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VOICE ONE:
This is Faith Lapidus.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Steve Ember withEXPLORATIONS from VOA Special English. A celebration will be heldDecember seventeenth near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. It will honorthe one-hundredth anniversary of the first flight of a poweredaircraft by Wilbur and Orville Wright. Today we begin the first ofthree programs to honor that flight.
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VOICE ONE:
From the beginning of time humans have watched the beautifulflight of birds and wished they too could fly. For thousands ofyears human flight was only a dream. Humans did not understand whatmade flight possible. Several times in history people tried to copythe flight of birds. But this too was only a dream. Any attempt tocopy the flight of birds always ended in failure.
VOICE TWO:
But failure did not stop people from attempting to fly. A goodexample was an English religious worker in the eleventh centurynamed Eilmer of Malmesbury. He put large wings on his hands and feetthat permitted him to “fly” from the top of a church to the groundbelow. But he had no method of controlling his flight. When helanded, he broke both of his legs.
VOICE ONE:
In the year twelve-seventy, Italian explorer Marco Polo traveledthrough much of China. He wrote that he had seen a man tied to adevice made from paper, cloth and wood that was lifted by windpower.
This device is called a kite. Children and adults often fly kiteson windy days. But this was not really flying. A person who rode akite had no control. And a rope held the kite to the ground.
VOICE TWO:
In the seventeen-eighties, Frenchbrothers Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier had discovered that a paperbag filled with heated air will rise from the ground. They beganbuilding large hot air balloons. Two of their friends rode in aballoon near Paris on November twenty-first, seventeen-eighty-three.They flew over Paris for twenty-five minutes and landed severalkilometers away. They were said to be the first people in recordedhistory to fly. However, they had no way to control their flight.
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VOICE ONE:
History experts say George Cayley of Britain was the man mostresponsible for inventing the science of flight. He developed theidea of a fixed-wing aircraft with no engine called a glider. MisterCayley carried out many different experiments in an effort toproduce a device that could fly. History records say he built thefirst successful glider that carried a person ineighteen-fifty-three.
Mister Cayley wrote that in the future airplanes would be able tocarry passengers and fly at speeds as fast as eighty-kilometers anhour. Very few people believed him.
VOICE TWO:
A German engineer named OttoLilienthal did believe humans could fly. Mister Lilienthal built asmall hill near the city of Berlin from which he could launch aglider. He built many different kinds of gliders. He was often ableto fly more than three-hundred-fifty meters. He had limited controlof his gliders by moving his body forward or backward, right orleft. However, these gliders had no wheels. Mister Lilienthal’s feetserved as the landing devices for his aircraft.
Mister Lilienthal always knew the risk involved in his efforts.On August ninth, eighteen-ninety-six, he pushed off from the top ofa hill on one of his gliders. A sharp wind caused it to drop and helost control. Otto Lilienthal crashed. He died the next day of hisinjuries.
Otto Lilienthal’s work was very important for two young Americanbrothers who lived in Dayton, Ohio. Their names were Wilbur andOrville Wright. They had been closely following the work of MisterLilienthal. They began to make improvements to his designs.
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VOICE ONE:
History books about airplanes and flight say that Wilbur andOrville Wright designed, built and flew the first powered aircraft.The books also say they made their first flight near Kitty Hawk,North Carolina on December seventeenth, nineteen-oh-three. However,most books do not explain what they really did. Here is a small listof what the Wright Brothers had to do before they could successfullymake that first powered flight.
First, they had to design an airplane wing that would produce thelift needed to fly. They had to design a system that would permitthem to control an aircraft in flight. They also had to design anengine that would be light in weight but produce enough power tomake flight possible.
They also had to design a propeller that would be strong enoughto move their aircraft forward. And, while they were doing all ofthese things, they had to teach themselves to fly an aircraft. Byany measure, these tasks were extremely difficult.
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From a very early age, both Orville and Wilbur Wright lovedmachines and new inventions of all kinds. The brothers were notengineers like Otto Lilienthal. In fact, neither had gone tocollege. However both brothers believed that it was possible forpeople to fly. And they worked extremely well together. They alsodid something many others had not done. The sought to solve theproblem of human flight using modern scientific methods. First, theygathered every book or magazine they could find on the subject. Theycollected the works of George Cayley and Otto Lilienthal and manyothers.
VOICE ONE:
Then the Wright Brothers began to experiment. They built manydifferent kinds of wings. They built propellers. They designed smallcopies of Otto Lilienthal’s gliders. Their experiments quicklyshowed that much of the information that had been published aboutflying was of little use.
They also discovered that no one had written anything about whatthey considered the most important problem. That was how to controlan aircraft in flight. Many experts at the time believed it would beimpossible for a person to control an aircraft.
The Wright Brothers agreed that the pilot of an aircraft had tobe able to control it to fly safely. The brothers were sure thatflight without control was useless and dangerous.
VOICE TWO:
The Wright Brothers learned that successful flight depends oncontrolled movement in three different directions as an aircraftmoves through the air. These directions are called pitch, roll andyaw. They are easily explained. Think of a modern airplane. Theairplane experiences pitch when the front of the plane goes up ordown.
Roll is experienced when one wing drops and the other rises. Theplane can even roll over in a complete circle. And yaw isexperienced if the front of the airplane moves to the left or right.Successful fight is only possible if all three directions — pitch,roll and yaw — are used in a coordinated effort.
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VOICE ONE:
The Wright Brothers planned, designed, tested and then improvedeach of their aircraft and its many parts. They did this again andagain. They made small aircraft for tests. Then they made largerones they could fly. They failed many times. But they never stoppedworking.
In September of nineteen-hundred, the two brothers built a largeaircraft. They had already chosen a place to try to fly it. It wasnear the little town of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. They chose thisplace because of the strong wind and the lack of trees in the area.
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Like Otto Lilienthal, the two brothers decided to fly glidersfirst. Their first attempt was not very successful. A strong windseverely damaged their aircraft. The next morning they beganrebuilding the glider.
They tried again two weeks later. Soon they were flying distancesof ninety to one-hundred-twenty meters. And they were able tocontrol some of the glider’s movements.
Again and again the two men would plan, design, test, improve andbegin again. With each successful design they learned a little moreabout how to build and fly an aircraft.
VOICE ONE:
In the last months of nineteen-oh-three, the two brothers put allof their successful designs together in one aircraft. This time theyadded a small engine. The aircraft had two wings. The pilot wouldlie on the aircraft, to the right of the engine. The aircraft hadtwo large propellers in back. And, most importantly, it could becontrolled.
What happened on that first flight will be our story next week.We will also tell about the difficult job of building a copy of theWright Brothers’ airplane. That copy will fly at Kitty Hawk on theone-hundredth anniversary of the Wright Brothers’ first flight.
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VOICE TWO:
This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced byMario Ritter. This is Steve Ember.
VOICE ONE:
And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week forEXPLORATIONS from VOA Special English.