 This
month, as our cover represents, is the 99th year of powered
flight. As we look forward to next year, the 100th Anniversary,
I didn’t want to overlook this December’s anniversary.
The Wright gliders were the forerunner of the main event.
December 1902 was the year of the gliders. Therefore, we have
featured a photocomposition on our cover. This monument to
aviation and the Wright brothers is at Kill Devil Hills, NC. The
glider was a photo of one of the original Wright Gliders.
Next year will be a good time to make a trip to Kitty Hawk,
the pilot’s Mecca. You can fly and land at the “first airport”.
On this small strip, tour flights are available should you
drive. You will also find a small museum in the park. It is a
beautiful area to visit, driving right along the coast of the
Atlantic Ocean. The sand dunes now hold motels and restaurants.
Just as flying has changed, so too has this area.
I visited Kitty Hawk and Nags Head several years ago. At that
time, I took the photo you see on the front cover. As a pilot,
it was a moving moment to be able to set foot on the site of the
“first flight of man,” all the time remembering the hardships
Orville and Wilber went through to experiment with their ‘flimsy
flying machine’. In their own way, they were space travelers to
the unknown. Not in that galaxy far, far, away, but on that
beach near Kitty Hawk where death could come just as surely. The
most unfortunate thing, which happened to the Wright brothers,
was all the lawsuits and claims they have to fight to protect
their discovery. After all, the two of them had taken man to the
air for the first time. Other greedy men, of that era, came
forward with lawyers in an attempt to take the fame and fortune
away from the Wrights. The battle never seemed to stop for the
brothers. Wilber died nine years after the first flight. Orville
lived to be an old man and died in his seventies in the late
1940’s. Their story is one of intrigue, hardship, and sorrow. I
don’t think there was a lot of money earned or kept from their
invention.
Within sixty-six years, man would set foot on the moon and
have a plane (SR-71) capable of going three thousand miles an
hour. That plane still holds the speed record today for flight.
The amazing thing to me is that it was designed and developed in
the late 50’s. As far as I know, we don’t have anything to beat
it in the air today. So what has happened in aviation in the
past 40 years?
From the Staff at Fly-Low Publications, we want to extend to
you and your loved ones a most enjoyable Christmas and a safe
New Year. |
