Comments on: NASA celebrates the 120th anniversary of the Wright Brothers first flight https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/nasa-celebrates-the-120th-anniversary-of-the-wright-brothers-first-flight/ Fri, 15 Dec 2023 14:56:12 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Milt https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/nasa-celebrates-the-120th-anniversary-of-the-wright-brothers-first-flight/#comment-1436943 Fri, 15 Dec 2023 14:56:12 +0000 https://behindtheblack.com/?p=101071#comment-1436943 I remember, as a youngster, reading Ray Bradbury’s short story Icarus Montgolfier Wright, and it seems just as apropos today.

https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/b/bradburys-short-stories/summary-and-analysis-medicine-for-melancholy/icarus-montgolfier-wright

The amazing thing, after living through the First Space Age and now well into the Second, is that so many of the visions of the 1950s seem to be on the verge of finally coming to pass, albeit after a much longer pause than most people might have imagined.

Godspeed, Mr. Bradbury, and all of the other visionaries who dared to dream of such achievements. And Godspeed, as well, to all of those people who are still making them happen today.

]]> By: Blair Ivey https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/nasa-celebrates-the-120th-anniversary-of-the-wright-brothers-first-flight/#comment-1436931 Fri, 15 Dec 2023 13:33:21 +0000 https://behindtheblack.com/?p=101071#comment-1436931 I found my visit to Kitty Hawk, moving. The Wrights were the first aeronautical engineers, in that they systematically evaluated the problem of heavier-than-air, controlled, powered, flight. Others, notably Lillenthal, broke ground, but everything we have that isn’t a balloon, comes from them.

I maintain that bicycles should fly free on 17 December. At one time, bicycles were regular companions on my flights, but letters to airlines have not yielded results.

]]> By: Jeff Wright https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/nasa-celebrates-the-120th-anniversary-of-the-wright-brothers-first-flight/#comment-1436881 Fri, 15 Dec 2023 04:48:54 +0000 https://behindtheblack.com/?p=101071#comment-1436881 Sadly–no relation… adopted anyway

]]> By: Mike Borgelt https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/nasa-celebrates-the-120th-anniversary-of-the-wright-brothers-first-flight/#comment-1436848 Thu, 14 Dec 2023 21:37:09 +0000 https://behindtheblack.com/?p=101071#comment-1436848 I r3ecently read ” First to Fly” by James Tobin. Recommended.

]]> By: Andi https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/nasa-celebrates-the-120th-anniversary-of-the-wright-brothers-first-flight/#comment-1436841 Thu, 14 Dec 2023 18:52:37 +0000 https://behindtheblack.com/?p=101071#comment-1436841 When I was at the site in Kitty Hawk, I was amazed by how short that first flight actually was (it’s marked out on the ground). They said that the flight would fit INSIDE a 747!

And they didn’t lose Wilbur’s luggage! :)

]]> By: Ray Van Dune https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/nasa-celebrates-the-120th-anniversary-of-the-wright-brothers-first-flight/#comment-1436832 Thu, 14 Dec 2023 18:11:05 +0000 https://behindtheblack.com/?p=101071#comment-1436832 One of my most prized possessions is the bound two-volume set of the Wright Brothers’ papers. Nothing continues to impress me like their amazing scientific prowess attained in the absence of any formal education post high-school. The laconic description of their demonstration of flight prowess to the self-declared “leaders” in the subject in Le Mans, France is worth the purchase price alone.

]]>