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When Orville and Wilbur Wright requested a patent application for a `flying machine` nine months before their successful flight on December 17, 1903, little did they know that they were pioneering an extraordinary first in the history of mankind – that of powered flight.
The first heavier-than-air flight covered one hundred twenty feet in twelve seconds. It soared to an altitude of 10 feet, traveled 120 feet, and landed 12 seconds after takeoff. After making two longer flights on that historic day, Orville and Wilbur Wright dashed off a telegram to their father, asking him to `inform press.`
During the century that followed, many new airplanes and engines were developed to help transport people, luggage, cargo, military personnel and weapons, further demonstrating man’s continuing obsession to be ‘up, up and away.’
Text: Rajesh Madathil
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Image: Orville and Wilbur Wright, the pioneers of `powered-flight`. Photograph courtesy NASA. Unauthorised reproduction prohibited
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