Put yourself in the mindset of somebody living in the year 1903. From the dawn of civilization, no human being has ever flown, except for the recent innovation of hot air balloons and dirigibles. You know this, living in that time. You KNOW that powered flight is impossible. Surely if it was possible someone would have done it in the last five thousand years of human invention. Surely, if nobody had ever done it before, it must be a law of nature. If man was meant to fly, God would have given him wings. Right?
Indeed, the prevailing scientific consensus in 1903 was that it was impossible to build a heavier-than-air flying machine big enough to carry a human being aloft. The New York Times, then as now, embodied respectable opinion. On October 9, 1903 the Grey Lady declared:
“Hence, if it requires, say, a thousand years to fit for easy flight a bird which started with rudimentary wings, or ten thousand for one which started with no wings at all and had to sprout them ab initio, it might be assumed that the flying machine which will really fly might be evolved by the combined and continuous efforts of mathematicians and mechanicians in from one million to ten million years–provided, of course, we can meanwhile eliminate such little drawbacks and embarrassments as the existing relation between weight and strength in inorganic materials.” (emphasis added).
The Wright Flyer first flew December 17, 1903, a little over two months two after that smug little pronouncement.
This is the story of the men who made that happen.
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For more, listen to the Podcast episode and check out my book, History Stories for Everyone, where I dive deeper into this and some of history’s other most fascinating and relatable human stories:
