From a Controllable Glider to Powered Flight

Things began to come together for the Wright brothers when they moved from developing a fully controllable glider to developing a powered aircraft. Between the summer of 1902 and December 1903 the brothers calculated the power that an engine would need to propel their glider through the air and generate enough lift for flight. Along with adding an innovative new engine, they continued to improve the wings, designed and built propellers, and built a launching rail in Kitty Hawk for the now much heavier flying machine. Weather and technical problems provided a few setbacks, but on December 17, 1903, the Wrights made four flights in a fully controllable, heavier-than-air, self-propelled flying machine, including one flight of 852 feet for fifty-nine seconds. The Wright brothers had harnessed the power of lift.