Wilbur and Orville Wright

On December 17, 1903, only seven days after the fiasco of Samuel Langley, the Wright Brothers successfully flew a heavier-than-air, manned airplane at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

Surprises

The biggest surprise to the world was that it believed that a sophisticated team of European engineers or well educated individuals would build the first successful flying machine. The Wright Brothers were less than well educated, although they both had an uncanny sense as to which aerodynamic concepts were important, and which were completely worthless. North Carolina was also an unexpected location for such a breakthrough.

The Wright Technique

One of the greatest strengths of the Wright Brothers was that they read everything they could get their hands on concerning aerodynamics. They worked on the philosophy of learning from the mistakes of their predecessors. A lot of their work started of as theory, but it soon progressed into tangible experiments. The brothers even employed the use of wind tunnels to test out their various wing shapes and propellers.

One of the most striking differences between the Wright Brothers' flyer and the airfoils of today is the camber. The Wright Brothers used an airfoil design with a very thin camber, but a large curvature.

By the time the Wright Brothers had finished testing and designing all of the parts for the plane, they knew that it would fly, even before they actually flew it at Kitty Hawk. The actual first flight was only a confirmation of their confidence.