123: The Wright Brothers Fly at Kitty Hawk

History That Doesn't Suck

ProfGregJackson

Education, History, Society & Culture

4.5 • 5.1K Ratings

🗓️ 7 November 2022

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“Not in a thousand years would man ever fly.” This is the story of two brothers and the dream of controlled, sustained, and powered flight in a heavier-than-air flying machine. The Wrights are a tight-knit bunch. A supportive family. So perhaps it’s not surprising that, when Wilbur sinks into a deep, dark depression brought on by a terrible beating, his brother Orville is there for him. Just like Will and their sister Kate are there for Orv when Typhoid nearly takes his life. These siblings are thick as thieves, even if Kate opts for college while “the boys” go for starting their own print shop and bicycle company. They also have each other’s backs when Will rediscovers his childhood dream of flight. He and Orv pursue it relentlessly and for years on end among North Carolina’s sandy beaches just outside of Kitty Hawk. Determination. Failure. Risk-taking. Scientific discovery. Family. This is the story of the Wright brothers. ___ 4 Ways to dive deeper into History That Doesn’t Suck Join our growing facebook community Get our weekly newsletter, The Revolution Become part of the HTDS Patreon family Subscribe to Greg’s monthly newsletter, Connected History Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	History that doesn't suck is a bi-weekly podcast delivering a legit, seriously researched
0:03.7	hard-hitting survey of American history through entertaining stories.
0:06.6	If you'd like to support HTTDS or enjoy bonus content, please consider giving at patreon.com-forwardslash-history-that-doesn't-suck.
0:19.0	It's a beautiful day in early October, 1900.
0:22.5	Ron won of several thin, long, barrier islands and circling the upper part of a North Carolina's coast.
0:29.3	Collectively known as the outer banks, where two brothers from Ohio are making adjustments to a curious looking contraption of their own making.
0:37.0	It's wooden frame measures 5 x 17 feet.
0:40.2	It has two satin covered wings in a bi-plane configuration, which is to say that, with proper attachments,
0:47.0	one hovers just a few feet above the other.
0:49.7	But the bottom wing has one difference.
0:52.6	Right in the middle, it has an opening, and sticking out in front of it, much like a tongue protruding from a mouth,
0:58.9	is another smaller satin-covered rectangular frame.
1:03.0	This is a forward rudder, later to be known as an elevator, and it allows a person lying down on this contraption's bottom tier
1:10.4	to navigate this thing up and down as it sails through the air.
1:14.4	In other words, you and I would call this a glider.
1:17.8	But the two roughly 30-year-old brothers call it a soaring or flying machine, and they're determined to make it work.
1:26.1	Having made camp among the sand and dunes just outside body islands, sleeky town of Kitty Hawk,
1:31.4	the brothers spend day after day letting the coastal gales that attracted them from Ohio work their magic.
1:36.9	As the wind strikes their glider, the shape of its wings ensures that the air moves faster above them than below.
1:43.3	This phenomenon also creates more air pressure below the wings, producing a force known as lift.
1:49.6	And with the beaches 15 miles per hour or stronger winds,
1:53.5	well, the lift becomes so strong that the almost 50-pound soaring machine begins to best gravity,
	...

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