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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2009 > August > 29 > Entry
Kevin Riley: Wright brothers captured world’s attention in 1908
It was early in 1908, just five years after the Wright brothers had first flown, and they had problems on their hands.
They had not been able to sell their flying machine, and because they insisted on keeping the technology behind their invention a secret, much of the world was skeptical of what they claimed to have accomplished.
After all, they hadn’t taken to the air for about two-and-half years after flying at Huffman Prairie through October of 1905. And the Huffman Prairie flights had been mostly observed by a local audience without much media attention.
And so in the spring of 1908, they headed back to Kitty Hawk for a critical period in the development of their airplane. They had hoped to do their experimenting in private, but instead created an early version of a media circus — complete with paparazzi, reporters hiding in bushes and exaggerated, inaccurate media reports.
But, in the end, the journalists catapulted the Wrights to worldwide recognition for their achievement.
This pivotal 11-day period is chronicled in a new book by East Carolina University professor Larry E. Tise, who is the school’s Wilbur and Orville Wright Distinguished Professor of History. “Conquering the Sky: The Secret Flights of the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk” is scheduled for publication on Sept. 29.
During this period, the Wrights faced what Tise calls the “dilemma of inventors.” They wanted to get credit for what they had done, but had not yet figured out how and when to tell the world about it. And they were more than a little paranoid about someone stealing and replicating their ideas.
The Wrights had tried to sell their airplane to the U.S. and some European governments — and now a number of inventors in France were trying to take credit for figuring out powered flight. The brothers were getting ready to go public.
“The Wrights recognized that the time for secrecy was over,” said Tom Crouch, senior curator of aeronautics at the National Air and Space Museum and a Wright Brothers scholar.
But they still wanted to perfect their plane in private.
They went back to Kitty Hawk in 1908, hoping that an inaccessible place would offer privacy. Crouch calls this time the Wrights’ “dress rehearsal” before the brothers had to demonstrate their airplane in Europe and the United States later that year. Those demonstrations required controlled flying, carrying a passenger and flying long distances.
And while the Wrights were confident, one of their big challenges was a new control system they had developed for pilots to sit upright, Crouch said. Before this point, they had always flown lying down.
“They hadn’t flown for two-and-a-half years. This is not like riding a bike,” Crouch said. Once the word got out that the Wrights were back at Kitty Hawk, a local telegraph operator began to send word out about it.
Inaccurate, oddly worded reports began appearing in newspapers — including the Dayton Daily News — about what the Wrights were doing, Tise said.
Tise said his research shows the reports were at first claiming long flights even before the brothers had gotten their plane assembled at Kill Devil Hills.
Eventually, New York and London newspapers sent reporters to Kitty Hawk to confirm what was going on. Unwelcome by the Wrights, they at first hid in trees, Tise said.
The Wrights were early risers, so the reporters, who stayed about seven miles away in Manteo, N.C., had to be up early and faced heat, sand fleas and chiggers as they sought to document the Wrights’ achievements.
“They were absolutely miserable,” Tise said.
A famous early photojournalist, James H. Hare, took a photograph that became the first published showing the Wrights’ plane in flight. (The famous and familiar Kitty Hawk picture of the Dec. 17, 1903, flight was not actually published until later.)
Tise insists these journalists did the Wrights a huge service because they confirmed for the world that they were actually flying. And Tise argues that the Wrights came dangerously close to not getting credit for their achievement.
But after the reports of their 1908 flights at Kitty Hawk, and their flying demonstration in France later that year, no one could dispute the Dayton brothers’ place in history.
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Comments
By Kate Hagenbuch
August 29, 2009 9:10 PM | Link to this
You can see film footage of these 1908-1909 flights in France and Italy at www.DaytonInnovationLegacy.org
By xpost15
August 30, 2009 5:20 AM | Link to this
I am so sick and tired of seeing those NC license plates with “First In Flight” on them. What a crock! That airplane was develped here in Dayton. The reason they went NC was for more testing on a windy and sandy beach. NC had nothing to do with developing the airplane. It was done here in Dayton. We are first in flight not NC. Everything from thier minds and that bicycle shop came from here not NC. Their invention has helped in wars, tranportation and space travel. People don’t give them enough credit or Dayton.
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