December 17
1797:
Joseph Henry, discoverer
of the principle of self-induction, and after whom the unit of inductance is named, was
born. 1861: Co-discoverer of the radio reflecting properties of the ionosphere in the
upper atmosphere (the Kennelly-Heaviside layer), and first to apply complex number analysis
to AC circuits, Arthur Kennelly, was born. 1880: The
Edison Electric Illuminating
Company of NY was incorporated for the purpose of providing electric light to New
York City. 1892:
George Brayton, who invented the first commercially produced
internal combustion engine and developed the
Brayton cycle,
died. 1903: Near Kitty Hawk, NC,
the Wright Brothers,
with Orville at the controls, made the first recorded flight in their self propelled,
heavier than air machine called the
Wright B Flyer. 1907: Lord Kelvin, after whom the absolute temperature scale is named, died.
1908: American chemist
Willard Libby, who won the Nobel Prize for his development of carbon-14
dating, was born. 1969: The U.S. Air Force closed its Project "Blue Book" by concluding
there was no evidence of extraterrestrial spaceships to support the thousands of claimed
UFO sightings. 1974: The millionth trademark was registered.
100th Anniversary of Flight |
On this date in 1903, at Kill Devil Hills, N.C., Orville
Wright, winning a coin toss, piloted the airplane that he and his brother, Wilbur, designed
and built to make the world's first controlled, heavier-than-air flight in a self-powered
aircraft. The flight covered 120 feet in 12 seconds. The fourth and last of that day
lasted 59 seconds for 852 feet. |
The Wrights conducted hundreds of tests using kites
and gliders to develop the design for the 1903 Flyer. The wingspan steadily grew, from
5 feet for their 1899 biplane kite, to 17½ feet for the 1900 glider, to 22 feet in 1901,
to 32 feet in 1902, and finally to more than 40 feet for the first powered airplane. |
The Flyer used a simple three-axis steering system
that controlled pitch, roll and yaw. The custom-built 4-cylinder, 12-HP engine had no
spark plugs, carburetor, fuel pump or water pump, and weighed 200 lbs. Wind tunnels were
built to test their airframe and control theories. |
To this day there are people who claim the Wrights
were beaten to the record, but no credible witnesses have ever justified any of them.
Even Samuel Langley, then the head of the Smithsonian Institute, battled the brothers
to the point that they originally placed their Flyer in an English museum instead of
his. Please, no e-mails with supporting evidence ;-) |
The Wright Experience
National Air &
Space Museum NASA - The Wright
Way U.S. Centennial
of Flight Commission First Flight Centennial Wright Brothers Aeroplane Company
Current Aeronautical Weather |
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Aug | Sep |
Oct | Nov |
Dec |
Note: These
historical tidbits have been collected from various sources, mostly on the Internet.
As detailed in
this article, there is
a lot of wrong information that is repeated hundreds of times because most websites do
not validate with authoritative sources. On RF Cafe, events with
hyperlinks have been verified. Many years ago, I began
commemorating the birthdays of notable people and events with
special RF Cafe logos. Where
available, I like to use images from postage stamps from the country where the person
or event occurred. Images used in the logos are often from open source websites like
Wikipedia, and are specifically credited with a hyperlink back to the source where possible.
Fair Use laws permit small
samples of copyrighted content.
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