In the early 1900s, when many prominent scientists had failed to achieve heavier-than-air flight and some had begun to give up hope, brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright of Dayton, Ohio, became fascinated with flight and began researching and experimenting with flight mechanics from their bicycle shop in downtown Dayton. As their design progressed, they asked the U.S. Weather Bureau to help find the best place to build and test their invention, and Kitty Hawk was chosen for its steady winds, soft sand, wide-open terrain, and sparse population. There the Wright brothers tested kites and gliders from the top of the dunes, refining their approach through many failures until they achieved success on December 17, 1903, with a twelve-second flight that changed humankind forever.