Date of Award
5-2003
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Departmental Honors
Department
Applied Sciences, Technology, and Education
Abstract
The time is December of 1903. The place is Kitty Hawk, North Carolina; an inhospitable, barren, and windy wasteland. Yet, in this forsaken desert, something magical and historic was about to take place. Many people believed that the Wright Brothers were insane to even fantasize about flight. Man kind was not suppose to fly. The brothers were likened to the myth of Icarus, and warned that those who try to fly to close to the sun will meet an untimely demise. Luckily, the jeers were not enough to sway the Wright Brothers from believing. The home-built aircraft started down the monorail as onlookers; some of them dreamers, but most skeptics of powered flight; gazed from all sides. The wooden and cloth contraption began to pick up speed, and at that moment the course of history was changed forever as the flyer lifted heavenward.
Although the first sustained flight in a heavier-than-air craft only lasted for 12 seconds and traveled 120 ft., it meant much more than that to the world of science. In order to honor the Wright Brother's accomplishments of almost a century ago, Utah State University built a replica of the 1905 Wright Flyer using modern materials that would be available to the brothers today.
Recommended Citation
Love, John William, "Wright Flyer Project" (2003). Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects. 847.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/honors/847
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Faculty Mentor
Kevin S. Garrett
Departmental Honors Advisor
Kevin S. Garrett