One of the Greatest Inventions Ever – My Speech 2014

It happened, December 17, 1903 Orville and Wilbur invented the first plane ever. They called it… THE FLIER it was and still is a bi plane with a 17-foot wingspan 24 kg and only 3.51 metres. Orville and   Wilbur made and flew it in Kitty Hawk village, North Carolina.

 Traveling 10.9 km per hour Orville had the first flight for 12 seconds in the air. Over 120 feet of ground the plane flew. They flew 3 more flights that day but Wilbur  was piloting the record lasting 59 seconds, over a distance of 260 metres (852 feet.)  

Wilbur and Orville decided to experiment with a bi- plane glider and focus on a way to control the aircraft before they added the engine. Then having perfected the glider the next step was to move to a powered flight. The Wright brothers designed and built there own engine so that it would be light enough to move the aircraft.

 Then in May 1904, they built the flyer II. The design of the fly II was very similar to the original flyer, but with a slightly more powerful engine and using white pine instead of spruce wood they used in the original machine. With these modifications the flyer II was heavier by 90 kgs. The U.S. Smithsonian describes it as the first powered heavier than air machine to achieve a controlled sustained flight with a pilot aboard.

They invited reporters to watch a test flight, but it hardly got off the ground, so they built a catapult to increase speed during take off. It then began to fly longer distances and turn in the air.

On October 5, 1905 a small crowed watched as Wilbur flew around Huffman prairie, North East of Dayton, for a total of 39 km. He then landed after 39 minutes because the engine had run out of fuel. The Wright brothers were now confident that they had invented the first practical powered aircraft and in 1906 they received a patent for it.

With the invention of the airplane the Wright brothers made the dream of flight a reality. Flying today makes travel easier and quicker and as a result we know more about different people and places in the globe.

Fergus