"Wilbur started the fourth and last flight at just 12 o’clock. The first few hundred feet were up and down as before, but by the time three hundred feet had been covered, the machine was under much better control. The course for the next four or five hundred feet had but little undulation. However, when out about eight hundred feet the machine began pitching again, and, in one of its starts downward, struck the ground. The distance over the ground was measured and found to be 852 feet; the time of the flight 59 seconds. The frame supporting the front rudder was badly broken, but the main part of the machine was not injured at all. We estimated that the machine could be put in condition for flight again in a day or two. While we were standing about discussing this last flight, a sudden strong gust of wind struck the machine and began to turn it over. Everybody made a rush for it. Wilbur, who was at one end, seized it in front, Mr. Daniels and I, who were behind, tried to stop it by holding to the rear uprights. All our efforts were vain. The machine rolled over and over. Daniels, who had retained his grip, was carried along with it, and was thrown about head over heels inside of the machine. Fortunately he was not seriously injured, though badly bruised in falling about against the motor, chain guides, etc. The ribs in the surfaces of the machine were broken, the motor injured and the chain guides badly bent, so that all possibility of further flights with it for that year were at an end."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Orville_Wright
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Orville Wright
Orville Wright (19 August 1871 – 30 January 1948) was an American inventor and aviation pioneer who, with his brother Wilbur Wright, was credited with inventing and building the world's first successful airplane and making the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight, on December 17, 1903.
12 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Orville Wright →
Related Quotes
"On July 20, 1969, when Neil Armstrong, another American born and raised in southwestern Ohio, stepped onto the moon, …"
"We dared to hope we had invented something that would bring lasting peace to the earth. But we were wrong ... I don't…"
"If we all worked on the assumption that what is accepted as true is really true, there would be little hope of advance."
"Learning the secret of flight from a bird was a good deal like learning the secret of magic from a magician. After yo…"
"For two reasons we decided to use two propellers. In the first place we could, by the use of two propellers, secure a…"
"Wilbur, having used his turn in the unsuccessful attempt on the 14th, the right to the first trial now belonged to me…"
"The course of the flight up and down was exceedingly erratic, partly due to the irregularity of the air, and partly t…"
"At twenty minutes after eleven Wilbur started on the second flight. The course of this flight was much like that of t…"
"Twenty minutes later the third flight started. This one was steadier than the first one an hour before. I was proceed…"
"It impressed me that Thomas Edison and the Wright brothers were so single-minded in figuring out how to make a light …"