefully, they bank and they soar and they glide and they adapt to the

weather conditions very quickly. So that was what they were really focused on, that you have to get into the mind of a bird rather than try and be a bird. And by that, I mean that sort of concept of the strapping under the wings and trying to flap your arms really quickly or even even glide very much that was really what their great breakthrough was quite early on but they know that it'll be impossible to make it a reality without both knowledge and skill and skill can only be gained from experience at their bicycle shop the brothers start building their first experimental aircraft to test their wing warping theory. The initial prototype is a flying kite made from split bamboo and paper. With a five-foot wingspan it's a biplane with double wings one over the other to provide greater stability. They

also add a new system of cords to operate on the ground that should control the wing warping. By August, it's ready for testing. Wilbur takes the kite to an open field, chooses his moment, and lets the wind work its magic. The kite lifts. And though the test ends with a rapid dive to the ground, it shows that the system works. Encouraged, they move on to their next challenge,

of building a glider capable of carrying a person. Combining Octave Chenute's structure and Lilienthal's tables of aerodynamic lift, their first glider is designed with wing warping capability. And it's, of course, it's easier said than done to think like a bird. Well, you still have to have the technology to be able to pull this off. They thought modularly. And by that, I mean, they didn't just think of an airplane as one piece, which is again, sort of a misconception that others had labored under for a very long time. What they figured out was, is that the tail and the wings

and the fuselage and the cockpit, these were all parts of a greater machine and they all had to work together in different ways in order to have or succeed at controlled flight. On Chanute's advice, Wilbur identifies an area of the East Coast which offers the crucial combination of hills for soft landings and sufficient winds. After consulting the U.S. Weather Bureau in Washington, he decides upon Kitty Hawk on the outer banks of North Carolina. Their first full-sized glider is ready.

Its biplane structure comprises upper and lower wings, both covered with fabric and a wooden frame. Again, it uses their wing-warping control system. With careful notes about how they put it together, they disassemble it and pack it into crates. It's time to take the leap of faith. It's time to take the leap of faith. Arriving in North Carolina, the Midwestern brothers get their first glimpse of the ocean. Then, once they've pitched the tent that will function as their home and workshop, they get to work. After carefully sewing, gluing, and tying the parts back together,

their glider is ready to go. With a wingspan of 17 feet, the total cost of the parts for this first iteration is around $15. Next to the blue-green Atlantic, the brothers spend weeks living in their tent in basic conditions, testing their glider over and over in the strong winds. Wilbur pilots the craft, which currently relies entirely on wind power. Once they've learnt all they can, they return home to Ohio, where they continue this period of experimental design. In the bike workshop they create a second and then a third glider, even building their own small wind tunnel, where they test around 200 wing shapes. Every time they finish a model, they decamp back to Kitty Hawk for testing.

Finally, the brothers turn their attention to power. As car manufacturers are unable to provide the lightweight, powerful engine needed, ever resourceful, they design and build their own. They then return to North Carolina once more to test their first powered flight. And on the morning of the 17th of December, 1903, three days after the coin toss that resulted in Wilbur's few, uncontrolled seconds of flight,

they've patched up the flyer and are ready to try again. The winds are bitter on the beach that day, and puddles of ice sit between sand dunes after the previous night's rain. They aren't exactly ideal conditions to fly in, but the brothers are keen to get back to Dayton in time for Christmas, and besides, there's no guarantee that waiting will bring better weather. conditions to fly in. But the brothers are keen to get back to Dayton in time for Christmas, and besides, there's no guarantee that waiting will bring better weather. It's Orville's turn to take the controls. And despite a biting headwind gusting at 27 miles per hour, this time the results are much better. Orville not only flies the plane,

but controls it for a full 12 seconds. The flyer lands near where it took off, with pilot and plane intact. After years of tireless research and testing, often risking their own lives, the brothers have succeeded. They have achieved the world's first sustained flight in a powered plane under the full control of the pilot. The first time that the Bright Brothers flew at Kitty Hawk, it doesn't sound like much. And you think, well, OK, what's so special about that? This was the first time in history that an airplane had achieved a controlled flight. Before that, you would have gliders.

People knew how to glide. Most of these guys died at alarming speeds, crashing to the ground. What the Wright brothers did was they were able to take off. They were able to control the flight, ie they could bank they could rise they could go down and they could they could land whenever they wanted now the developments of the evolution of that came over the next few years they didn't do that on the very first time but they were on their way the brothers will fly three more times on that historic day at kitty Hawk. At around midday on the fourth flight, Wilbur manages to stay airborne for 59 seconds and covers just over half a mile. Then, once back on the ground,

a sudden gust of wind catches the plane, tossing it along the sand towards the ocean. The plane is wrecked. It goes into storage, back home, and is never flown again. But while Wilbur and Orville have been experimenting in Dayton, an alternative technology has been emerging over in Germany. On the 2nd of July, 1900, three years before Wilbur and Orville's success over Kitty Hawk, the first Zeppelin airship, the LZ-1, made its maiden flight. The brainchild of German aristocrat and retired army officer Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin,

the vast cigar-shaped creation has a rigid metal frame covered with fabric and is filled with hydrogen gas. At 420 feet long, it's the size of an ocean liner. feet long. It's the size of an ocean liner. Suspended underneath are two 20-foot metal gondolas, each containing an engine geared to two propellers. Between them, the gondolas also carry five passengers. The Count himself travels on the first flight, which covers a distance of 3.5 miles in 18 minutes. This is a key time for both airplanes and airships, but despite their differences, they're similar enough to become natural competitors. The rivalry between airships and airplanes started very, very early. Neither of them had any influence on the other.

They were completely separate. I mean, they were in the same field, aviation, but there was no connection between the two. Although Zeppelins demonstrate the first passenger flight, this isn't the last the Wrights will hear of this other form of aerial transport. It will become a bitter rivalry lasting decades, driven by the belief that only one type of aircraft can dominate the market. For now, though, in the years after their success with the Flyer, Wilbur and Orville work on refining their invention. Though they create newer models, the brothers are unsuccessful in trying to sell them to the US and British governments.

By now, the rights have flown many many times for increasing distances, but many people are skeptical that their claims are genuine. We regard the Wright brothers' flights as revolutionary, but at the time, they weren't really believed at all because there'd been many, many charlatans before who claimed the same thing, that they had achieved the sort of holy grail of powered, controlled flight. Despite the suspicion, within a few years, their work attracts the attention of a syndicate of wealthy French businessmen. In June 1908, Wilbur boards a luxury liner for France. Soon after arriving, he gives a demonstration flight at a racetrack near Le Mans.

It's a resounding success, and over the next few months, he makes more than 100 demonstration flights, astounding passengers and spectators. Wilbur's aeronautical feats make him a sensation, bringing instant fame. 200,000 people flock to see him in the first six months. people flock to see him in the first six months. By early December, with winter setting in, he sets his sights further south and moves to the elite resort of Pau. Soon Orville and Catherine join him. It is the 17th of March, 1909, near Pau, southern France. A boy stands next to his father in a large crowd on the town's flying field, his dog by his feet.

Although he's only young, the boy has walked the eight miles from home with his father and pet terrier in the hope of seeing the famous Wright Flyer. The crowd, many hundreds strong, mill around. The weather is especially good, even for the south of France in mid-March. Some drift about, wheeling their bicycles, others lounge on the grass. Most are dressed smartly, the men in boaters and neatly trimmed moustaches, the women in cool ankle-length dresses, because this is a place not just to see, but also to be seen. But the boy isn't interested in all that. He adjusts his own straw hat, wondering when the main event is going to start. He pulls on his father's hand, urging him over to where a stream of motorcars is passing.

Though the boy likes looking at the shiny vehicles, everyone else seems interested in their cargo. Counts, duchesses, and lords are among those alighting, smoothing their elegant clothes as they step onto the grass. Then a wave of excitement ripples around the crowd. His father points. A stout, affable-looking man, sporting a smart white beard and Homburg hat, is emerging from a car. This is someone even the boy recognises, who loves cars almost as much as he does. England's King Edward VII. He's travelled from his holiday home in Biarritz to witness the wonder of flight. But beyond him, there's someone even better. The famous Wilbur

Wright. Dressed in a black leather motorcyclist's jacket and gloves, he walks up and down the simple metal starting rail, testing and examining the joints. Then he takes the king into the engine shed a little way off. The men disappear inside, and the boy waits patiently, stroking his dog's head. A few minutes later, the doors of the huge shed swing open. Everyone surges forward to see the curious contraption, the flyer, as it's wheeled outside with the elder Wright brother walking alongside. The boy catches his breath. Wright brother walking alongside. The boy catches his breath.

The famous machine has some signs of wear and tear. The canvas on the wings is soiled, torn, and patched. But he doesn't care about that. This is a machine that can turn a person into a bird. It's a thing of wonder. While Wright and his team roll the fly onto the metal starting rail, men and children climb into trees for a better view. The boy and his dad find their way to the front just as an unfamiliar sound starts up. It makes him cover his ears instinctively, but his father laughs. It's just the propellers starting to whiz round. But his father laughs. It's just the propellers starting to whiz round. Wright climbs aboard and takes his place at the controls. He pulls a lever, releasing the restraining wire, and the machine is sent tearing along the rail.

And then, just like that, the plane is soaring into the air. The boy stands dumbstruck as the craft's 32-foot wings rise high above his head. It sweeps in great circles before turning as gracefully as an eagle, prompting a collective gasp from the crowd. Against the backdrop of the towering, snow-capped tops of the Pyrenees in the distance, it's the best thing the boy has seen in his whole life. He tears his eyes away to glance at the king, who cheers and vigorously waves his hat at the plane as it circles overhead again. After seven glorious minutes, the flyer makes

a perfect landing, coming down gently at its takeoff point. The boy turns to his father, grinning. This is a moment he will remember forever. The rights become the toast of Europe. In France they are hosted by royals and heads of state as they begin selling their planes. Rubbing shoulders with millionaires and politicians, they are snapped by photographers everywhere they go, even just out taking a stroll. Though the quiet, reserved brothers don't relish the limelight, Catherine takes daily French lessons and delights in their social life. On one visit to Paris, she becomes the only woman ever invited to dinner at the Aéroclub

de France. Back home in the US, their story is covered almost continuously by newspapers and magazines, from one end of the country to the other. When they got famous, they got really famous very, very quickly. And it was one of those, as they say, you know, an overnight success that took 20 years. They became world famous instantly when they were showing off in France. The Wrights make a small fortune from sales of their plane, but as the airplane business explodes, they find themselves competing against dozens of rivals. Meanwhile, Zeppelin is enjoying

a rise in the popularity of his airships in Germany. As well as vast resources of technical skill and piloting knowledge, he also benefits from the backing of his government. In 1908, France spends the equivalent of $235,000 of public money on aviation, more than 10 times Britain's investment. But Germany devotes no less than $660,000, the majority of which is directed at airship development. I think 1908 was a key year in aviation, both for airplanes, but also for airships. This is when the competition was heating up. These were both very early technologies. I mean, you know, they'd both only been around for, I mean, less than a decade. So nobody knew how the rival technologies would develop and evolve over the coming years.

I remember reading once that H.G. Wells, who was no slouch at predicting the future just before the Wright brothers, he'd said that, you know, I hope that by 1950, maybe by the year 2000, we'll have powered flight. So it was proven wrong quite quickly. The rivalry between Zeppelin and the Wright brothers comes to a head in August 1909. Orville, visiting Germany to perform aerial shows with the Flyer, meets Zeppelin for the first time. Introduced by Germany's Kaiser, Orville stiffly congratulates the Count on his airships, and Zeppelin awkwardly returns the compliment.

There is certainly no love lost between the two. Mostly German. We're convinced that airplanes were sporting toys. They were kind of a rich man's plaything. You could go up in them. They were very, very noisy. They shook. They spattered oil all over you.

But, you know, for a little bit of fun, maybe a couple of figure eights to impress some onlookers, that's great. That's all they'll ever amount to. Whereas the Wrights believed that, you know, they were impressed by Zeppelin's gigantic airships, the dirigibles but they believed that they were a 19th century technology and that theirs was a 20th century technology the future belonged to them belonged to smaller powered airplanes whereas airships were kind of like like the steam engine of the of the era and theirs were the internal combustion engine they thought that the the Zeppelins were, you know, they'd be around for a short time, but eventually they would become extinct,

like giant dinosaurs, that's what they were. So you can see there was a lot of sniping back and forth between the Zeppelin and the Wrights. They were sort of coldly polite to one another. But if you read their comments about each other, they were a little, you know, sort of shiv each other with little stabs in the back whenever they could manage it. In 1909, the Wrights arrive in the U.S. to a hero's welcome.

In New York, whistles blare in the harbor as their ship comes in. The siblings are mobbed by reporters and photographers the moment they disembark. They're met from their train in Dayton on the 13th of May by a huge crowd, proud to welcome their famous local family home. Catherine, the only woman in the world to have made three flights in an airplane, is now almost as famous as her brothers. There's even an invitation to the White House. Wilbur and Orville are presented with the Aero Club of America's gold medal by President William Taft in front of an assembly of more than 1,000 people. And later that year, Wilbur dazzles crowds in New York

on a flight that circles the Statue of Liberty. By now, the brothers are wealthy businessmen in their forties, filling contracts for planes in Europe and the US. But much of their time in the next couple of years is taken up with business matters and lawsuits. This takes a major toll on Wilbur's health. In the first week of May 1912, while on a business trip to Boston,

Wilbur falls ill with typhoid fever. Fearing the worst, he dictates his will. All through the night, Orville stays by his brother's bedside, talking gently to him, beseeching him to get better. But it's not enough. On the 30th of May, Wilbur dies, surrounded by his family, in his room at home. He's 45 years old. His death makes front-page news around the world. Phone calls and messages of condolence pour in. A thousand telegrams arrive in one day alone. Wilbur is buried in the family plot in Dayton, and these surviving Wrights try to get used to life without him.

in Dayton, and the surviving Wrights try to get used to life without him. But for Orville, it's just not the same without his brother. Losing all motivation to continue the Wright Aeroplane Company, in 1915, he sells it. He spends the next three decades serving on boards and committees related to aviation, including the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the predecessor to NASA. He receives honorary degrees from several universities, including Yale. Like Wilbur, though, he never marries. He lives to see many milestones in aviation, but not all of them are good. In May 1937, the Hindenburg, a Zeppelin-designed transatlantic passenger airship,

shocks the world when it bursts into flames and crashes over New Jersey. Thirty-six people lose their lives in the disaster, which triggers the eventual decline of airships. But Orville also witnesses the first passenger plane flight, the first solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean, and the advent of jet fighters. After a long life spent in the pursuit of touching the clouds, in 1948, at the age of 77, Orville dies of a heart attack. When he is buried at the Wright family plot, he is finally reunited with his brother. Wilbur and Orville Wright remained, to many, history's most noteworthy pioneers of aviation.

Through hard work, determination, and intellect, they achieved the first sustained powered flights in a heavier-than-air machine, and they built it with their own hands. For decades, they continued to inspire those dreaming of taking to the skies and beyond. In 1969, more than 20 years after Orville's death, when astronaut Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon, he carried with him a small swatch of muslin from a wing of the Wright 1903 flyer. Today, around 500,000 people visit the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills every year. There they can see a full-scale reproduction of the original flyer and stand in the exact place where the first powered flight took place. The original flyer is still on display at the Smithsonianithsonian national air and space museum in washington aviation has

moved on immeasurably since the wright brothers first bumpy flight these days we think nothing of starting a holiday at the airport so more than a century after they invented the airplane what is it about wilbur and orville wright that still fascinates. Well, the reasons the Wrights will live immortally is because they single-handedly, I mean, there were two of them, double-handedly, I guess you could say, created modern aviation at a stroke. I mean, they basically broke through,

they wrought reality out of the fantasy of flight. And the fantasy of flight goes back to, well, we all know the story of Icarus and the wax wings and flying too close to the sun. And there had been hundreds of attempts going back who knows how many years to emulate the birds. And the reason that the rights will live forever is because they pulled it off and they managed to do it. They made what had been considered the impossible possible. And what had once been, until very recently, the unthinkable thinkable.

The fact is that they did do it. And they did it unexpectedly and in a very modest way at a very low price. And they did it themselves in their little bicycle garage. And that's why they deserve all the plaudits that they received. And so that's why they're so massively influential over the coming century. Next time on Short History Of,

we'll bring you a short history of Hadrian's Wall. There is something in the human psyche that wants to keep other people out. And the most obvious way of keeping somebody out is to build a wall around your property. A wall doesn't always work. The Berlin Wall didn't last very long and came down remarkably quickly once it started to come. It's always interesting to see modern dictators particularly who like to build walls and you just feel like saying, have you read your ancient history? Walls don't work. That's next time.