Invention: Plane

Nature played a part on the invention of plane. On December 17, 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright started the engine, the propellers whirred, and the craft lifted off into an icy wind.

Just before they took their first flight in the wind, Wilbur and Orville Wright mastered the art of balancing the craft on the wind. They built an aircraft with twistable wings in 1900. They watched pigeons in flight and noticed that they bank into a turn, as a cylist does.

They concluded that birds turn and keep balance by twisting their wings tips. They also realized that the key challenge of flight was to design a craft that could be controlled.

Man does not have muscles powerful enough to lift his own weight into the air. For centuries, men dreamed of flying.

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