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    First in Flight: How a Photograph Captured the Takeoff of the Wright Brothers' Flyer
    First in Flight: How a Photograph Captured the Takeoff of the Wright Brothers' Flyer
    First in Flight: How a Photograph Captured the Takeoff of the Wright Brothers' Flyer
    Ebook77 pages41 minutes

    First in Flight: How a Photograph Captured the Takeoff of the Wright Brothers' Flyer

    By Michael Burgan

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    About this ebook

    On-point historical photographs combined with strong narration bring the story of the historic first flight ever to life. Kids will feel as though they are at Kitty Hawk with Wilbur and Orville Wright as the brothers prepare to test their aircraft. They'll also learn about the history of flight and the skepticism that greeted the Wrights when they, at first, refused to release the photograph of their successful flight.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCapstone Young Readers
    Release dateAug 1, 2020
    ISBN9780756567620
    First in Flight: How a Photograph Captured the Takeoff of the Wright Brothers' Flyer
    Author

    Michael Burgan

    Michael Burgan has written more than 250 books for children and young adults. His specialty is history, with an emphasis on biography. A graduate of the University of Connecticut with a degree in history, Burgan is also a produced playwright and the editor of The Biographer’s Craft, the newsletter for Biographers International Organization. He first started writing for children as an editor at Weekly Reader before beginning his freelance career in 1994. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

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      Book preview

      First in Flight - Michael Burgan

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      Cover

      Title Page

      Chapter One:Ready to Take Flight

      Chapter Two:Brothers in Business and Invention

      Chapter Three:Making History

      Chapter Four:Heroes of Aviation

      Timeline

      Glossary

      Additional Resources

      Source Notes

      Select Bibliography

      Index

      About the Author

      Copyright

      Back Cover

      Chapter One

      READY TO TAKE FLIGHT

      Wilbur and Orville Wright took turns flying in the gliders they built. This shows Wilbur making a right turn in a glider at Kill Devil Hills.

      The wind at Kill Devil Hills on North Carolina’s Outer Banks blew at about 20 miles (32 kilometers) per hour, and the temperature was just above freezing. It was December 17, 1903—much later than usual in the year for brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright to be at this stretch of beach. These sand dunes and the surrounding shore were near the tiny town of Kitty Hawk. Since 1900, the brothers had come to the area to test gliders they had designed at their bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio. Though the bicycle business provided good income, what the brothers really wanted to do was sail through the air, not roll along roads on their bikes. They pursued flight together, as they had done so much else. As Wilbur once said, From the time we were little children my brother Orville and myself lived together, played together, worked together and, in fact, thought together.¹

      The idea of humans trying to fly was not new to the Wright brothers. Fascinated by the idea of flight, Wilbur, who was now 36, and Orville, four years younger, had spent many long hours studying how it could be done. They built models and then full-size gliders. Sometimes they argued over whose ideas were right, but they always remained a team. And their flights at Kill Devil Hills helped them improve their designs.

      THE GLIDING GERMAN

      Otto Lilienthal assembled his first glider when he was still a teenager. That glider didn’t fly, but the setback didn’t stop him from pursuing human flight. Lilienthal, a German mechanical engineer, was one of the aviators who inspired the Wrights. Starting in 1890, he built more than a dozen gliders and made about 2,000 flights. He was sometimes called the Flying Man. Across Europe and the United States, others bought and flew the German’s gliders or built their own based on his design. By 1896, Lilienthal was a world leader in the field of aeronautics. Sadly, Lilienthal broke his back in a glider crash that same year. He died the next day.

      Wilbur Wright saw a newspaper article about the great aviator’s death. He later said that reading about Lilienthal’s attempts to fly renewed an interest in flying he had first felt as a child. Wright said, Lilienthal not only thought, but acted; and in doing so probably made the greatest contribution to the solution of the flying problem that has ever been made by any one man.²

      Otto Lilienthal was a pioneer of human flight, building gliders that looked something like butterflies.

      By the end of 1902, the brothers were ready to take the next step in aviation. They had proven that they could fly with their glider. But longer flights would require an aircraft that carried its own power source. Cars powered by gas engines were becoming popular, and the Wrights decided that one

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