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The flight log
Four flights, and how the wings were warped
The times and distances of 17 December 1903 belong on the same desk as the machine that flew them, as long as each figure keeps its source.
Choose a topic. The flight-log table below stays put. It is the same set of published figures, seen together, not a different record.
The four flights
The Park Service wayside at the memorial says the Wright brothers made four successful sustained powered flights the morning of 17 December 1903. [NPS wayside] That wayside records the four flights as 12 seconds and 120 feet; 12 seconds and 175 feet; 15 seconds and 200 feet; and, last, 59 seconds and 852 feet. [NPS wayside] The Smithsonian describes the second and third flights that morning as “in the range of two hundred feet,” with the brothers alternating as pilot. [Smithsonian NASM]
The wayside at the memorial lists all four times and distances. The Smithsonian is exact on the first and last flights, and looser on the two in between. Both are on the table. Neither is rounded into the other.
The four flights
The Park Service wayside at the memorial says the Wright brothers made four successful sustained powered flights the morning of 17 December 1903. [NPS wayside] That wayside records the four flights as 12 seconds and 120 feet; 12 seconds and 175 feet; 15 seconds and 200 feet; and, last, 59 seconds and 852 feet. [NPS wayside] The Smithsonian describes the second and third flights that morning as “in the range of two hundred feet,” with the brothers alternating as pilot. [Smithsonian NASM]
The wayside at the memorial lists all four times and distances. The Smithsonian is exact on the first and last flights, and looser on the two in between. Both are on the table. Neither is rounded into the other.
The first hop
On 17 December 1903 at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the Wrights’ first powered airplane made a 12-second flight, travelling 36 m (120 ft), with Orville piloting. [Smithsonian NASM] The Smithsonian records that, at 10:35 a.m., the Flyer lifted off the beach at Kitty Hawk for that first 12-second, 36 m (120 ft) flight. [Smithsonian NASM] At 10:35, Orville released the restraining wire, the Park Service writes, and the Flyer moved down the rail as Wilbur steadied the wings. [NPS] On that first flight the machine hit the sand about 120 feet from the rail; into the 27-mph wind, the groundspeed had been 6.8 mph, for a total airspeed of 34 mph. [NPS]
Ten thirty-five in the morning, twelve seconds, 120 feet. The Park Service also gives the wind, and the crawl over the sand that a 27-mph headwind produced.
The long flight
The best flight of that day, with Wilbur at the controls, covered 255.6 m (852 ft) in 59 seconds, according to the National Air and Space Museum. [Smithsonian NASM] Wilbur’s second flight — the fourth and last of the day — was, in the Park Service’s words, an impressive 852 feet in 59 seconds. [NPS] Two errors were made in the transmission of the telegram to Milton Wright: Orville’s name was misspelled, and the time of their longest flight was given as fifty-seven instead of fifty-nine seconds. [Library of Congress]
Fifty-nine seconds and 852 feet, with Wilbur flying. The telegram home said fifty-seven. That is a transmission error, not a second official time.
Wing warping
The stick that moved the horizontal elevator controlled climb and descent, and the cradle that Orville swung with his hips warped the wings and swung the vertical tails, which in combination turned the machine. [NPS] In that photograph, the Library of Congress notes, Orville is at the controls, lying on the lower wing with his hips in a movable cradle which operated the wing-warping mechanism, while Wilbur runs alongside. [Library of Congress]
The hip cradle twisted the wingtips in opposite directions and moved the tails. The front elevator, on a stick, was for climb and descent.
The machine itself
The museum describes the 1903 Wright Flyer as a canard biplane with one 12-horsepower Wright horizontal four-cylinder engine driving two pusher propellers via a sprocket-and-chain transmission, and with non-wheeled, linear skids as landing gear. [Smithsonian NASM] The Smithsonian’s published dimensions are a wingspan of 12.3 m (40 ft 4 in), a length of 6.4 m (21 ft 1 in), and a height of 2.8 m (9 ft 4 in). [Smithsonian NASM] The same object record gives an empty weight of 274 kg (605 lb) and a gross weight of 341 kg (750 lb). [Smithsonian NASM] The National Park Service, writing of the camp at the Kill Devil Hills, says the brothers mounted the engine on the new 40-foot, 605-pound Flyer with double tails and elevators. [NPS] With the help of their bicycle-shop mechanic, Charles Taylor, the Wrights built a small, twelve-horsepower gasoline engine for the 1903 aircraft. [Smithsonian NASM]
The Smithsonian’s 40 ft 4 in wingspan and the Park Service’s “40-foot, 605-pound Flyer” are the same aeroplane, described at two levels of precision.
After the fourth flight
After the last flight, the Park Service says, the machine was caught by a gust of wind, rolled over, and damaged beyond easy repair. [NPS] As the brothers and the others present discussed the long flight, a gust of wind overturned the Wright Flyer and sent it tumbling across the sand; the aircraft was severely damaged and never flown again, says the Smithsonian. [Smithsonian NASM] The telegram reached Dayton, Ohio, at 5:25 p.m., and the brothers returned home with their broken machine on the evening of 23 December. [Library of Congress]
A gust ended the flying season. The brothers walked to Kitty Hawk, sent a telegram, and took the broken machine home.
Swipe to see the whole table.
| Topic | Published figure | How to read it |
|---|---|---|
| First flight, 17 December (NASM; NPS wayside; Library of Congress) | Orville; 12 seconds; 36 m / 120 ft; 10:35 a.m. | The Smithsonian, the Park Service wayside and the Library of Congress all give this first hop. |
| Second flight (NPS wayside) | 12 seconds; 175 feet | A wayside figure. The Smithsonian, more loosely, puts the second and third flights “in the range of two hundred feet.” |
| Third flight (NPS wayside) | 15 seconds; 200 feet | Again a wayside figure, sitting beside the Smithsonian’s “range of two hundred feet.” The desk does not average them. |
| Fourth flight (NASM; NPS; Library of Congress telegram note) | Wilbur; 59 seconds; 255.6 m / 852 ft | The published time is 59 seconds. The telegram home said fifty-seven, which the Library of Congress flags as a transmission error. |
| Wind and speeds, first flight (NPS) | 27-mph wind; 6.8 mph over the ground; 34 mph through the air | A Park Service reading of that first 120-foot hop, not a modern instrument log. |
| The machine (NASM) | Wingspan 12.3 m (40 ft 4 in); empty 274 kg (605 lb); 12-horsepower four-cylinder engine | The Park Service also says a 40-foot, 605-pound Flyer. Forty feet is the rounded span; the museum figure is 40 ft 4 in. |
| Launch rail (NPS wayside) | A 60-foot monorail, with the skids on a wheeled truck | Soft sand ruled out ordinary wheels at takeoff. |
Checked on 15 November 2026. The desk does not average the Smithsonian and the Park Service, or correct the telegram as if the error had not been noticed.