The idea of flying continued to captivate the two brothers into their twenties and thirties. Their first obstacle, however, was not external, but internal. They were unknowns. Neither had a university education. They were push bike repairmen attempting to enter the furore of flight which was attracting some of the brightest minds of the era. People like Dr Samuel Langley. An astronomer, physicist and inventor. He had been the chair of mathematics at the United States Naval Academy. In 1867, he became the director of the Allegheny Observatory, a professor of astronomy at the Western University of Pennsylvania, and in 1887 the third Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution where he founded the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. During the 1890’s Langley had done extensive experiments with large unmanned models and had achieved a high degree of success. So successful, that in 1898 he received a War Department grant of $50,000 and $20,000 from the Smithsonian to develop the first piloted plane [2].
What made the Wright Brothers think that they had anything to offer or add to such luminary thinkers? The answer is found in a letter that Wilbur wrote to Octave Chanute in 1900. Chanute was well known as a brilliant and innovative railroad engineer, who had put together the first organised, written collection of aviation research in 1894. Although too old to attempt flying himself, he worked alongside a number of younger experimenters and corresponded with most of the well known aviation pioneers. In his letter to Chanute, Wilbur Wright’s opening two lines allow us a glimpse into the internal strength and driving passion that had brought them this far and the perseverance which would carry them through the next three years of regular failures, setbacks and disappointments. He wrote “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]“. If this was the level of intensity and dedication that underlay Wilbur Wright’s drive toward human flight, how much more as Christians should we be persistent in pursuing the dreams and desires that we believe have been given to us by our Lord?
The brothers first built and tested a series of kite and glider designs from 1900 to 1902. However, these gliders did not work as well as they had expected . Their first glider, launched in 1900, had only about half the lift they anticipated. Their second glider, built a year later, after painstaking research and experimentation, performed even more poorly. Disappointment and setbacks will be the familiar, though unwelcome, companions of any person who is looking to breakthrough into new horizons for their life, dreams and goals. Faith in Christ will not shelter you from the rigors of attempting great things, but as Paul prayed for the Ephesian church, God will grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; for all to which you aspire. There were many other frustrating obstacles and dead ends as they pushed toward their dream. There were a plethora of ideas that had come down through the ages. Some helpful, some not. Calculations needed to be continually reworked. They were stepping into uncharted aeronautical territory and writing the text book as they went.
During September and October 1902 they made between 700 and 1,000 glides, the longest lasting 26 seconds. The big breakthrough came from the idea to make the plane rudder steerable. This was the Eureka moment, the landmark discovery. On March 23, 1903, the Wrights applied for their famous patent for a “Flying Machine”.
