Episode 39 - Perseverance and the Wright Brothers

The Wright Brothers

Perseverance and the First Flight

Perseverance - You never know how close you are to a breakthrough. Last week we talked about Madeleine L’Engle. She was just a few years away from writing her most famous novel, and her persistence paid off.

One of the most famous modern stories of persistence, the Wright Brothers invention of the first flying machine.

April 16th is the anniversary of Wilbur’s birth. There’s no other major anniversaries in the discovery of flying machines. I think I mostly just thought it’d be cool to talk about the Wright Brothers.

Wilbur and Orville ran a print shop (they actually built their own printing press!) and a bicycle shop before turning their attention to powered flight. Neither brother had engineering training or had even completed high school.

They studied other aircraft of the age, and went to work on a glider. This alone came with plenty of difficulties.  The brothers put up with numerous setbacks and failures, their prototypes often failing to take off or crashing when they did. Sometimes the build of the flyer wasn’t right, sometimes the wind just wasn’t doing what they needed it to.

When it came time for powered flight, an engine light enough didn’t even exist, so their mechanic had to build one himself. After more bad weather and technical issues, they finally felt ready… and the first flight ended after three and a half seconds in a crash. Three days later, Orville managed to fly for a solid 12 seconds, a short flight that cemented their status as aviation pioneers.

Bonus fact 1: Wilbur became withdrawn for a long time after getting his teeth knocked out in a hockey game, but he must have gotten his courage back, as he was the one to man many of the brothers' test flights.

Bonus fact 2: Neil Armstrong, also from Ohio, took a small piece of fabric from the Wright Flyer with him to the moon.

How do you find that kind of perseverance? Have a dream that inspires you and stay with it until you succeed. You never know how close you are to a breakthrough!