The first successful flight by the Wright brothers

On 17 December, in 1903 an essential achievement occurred for the future of the humanity: the first successful flight of the Wright Flyer, by the Wright brothers.

The Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, were two Americans inventors, and aviation pioneers who were credited with inventing and building the world’s first successful airplane and making the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight, on today’s date in 1903. Although not the first to build and fly experimental aircraft, the Wright brothers were the first to invent aircraft controls that made fixed-wing powered flight possible.

In camp at Kill Devil Hills in North Carolina, they suffered weeks of delays caused by broken propeller shafts during engine tests. After many flight test and repairs, the Wrights finally took to the air on December 17, 1903, making two flights each from level ground into a freezing headwind gusting to 27 miles per hour (43 km/h). The first flight, by Orville, of 120 feet (37 m) in 12 seconds, at a speed of only 6.8 miles per hour (10.9 km/h) over the ground, was recorded in a famous photograph that we show underneath.

Orville Wright’s wrote for the final flight of the day:

“Wilbur started the fourth and last flight at just about 12 o’clock. The first few hundred feet were up and down, as before, but by the time three hundred ft had been covered, the machine was under much better control. The course for the next four or five hundred feet had but little undulation. However, when out about eight hundred feet the machine began pitching again, and, in one of its darts downward, struck the ground. The distance over the ground was measured to be 852 feet; the time of the flight was 59 seconds. The frame supporting the front rudder was badly broken, but the main part of the machine was not injured at all. We estimated that the machine could be put in condition for flight again in about a day or two.”

Today we fly in a few hours in the other side of the globe. Just because of Wright brothers…

Some paper ideas from the same date from the past!

KO for eCharta

Plane crashed, mail survived!

Many airplane accidents and crashes occurred in history. But what happened with the mail, the covers and the postcards that was on those planes?

Let us tell a story of one of these…

The following cover departed from BOMBAY FOREIGN 1936.1^st, India with a final destination to Sussex, England. The cover made a transit stop in ALEXANDRIA. Then changing plane departed for a second transit destination to Brindisi, Italy with the hydroplane SCIPIO.

The flight initiated but the flying boat had engine troubles and had to make a forced landing in Mirabella Bay in Crete, Greece. Attempting this landing a sudden cross wind swung the plane around, it crashed and sank in a few minutes. Two passengers were killed in the crash and one was seriously injured. The 38 postal bags were recovered and dried.

All covers canceled with the 2 line cancellation “DAMAGED BY SEA WATER”.  The stamps are missing on nearly all covers. Very few are known today. One of them is the following… This cover is currently for sale on eCharta!

An exciting paper survival history in 1936!

KO for eCharta