The morning of December 17, 1903, was cold and windy in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. It was not a good day to go to the beach, but two very determined brothers headed there anyway.

Orville and Wilbur Wright hoped to get their latest invention off the ground. They had built an engine-powered plane, called the Flyer, in their bike shop in Dayton, Ohio. No human had ever flown such a craft before. But that didn't stop them.

At 10:35 a.m., with Orville piloting, the Flyer became airborne. Orville stayed in the air for 12 seconds. He flew only 120 feet, but it may have been the most remarkable journey in history. He was the first person ever to fly in a machine-powered aircraft.

The Wright brothers made three more flights that day. The last one was the longest: Wilbur stayed in the air for 59 seconds and traveled 852 feet. So began a new age of discovery.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the brothers' flight. From December 12 to 17, Orville and Wilbur will be honored with a centennial celebration in Kitty Hawk. Science and technology have propelled us well beyond that first bumpy trip. Our planes are now safer, sleeker and much speedier.

THE SKY'S THE LIMIT

"Though different, the Wright airplane is the father of everything that flies today," says Ken Hyde, a pilot and airplane mechanic who founded the Wright Experience. Hyde recently finished building a reproduction of the Wright Flyer, which will be flown during the celebration.

To make the new Flyer, Hyde and his team analyzed information that the Wright brothers left behind. Hyde and his team also studied the original Flyer, which now hangs in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, in Washington, D.C. At first, Hyde says, the brothers' plans looked simple. But as he read them more closely, he couldn't help wondering, "How did these guys know that?"

THE WRIGHT STUFF

Orville and Wilbur first looked to the sky as young boys, playing with kites and a flying toy. Their interest took off in 1896, when Orville was 25 and Wilbur was 29. They were fascinated by reports of Otto Lilienthal, who was flying gliders in Germany. After Lilienthal died in a glider accident, the Wright brothers became determined to unlock the mysteries of flight.

Orville and Wilbur studied the records of people who had gone before them. They made gliders and, in 1901, built a wind tunnel to test wings of different shapes and sizes. Then they turned to the real experts. "We got plenty of flying fever watching the birds," Orville said.

The resulting ideas helped them to succeed where others had failed. They created "wing warping," twisting the wings to make turning easier. With wing warping, the craft could be steered and controlled. Instead of copying boat propellers, as others had done, the Wrights made curved propellers that worked like rotating wings. These propellers helped to lift and move the plane forward - right into history.

On December 17, 2003, a Flyer will take off once more. Hyde hopes that the Wright Experience will help young inventors find their wings. "If we can get another Orville or Wilbur Wright out of this generation," he says, "that would be a great payoff."

People reached for the sky long before the Wright brothers did. But powered air travel didn't take off until their successful flight. Since then, soaring inventions have taken us to new heights.

http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/magazines/story/0,6277,557492,00.html