- Start
- Dec 17, 190390% CONFIDENCEfrom the source
The Wright Flyer Makes the First Powered Aeroplane Flight
- The Wright Flyer made the first sustained flight by a manned, powered, controlled heavier-than-air aircraft on 17 December 1903.[1]
- Orville took the controls because Wilbur had used the first attempt three days earlier; his flight lasted 12 seconds and covered 120 feet.[1]
- The brothers flew four times, taking turns; the second and third runs covered 175 and 200 feet, and Wilbur’s fourth flight took 59 seconds to cover 852 feet.[1]
- The wind averaged more than 20 mph, so the launching rail was laid on level ground near camp instead of on the slope of Big Kill Devil Hill.[1]
- The aircraft was damaged on landing and wrecked minutes later when gusts blew it over; it never flew again and is now displayed at the National Air and Space Museum.[1]
Notable features
- The Flyer was a single-seat canard biplane with a double elevator in front and a double rudder behind; the pilot lay prone on the lower wing and steered with a hip cradle that warped the wings and turned the rudder together.[1]
- It had a wingspan of 40 ft 4 in (12.29 m), a wing area of 510 sq ft (47 m²) and a length of 21 ft 1 in (6.43 m), and weighed 605 lb (274 kg) empty.[1]
- The airframe was spruce for straight members such as the spars and ash for the curved ribs, covered in cotton muslin.[1]
- Their employee Charlie Taylor built the 12 hp (9 kW) gasoline engine, weighing 180 lb (82 kg); bicycle-style sprocket chains drove two 8 ft 6 in (2.59 m) pusher propellers, for a top speed of about 30 mph (48 km/h).[1]
References 290% CONFIDENCE
The first entry is always the pin's source. Overall confidence is a weighted average of how firmly each reference supports the start and end times used above; a reference counts half as much for every 180 days older than the newest.
- [1]90%en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_Flyeren.wikipedia.org· Posted Sep 21, 2026· Starts Dec 17, 1903 ✓· 50% of score
Happened as dated, per en.wikipedia.org: the Flyer "made the first sustained flight by a manned heavier-than-air powered and controlled aircraft on December 17, 1903."
- [2]90%1903 Wright Flyerairandspace.si.edu· Added Sep 21, 2026· 50% of score
The Smithsonian’s record for the actual aircraft, confirming the 12-second, 120 ft first flight with Orville piloting and Wilbur’s 852 ft best of the day.[1]
Suggest a correction
Something missing or wrong? Say it in your own words: a link that backs this pin up, a different start or end date and why, or a fact it lacks or gets wrong. The AI checks it against this pin's sources, searches for better ones, and adds any page that backs you up. The pin's own sources still count most.
