Did the Wrights Really Fly in 1903? An Expert Opinion by Tom Crouch, Curator of NASM, Smithsonian Institution

..."Was the first Wright flight of December 17, 1903 (120 feet) sustained? Probably not...."--Tom Crouch

 Were the Wright brothers the first to fly as we've been taught in our

 public schools? Orville Wright claimed that they made four actual flights on December 17, 1903, at Kill Devil Hills near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

On December 14 Wilbur failed in the first attempt to fly  He had won the coin toss for the first trial but he quickly lost control of the plane and it crashed. After repairing the plane, they decided to try again on the cold, windy day of December 17. Since Wilbur got the first shot on the 14th, it was Orville's turn to try first.

These are the flights he claimed they made:

1. Orville-- estimated 120 feet (100 feet beyond the track)--12 seconds
2. Wilbur--estimated 175 feet--13 seconds
3. Orville--estimated 200 feet--15 seconds
4. Wilbur --measured 852 feet--59 seconds

But did they really fly?

Below is the opinion of Tom Crouch, Senior Curator of the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution. Crouch actually states that he doesn't consider the first flight by Orville a flight, according to his definition of a true flight.. Also note that the 852 feet flight can only be considered a flight if it was not launched from a hill. But the witnesses of these flights, who made statements, agreed that the flights were made from the hill.In this case, none of the flights were true flights. See blog post, " The Wright Story, Not So Sure," Nov 1, 2013.

" You  raise the question of Herring....He was in the air less than 100 feet.... There is no doubt in my mind that Herring was off the ground. So were Mozhalsky, Maxim, du Temple and others. They were not, however, flying. Call it hopping, or anything else you want, but please do not call it flying."

-- Tom Crouch

 

If the first flight at Kitty Hawk made by Orville Wright on December 17, 1903, was not a true flight, as Tom Crouch of the Smithsonian states, then the famous picture that the Smithsonian tells us is a record of the first flight in history is actually not. It doesn't matter when it was taken or by whom.