Test. Test. Test. Captioning performed by vitac this footage was curious to me because its not just standing there and what are they doing . And im going to show it to you twice because i figured out what was actually happening in it. This is during the test. Hes flying around for an hour. A long time to wait. Look at this. Everybodys back is to the camera and what they do is they do this. Theyre watching orville fly around. Whats cool is because the shots that we have from the ground of the airplane going around, its just a little bit of the ark c the circle all put together. Now everybody is watching him. And right in the center here, thats his brother. Hes watching him very intently. Did something good there. Theres charlie and all of the various official army and navy observer. He broke his arm. Theres a still of wilbur timing and waiting for orville to come down. It was time enough for the camera man to change his position. He wrote to his father that after this flight, he wanted them to bring back the airplane from a last year because it flew a lot smoother. He said next time i see mr. Wright, im going to tell him. One of the first recorded airsickness cases. And this shot, what cool about this film is this the only footage of orville and Wilbur Wright together. We have letters and diaries and great documentation of their lives. The only moment of interaction between them that was caught in the footages is here. So very similar sort of thing. This time its a different passenger a lieutenant. He had worked with orville in 1908. He was a scrappy who liked to get his hands dirty and they orville and wilbur both liked him a lot. And they were going to fly 5 miles to Shooters Hill where the George Washington memorial is now. And he mapped it out. He was interested in the flying machine. There was another factor for why they picked him to go on this speed flight. This is the reason they redesigned the airplane. Benjamin was barely over 5 feet tall. He was taller. He was lighter. They were going to they were squeezing as much speed as they could out of this airplane. So its kind of hard to see, but the propellers are spinning there. This is the moment of interaction between orville and wilbur. Its kind of neat. Theyre talking, and wilbur does something with his hand but the film cuts right there. And i found a photograph that was taken at that moment. To me, it looks like hes giving the thumbs up to his brother. Its neat to see them having a moment of interaction together at this very crucial point. And you see orville hanging out at the airplane. He looks completely relaxed. And this is a moment where we can actually see the two cameras and theyre actually right next to one another. So where i could marry the two films up, theyre at slightly different angles, i did. You see wilbur back there having a little trouble getting the airplane to start. Benjamin is fidgets with his two stopwatches, and orville mentioned to benjamin if they have any trouble on the way back, hes going to look for the softest clump of trees he could find. And sliding into the airplane a little bit more awkwardly this time. This is the only moment of interaction between one of the Wright Brothers and the camera. And its orville telling the cameraman to get out of the way. Move. And the cameraman doesnt. We get this shot, its very quick. Look at this takeoff and remember the first one i showed you, where hes flying sideways. Look at this. Right into that banking turn. And he spun around the field a couple times, he got altitude, and then he turned around and headed out to alexandria. And when kathryn said that she and wilbur, their hearts kind of sank because he was gone. There was a telephone system that had been set up so when they got to Shooters Hill to say, yeah, they got here. It failed. The signal went out. They didnt have any bars. But orville as he was coming back climbed the airplane and when when the field was in sight, he dove because theyre trying to just see how fast they can get it any faster. What you see here, its very blurry, i know, thats wilbur holding the flag. Thats the finish line. And you can see, he comes in really low. And i slowed it down there a little bit. This is at the rate that it is in the footage. Hes moving a little faster. He goes by the launching tower and right there you see those two women in white, one of them is kathryn wright. As far as i know, thats the only footage of her. And orville came around, went by the tower again, and came in and landed. And then there was a shot and so what happened . They did it. Ten miles successfully. 42 1 2 miles per hour. They got 5,000 extra dollars. The sale price of the airplane was 30,000. They had to furnish the airplane and teach the officers how to fly. There was a lieutenant and benjamin. And benjamin, they didnt train. And theres ill explain that in a minute. Then there was a shot i didnt know what to do with it. Its a panning shot of the crowd and i notice theyre all walking away from the camera. This might be at the end. But i felt like, thats what i would have seen if i was in the audience, if i was paul and watched this as a little kid. Its time to go home. Thats the footage from 1909. [ applause ] thank you. Im going to show you some things that helped me sort out where these things actually happened compared to how it is today. This is a scale map of fort meyer that was drawn in 1908. Thats the rope line. Thats the flying field. Heres the cemetery and the road. This is where the little train went by and there was a station there, car station, and thats where they had the balloon shed. So that was really helpful. I highlighted those things because having a scale on it meant thats the little building meant i could marry it up to google earth and it matched up exactly. Now i know where the balloon shed is. Thats important, i know if theyre down here and what you can see in the background of the launching tower, figure out where the cameras were placed and where the you know, where everything happened compared to how it is now. The other thing was to take now that i know where the field was and where the launching tower was and heres the center of the George Washington memorial, he had to fly ten miles, i swear i didnt noodle this to get it to be exactly 5 miles. So they benjamin did a very good job mapping this thing out. The other thing that this allowed me to do was to look at it knowing where the balloon shed was and knowing where the gate was, what this allowed me to do was figure out where the crash happened in 1908 because there was a very detailed investigation, report written after the crash. One of the things he did was he measured from the balloon shed to the crash and from the gate to the crash and thank you, google earth, i can do that. Each measurement put me exactly on the same parking space. Right there and right there. And i will name drop here. When david was writing his book about the Wright Brothers. One of his friends got in touch with me. I got this phone call, he said im im a friend of a very famous historian. I was working on the Wright Brothers and we understand that you know exactly where Orville Wright crashed and he would like to go there. And i said, okay, sure, i would be happy to do it. But didnt tell me who it was. I hung up the phone and walked upstairs to my wife. And i said, i got the weirdest phone call. Wouldnt it be funny if it was david. Turned out it was david. It was great. He i showed him the film but he wanted to go be in that spot and just and just take it in. This is where it all happened. I thought that was really neat. Kind of gave me a measure of how you do what he does. So what happened to the airplane after this . Success, right . They sold the airplane to the army. Its the First Military airplane in the world. Well, they had to furnish pilots to go with it. Of course there werent any. And they selected the a field actually lam found it and suggested a park out in college park, maryland. Thats where the airplane went. This is wilbur, changed over the controls to wilbur controls. And he did the training of these pilots. And it was lieutenant lam. Benjamin had made remarks that his superiors thought unkind about ballooning and so on and so instead of sending it to college park to get trained, they sent him to france for a conference. And wilbur went to college park as well and instructed them and benjamin got there too late. And he only got a few hours in the airplane with wilbur. Humphries was the first to solo. How many of you have been to the College Park Aviation Museum . Wonderful place. Its really neat that that site is still active diminished, but still active. The army in its wisdom, they have their airplane, two trained pilots. Sent the airplane to houston and sent with it benjamin. The guy who had not finished his training. He had not soloed. And thats what they decided to do. Lam went off to a cavalry thing and humphreys to an engineering thing. Lam made it back to flying. But this is the airplane in texas with its crew. And he made a bunch of changes to the airplane and really rebuilt it several times. He crashed it several times. I will play for you now his voice talking about that time. In december, the entire United States air force consisted of one officer, myself, one civilian mechanic, one airplane. The government at that time wasnt very keen about turning money lose for flying. I had the great appropriation of 150 allotted to me to take care of the airplane for the entire year in 1910. I used to sit down and try to figure out what happened. And then i would write to the right brothers and tell them what i thought had happened. They would proceed to write back and tell me what i ought to have done. In other words, they expected im about the only man who learned to fly by correspo correspondence. Thats the closest thing that exists to a Wright Brothers flight manual because they never wrote one otherwise. And this is the wilbur wrote the letters and gave him instructions on how to land, how to take off. And everything very well thought through. The airplane was bought in 1909. Benjamin had it in 1910 and in 1911 it came to the smithsonian. In two years, it was a museum piece, literally. And it went back to the Wright Company first and they reassembled the airplane to be as close as it could be to how it was at fort meyer. But what great about this airplane in its current state, it has never been restored since. It is the most intact of the six original wright aircraft that exist. The fabric that is on there is the fabric that was on there in 1911. I was fortunate for many, many years to work with the wright experience team in virginia. They took me under their wing. I was the web guy. But i had this fascination about the Wright Brothers and i got myself folded into what they were doing with research. I discovered i really had an affinity for it and theyre so good at it. Looking at primary sources, reverse engineering these airplanes, recreating the engines, everything because the Wright Brothers didnt leave drawings. That part of their record is very sketchy. And so they have been filling it in and to see these airplanes come back to life, to see them being built and being recreated using the exact same materials and everything, it was, you know, an extraordinary privilege to be working with them. And one of the great opportunities we had, when they were doing the airplane, the smithsonian allowed them to build a scaffold under the airplane and go up to it because thats the engine that was sitting next to selfridge. The engines they built after that, they were changed. And they wanted to know what was inside. How its the forerunner of their production engines. This moment, this was the first time the engine had been opened since 1911 and we didnt know if there was going to be sawdust in there or what. But it was pristine. And so i made a photographic record of the airplane and they made a complete set of measurements. [ Engine Running ] greg, who recreated the engine from scratch, said that standing there they did this same thing that the Wright Brothers did. The only Thing Holding the airplane back was that trigger and wire. And greg standing there in front of this thing. This was just running up the engine. Nobody bump that trigger. Nobody touch it. So this is the airplane. They recreated it. Wilbur took the top plane off and put his controlling on it. I went up on the scaffold and having studied this footage for so long, thats where orville sat in that seat, to be that close to it, was really an amazing experience. And one of the fun things about the mannequin in the airplane is benjamin faloyd. He always takes out this pipe. The pipe is important. If you go over and look at the airplane, i think that gallery is still open, if you look very carefully, somebody i dont know who it was or when it was, hes got a pipe in his hand. You can see the stem of it sticking out. So thats the story behind what the Wright Brothers did. What happened to orville and how they came back and this milestone. And the precedent that they set with it in so many ways, the way the airplane was designed, the way it was solicited, the way they presented it, the way they documented it. All has and there really is a Straight Line from that to where we are right now. And with that, thank you very much. [ applause ] and i would be happy to take any questions. I see one there in the back. Yes, sir. The image that you show of google earth of the parking lot being the crash site. Is that the ft. Meyer chapel there . Yes, exactly right, yes. The military flower is not on display anymore. Its not. The 09 is down . Or they closed the gallery . Oh, really, okay. I did not know that. Thank you very much. Okay. Great. Great to know. Thank you. Yes, sir . The director of the smithsonian giving the wasnt the director of the smithsonian giving patents to curtis . No. Langley died in 1906 and it was one of the reasons that the u. S. Government was very skeptical about the Wright Brothers and turned them away was they had invested a lot of money into langleys efforts to turn his successful steampowered models into an airplane that could carry a human being. And that project did not succeed. And its a very interesting contrast because the Wright Brothers were private. They funded it off their bike shop. And they could keep it private. Langleys was public. It was government money and he had somebody to answer to. And if you go out to the tip of hanes point and look out towards alexandria, thats where the second crash happened. Im a huge fan of langley and manly and what they did. I think its i think they had an extraordinary thing going on. If the Wright Brothers hadnt had done it and if langley hadnt been engaged in its one of these stupid games of history, what if, but if langley had more time and more money and a lot of i think they would have eventually made it work. And what happened was, that in the patent lawsuits, the smithsonian was very interested in making sure that langley got the credit for being the first capable, his machine was the first capable. And in a really odd judgment, they decided to send the airplane to glen curtis who was engaged in lawsuits with the Wright Brothers. The smithsonian has a dispute with the Wright Brothers, curtiss long fight with them about control systems and they have curtis do it. And curtis modified the airplane, a lot, put it on floats, and it did get off the ground. So thats the langleycurtis connection. Langley was one of the greatest scientists of the time and a brilliant man and it ruined him. The failure of that project ruined him and he died in 1906. Yes, sir . [ inaudible question ] the Wright Brothers did have some success in europe. Interestingly, they launched a french Wright Company and they had the Short Brothers in england making airplanes under license. And wilburs initial flights were very successful and they sold that airplane. And they did these other companies did go into business and produce airplanes. But there were lawsuits with some of the french aif yauaters. But they were like, we risked our necks for this thing and t patented the control system. But those companies lets set aside the internal problems that they had for a moment. Orville and wilbur incorporated here in the United States and the company was headquartered not in dayton, ohio, where they were from, but new york city. They had a very top shelf board and they had an office there. But their in dayton or traveling in france, they were split up a lot. And orville theyve got factory buildings going up in dayton, a flying school, a team in the United States, a german company, French Company to watch and theyre doing this by telephone and theyre the last word on everything. How is that going to work . Imagine how that worked out. Youre right, i didnt. I saw this gentlemans first and ill ask you. [ inaudible question ] thats a good question, and i dont know. They sold a lot. The airplane they sold the most of was called the wright model b and that came in at the end of 1910 into 1911. That was used for exhibition teams, it was used for a a lot of people bought this airplane as their personal airplane. Really beautiful airplane. And i think they manufactured over 120 of those. How many of those were sold . They were kind of their own best customer because they had a team that was out all over the country crashing airplanes and they replaced them. They had sold more airplanes to the military, to the navy. But their business was not it was successful up to a point. There was no way to keep the genie in the bottle. The Wright Brothers found themselves by 1910 in the middle of the pack and struggling to keep up. And wilbur died in 1912. To make planes for the air corps . To make airplanes for the air corps . The Wright Brothers. This was the very first. The gentleman in the balcony. I enjoyed your presentation. The experts in your field, is there something that you have done the research on that scratches your head, why the heck did they do what they did and what would you ask them that question . If youre trying to figure out what theyre trying to do and you cant figure it out, what question would you ask somebody in my research . Youve done all of this marvelous research, what question would you ask and what question them of . What would i ask wilbur and orville, if i could, where are the drawings . They talk about drawings all the time in their letters. Theyre very specific about sprocket dimensions, but where are they. Orville had a drafting table. They had a factory that was buildings airplanes. They would send pattern machines off to europe for the German Companies and French Companies to work off of. But where are the drawings . And the way they did their wind tunnel tests recorded. Where did they go . How come theres nothing . Theres one drawing of the wright flier that exists and a handful of drawings of the 1909 machine. They did them. But why did that go away . Did they stick it up a chimney somewhere . Did they destroy them . Its a huge missing link and i would be very curious to know when they were photographing everything so carefully and writing everything in their diaries, where are the drawings . Yes, sir. Im confused with their creativity and everything what the heck they were doing between 1905 and 1908 that they werent continuing to experiment and develop and do the engineering side. You said they were doing the business side. I find it hard to believe that their minds werent turning to be creative. Thats a very good question. Youre giving me thank you, the privilege of filling something in and what it is is this. The airplanes that they flew in 1908 are called the 1907 machines. They were working up the design because it took a long time to figure out what the customer wanted. It took a long time for the customer to figure out. The army had to figure out, what are we going to do with this thing. Thats why 40 miles a day on beans and hay. Lets use it for observation. I guess we need another person on it. While those specs were evolving and starting to come into focus, the Wright Brothers were working on that as well. Its not like they stopped completely. And they did think they were going to have the deals in 1907 and they shipped the airplane over in 1907 and it sat there for a year while they got finished the negotiations. It took a long time to do. And theres a great letter that wilbur wrote to orville when he opened up the 1907 machine. He went over there in 08 and he writes the barn burner to orville. If you get a chance to read the letters between them, they can really go at it. They are brothers. And they dont hold back. And wilbur is like he was ive never seen such evidence of stupidity in my life. You know, did you pack this thing with a scoop shovel . Im paraphrasing. What had happened was, the people in customs and france had gone through everything. But wilbur opens it up and the plane was spanishmashed up in p. There were a lot of frustrations and a lot of the perseverance of these guys is something that strikes me. They just keep going. Yes, sir . Did they have any financial backers who allowed them to keep crashing these planes and build new ones and replace them . Not during the experimental phase. That was completely selffunded. Completely selffunded. And then, you know, they didnt sell them an army airplane until 1909. That was all on them. They did get investors and they did grow the company and it did quite well. Wilbur died in 1912 very suddenly of typhoid fever. By the time the patent suits were resolved, orville was out of business. I didnt last long. Yes, sir. How long was it before someone started using the the right brothers stopped using the catapult to launch their airplanes, they put wheels on it. The 09 machine was launched without a catapult in college park. What did ed son do with the film . I do not know. He had quite a monopoly on theaters at the time. It was a very smart move for them to get edison to do it. That would be something worth finding out. Yes, sir . I understand glen curtis invented how did that conflict with the Wright Brothers control patents . Got another hour and a half . Not to be flip, but its that was the huge debate that played out in the courts for years is the argument on the curtis side to simplify it. The Wright Brothers patented a mechanical control system. And the Wright Brothers won every time. Help me out, somebody, did he invent the alaron, i dont think so. I know William Christmas claimed that he did it. He claimed a lot of things. So ultimately it won out. The thing about the wright wing warping system is, again, i got this from the guys at the wright experience, that method of turning the airplane for that design was actually very effective and if you see a right wing warped all the way, especially with the model b and they twist this things, it looks like a pringle. But they could dive the airplane, roll it into a 90degree bank. They could be very maneuverable in the right hands. I know that doesnt fully answer your question. But it is a long and complicated story. But curtis certainly was, you know, he got those on his aircraft and they were effective. The curtis system of control, you often see, its got a wheel. That was just pitch. You had a harness around you and your leaned left and right to roll the airplane. It wasnt this. You leaned left and right. Anybody else . Yes, sir. I understand that the smithsonian did not recognize the Wright Brothers as the first to fly until much later. Is that true . That is true. What transpired to allow the smith sewn smithsonian to say, yes, you were the first. They displayed the langley machine and the label said this was the first machine capable of flight. And orville said as long as that word capable is there, you dont get my plane. It wasnt until its a very long story, but it wasnt until the smithsonian eventually recognized the Wright Brothers and theres a there are a lot of people who claim to be first and theres a thats another story. Theres a book being written about that. But the Wright Family sold orville died and they didnt think he had changed his will but he had. And the smithsonian got it for a dollar. Thank you all so much for coming out. Thank you. [ applause ] all week were featuring American History tv programs as a preview of whats available every weekend on cspan3. Lectures in history, american artifacts, reel america, the civil war, oral histories, the presidency and special event coverage about our nations history. Enjoy American History tv now and every weekend on cspan3. This week American History tv is on cspan3 every day with prime time features. Tonight the year 1969 with woodstock, free speech, and the gay rights movement. New years day, wednesday, the 30th anniversary of the fall of the berlin wall. Thursday, the forgotten battles of the civil war, and friday, the 75th anniversary of the battle of the bulge where Adolph Hitler launched a surprise encounter with u. S. Forces. American history tv products are now available at the new cspan only story. Go to cspanstore. Org to see whats new for American History tv and check out all of the cspan products. Congress returns for work the first week of january. Heres whats ahead. The house has yet to decide on impeachment managers and send the two articles of impeachment over to the senate. Eventually, the senate would sit as a jury to hear the case against President Trump. We also expect the senate to take up the u. S. Mexicocanada agreement which the house approved before leaving for the holidays. And congress will hear President Trump deliver the state of the Union Address on february 4th. Watch the house live on cspan and the senate live on cspan2. Next military historian Michael Hankins reveals the
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