109 years ago today Orville Wright made the first sucessful powered flight at Kitty Hawk North Carolina.
"I confess that in 1901 I said to my brother Orville that man would not fly for fifty years." -Wilbur Wright
Just imagine what it will be like in another 100 years!
A Satirical look back at history ...
S (http://k003.kiwi6.com/file/884kgmqn47)tan Freberg - The Wright Brothers at Kittyhawk (http://k003.kiwi6.com/file/884kgmqn47)
When Orville Wright died in 1948, 45 years after the first powered flight:
The US Air Force had around 20,000 aircraft with half of them being combat related.
They went from aerial recon, to dropping bricks on each other, to dropping bombs on whole cities.
Flying cars started appearing on the skyscape in limited numbers around the mid 1930's and re-appear every few years there-after.
So, by 1951 - in that same 50 year predicted span a lot more happened. A Lot More.
..and in many ways, we're still flying around the same piston engine design that was invented back then.
Supersonic flight for the masses has come, and gone. In a few ways we're retreating.
The future is up to todays' cadets. Take good care of it.
Also interesting point, 40 years ago today: Apollo 17, the last manned mission to the moon, splashed down in the South Pacific.