Aviation has always been interesting to me. My dad had his pilot’s license for years, but my first plane ride was quite different. Dad was the first photographer for the Daily Journal, and as such he took aerial photographs of local farms.
The photos were printed in Sunday editions, and if the owner or tenant could recognize his place, he received an actual print of the farm. As such, my dad would only fly with the late Delbert Koerner as his pilot when he took the photographs.
One day, at the tender age of 7, my dad asked if I would like to ride along on one of the flights. I quickly said “yes” and met Mr. Koerner for the first time. What I didn’t know when we approached the airplane was that the right door had been removed so dad could get great shots. I sat across from him in the back seat with this new thing called a seat belt. I remember thinking, “If this belt thing lets go and we are sideways getting a great shot, would he be able to catch me on my way by out the door?”
Needless to say, there was no need.
But that was my introduction to aviation. When Mr. Koerner passed away in 1995 at the age of 93, my dad was long gone. I thought out of respect, I should go to the wake. As I approached the coffin, there next to it was a bronze plaque. It was a copy of his first pilot’s license, dated 1930, and signed by none other than Wilbur Wright, Secretary of Air. Probably a post that was probably a forerunner of the FAA.
Some years later I was in Kitty Hawk and toured the premises where the first flight in an airplane was made. I learned a lot about the brothers, but recently I read even more and came up with some very previously unknown facts to me. One of the more interesting was that the Wright boys’ mother was Susan Catherine Wright nee Koerner! Is there some connection. I could not find any. But intriguing.
As I read of more, I learned that their father was a preacher, and their mother came from a family of carriage makers. She had incredible mechanical skills for a woman in those days and worked often with the young boys. The home had two libraries, one of theology, while the other had various items including science.
In 1878, their father, Milton, brought the boys home a present. A wooden helicopter with rotors. What? This is 40 years before they made a plane! It appears that a French aeronautical inventor Alphonse Penard had created the model using a rubber band to provide the rotation. The boys played with it constantly until it fell apart from use. But the boys were hooked. In fact, Orville told one of his teachers that his brother and he would build one big enough to carry them both.
Most people know of their early adventures in Dayton, Ohio, where they started a newspaper and later created more modern bicycles with the very first coaster brakes for bicycles. At the same time, they were using the second floor for conducting tests on various wings, which led to creation of Flyer I. This was to be an airplane that was heavier than air, but used an engine to propel it.
In 1903, their first draft was built, but it could only carry one person who had to lie flat on the machine to decrease drag. When none of the automobile engines would fit and weighed too much, their cousin created an engine for them that could reduce the overall weight.
Time to try. Why they chose going all the way to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, is not really known by me. The brothers flipped a coin to see who got to go first. Wilbur won, but as the plane sped along the grass runway, he pulled the flaps up too fast and it stalled and crashed. Back to the shop.
On Dec. 14, 1903, Orville had his turn flying over 120 feet at 6.8 miles per hour. From then on, the brothers rotated, and Wilbur soon got to fly 59 seconds, going almost 900 feet. There was damage again, and the brothers moved on to Flyer II.
By 1905, they were up to Flyer III where it flew for 39 minutes and could circle. While their mother had died in 1889, Milton continued to encourage the boys and even went for a ride as it now could take two persons.
All inventions have some sad sides, and in 1908, Orville took a passenger for a flight, but there was a crash on landing. The passenger was killed, becoming the first airplane casualty. Orville was injured but survived. The brothers continued to fly and encouraged others to do the same and create even better aircraft.
The two men have been honored in many ways. There is a museum in Washington, D.C., with that first airplane along with memorabilia from their careers.
Another most interesting piece of information I learned was that on man’s first trip to the surface of the moon, Neil Armstrong had a piece of the silk wing fabric in one pocket, and a piece of wood from the propeller from Flyer I. The museum had authorized their removal as man was about to make the next venture into the unknown.
By the way, on landing with Mr. Koerner, my dad suggested lunch at my favorite place, Steak and Shake. As the food arrived, I still had not settled my tummy and for the first and last time, I couldn’t eat that fabulous chili. My flying health got much better and during my Air Force career, I flew on many rough missions without incident, but never as risky as those Wright boys in 1905.
https://daily-journal.com/opinion/marek-things-we-didn-t-know-about-the-wright-brothers/article_50c473c2-cd41-11ef-bd64-3b8735338db8.html