"Orville started at nine o'clock, with his new propeller shaft, for Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. (His new (propeller) shaft was made of spring steel and was some larger than the former ones.)" Bishop Wright wrote in his diary.

While making his two-day journey, Orville read in the newspaper about the second failure of Samuel P. Langley's Aerodrome.

Langley, the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, was roundly criticized for his very public failures. According to the Washington Post, his first attempt at launching the Aerodrome from the roof of a barge anchored in the Potomac River, resulted in the machine slipping into the water "like a handful of mortar."

The second attempt, on Dec. 9, nearly drowned pilot Charles Manly in the icy water.

Members of Congress took turns lambasting Langley and the public ridiculed him. In its final report on Langley's work, the War Department, concluded "we are still far from the ultimate goal, and it would seem as if years of constant work and study by experts, together with the expenditure of thousands of dollars, would still be necessary before we can hope to produce an apparatus of practical utility on these lines."

For Wilbur and Orville Wright, success was only eight days away.

Soar to Success The Wright Way   Motivational speaker, Wright brothers
 

Home
 
 

Soar to Success the Wright Way © 2003-2007 by Jim Meisner, Jr.