The Unlikely Fate of the Wright Brothers
Warfare
History Hit
4.5 • 943 Ratings
🗓️ 1 June 2022
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On a winter day in 1903, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, the Wright Brothers changed history when they took the world's first engine-powered flight. It didn't take long for countries around the world to realise that the Wright flying machine had the potential to revolutionise warfare and soon everybody wanted flying machines of their own. But the US didn't have the advantage; Historian and TV Consultant Gavin Mortimer tells Dan Snow that after that first flight, the Wright Brothers spent more time in court trying to protect their patent and ground other aviators than they did in their workshop. Not only did it make them largely despised by their contemporaries, they quickly fell behind in the race to master the air.
For more about those dramatic days of pioneering aviation, Gavin's book is called 'Chasing Icarus: The Seventeen Days in 1910 That Changing American Aviation'
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This episode was originally published on Dan Snow's History Hit on 17 December 2021.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It was on a winter day in 1903 in the These were the Wright brothers who succeeded in taking their plane made of just wood and cloth, the right flyer, |
| 0:27.0 | and they turned it into the world's first ever engine-powered aircraft, the first ever engine powered flight. |
| 0:36.0 | Yet did the Wright brothers do enough to maintain their advantage, their supremacy, their place in the world of air power. |
| 0:44.4 | I'm your host James Rogers. |
| 0:45.5 | This is the warfare podcast. |
| 0:47.2 | And as I do every Wednesday, I've dug deep |
| 0:49.6 | into the history hit archive to pull out an episode |
| 0:51.8 | that I know you're gonna love. |
| 0:54.0 | This is with Gavin Mortimer, who explains to Dan Snow |
| 0:58.1 | how the first flight, the flight by the Wright brothers, |
| 1:01.5 | led them to spend more time in court trying to protect their |
| 1:04.9 | patent and ground other aviators than they did in the workshop. This made them largely |
| 1:11.1 | despised by their contemporaries and behind in the race to master the air. |
| 1:17.1 | Now before all of this remember you can contact us directly on warfare at History Hit.com. |
| 1:23.0 | So many of you have and you come up with amazing ideas for future episodes. |
| 1:27.0 | And we want to hear from you. We want to hear the episodes that you want to hear. |
| 1:31.0 | So do contact us directly on warfare at history here.com. But now here is |
| 1:36.7 | historian Gavin Mortimer on the unlikely fate of the Wright brothers. Enjoy. The Wright brothers became interested in flying at a very young age. |
| 1:48.0 | As children in Dayton, Ohio, apparently they loved a little sort of helicopter like toy. |
| 1:52.0 | It was powered by a rubber band. They loved a little helicopter-like toy. |
| 1:52.6 | It was powered by a rubber band. |
| 1:54.8 | And they loved the mechanics of the toy. |
... |
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