Science & Tech
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After more than four years of hard work and experimentation, the Wright brothers changed the world in twelve seconds. On December 17, 1903, at 10:35, Orville Wright made the world’s first controlled, powered, heavier-than-air flight. The photograph documenting the Wrights’ success was taken by John T. Daniels, a Kill Devil Hills Life Saving Station surfman who had never used a camera before. Only after the Wright brothers returned to Dayton, Ohio, did they develop the photograph and see their first flight captured on film. That photo shows only one perspective of the historic event, from behind the airplane, while Stephen Smith’s “First Flight” sculpture, unveiled during the 2003 Centennial, and Frank Wootton’s painting present the first flight from different angles.
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Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina · United States
