"For some years, I have been afflicted with the belief that
flight is possible to man. My disease has increased in severity
and I feel that it will soon cost me an increased amount of
money, if not my life 3-1/2 years after Wilbur Wright penned
those words to Octave Chanute, the Wright Brothers' 1903 "Flyer"
lifted from the sands at Kitty Hawk North Carolina to make the
world's first powered flight. With Orville at the controls, the
plane flew 120 feet (37 meters) in 12 seconds. The Brothers made
three more flights that day. The longest, by Wilbur, was 852
feet (260 meters) in 59 seconds. When the Wright Brothers
arrived at Kitty Hawk in 1903 for their historic attempt, they
were almost certain of success. They had all but conquered the
air the previous year with over 1,000 successful gliding flights
in their 1902 glider, "all under perfect control of the
operator," wrote Wilbur. But only one year prior to their 1902
success, after disappointing glider experiments in 1900 and
1901, the Brothers had nearly giv