Beginning of Essay
On December 17, 1903, near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright made the world's first successful flights in a heavier-than-air craft under power and control. The airplane had been designed, constructed, and flown by them, each brothe ....

Middle of Essay
.... on November 12, 1906, covered a distance of about 220 m (722 ft) in 22.5 sec. The airplane, the 14- bis, was of his own design, made by the Voisin firm in Paris, and powered with a Levavasseur 40-hp Antoinette engine. The airplane resembled a large box kite, with a smaller box at the front end of a long, cloth-covered frame. The engine and propeller were at the rear, and the pilot stood in a basket just forward of the main rear wing. Not until near the end of 1907 did anyone in Europe fly for 1 min; Henri Farman did so in an airplane built by Voisin. In great contrast were the flights of the Wright brothers. Orville, in the U.S., demo ....