While going down the rabbit hole of aviation videos on YouTube, I stumbled upon one that was posted more than 10 years ago: It’s actual footage from an original test flight on July 27, 1909, of the Wright Military Flyer.
The Wrights’ initial airplane (Model A) was tested at Fort Myer, Virginia, on Aug. 20, 1908. After a series of successful test flights, the plane crashed on Sept. 17, 1908, severely injuring Orville Wright and killing his passenger, Lt. T. Selfridge.
Despite the disaster, the military was convinced the Wright Brothers had designed a capable airplane and extended their contract for one more year.
The Wrights designed another craft, the Wright Military Flyer. The Military Flyer differed from the Model A in that it had a shorter wingspan, longer propellers, sat higher off the ground, and had a different gear ratio in the power transmission. These changes were made to increase the speed of the aircraft. The motor was identical to the one used the year before, however it produced slightly more horsepower as a result of modification.
The footage is grainy, but well worth the six minutes to see history in action.
How fortunate are we that aviation has been recorded from the earliest days of heavier than air powered flight? Thanks for publishing this historic video.
This is a great video.!!
What amazes me, is with the Flyer in 1903.
Then 44 years later, , 1947, Yeager goes mach 1.
The 22 years after that, Armstrong lands on the moon in 1969.
The Space Shuttle flies in 1981
The Internal Space Station has a crew in 2000.
Artemus circles the Moon in 2026.
…what’s next in this amazing series of great achievements.?
a colony on the Moon
a maned flight to Mars
And, here I am, excited on every flight in my Cessna 1961 175B, !!
You are not alone my friend. I volunteer to go to Mars.
I imagine it must have been really exciting flying an inherently unstable plane like that.