To celebrate the first anniversary of Tattoos In Flight, I thought it would be fitting to post the first successful powered aircraft, the 1903 Flyer built and first flown by Orville and Wilbur Wright from the dunes at Kitty Hawk, NC on December 17, 1903. The brothers from Dayton, OH owned a bicycle shop, The Wright Cycle Company, by trade, but were consummate inventors and began experimenting with aeronautics at the turn of the century.
The brothers built and conducted glider experiments at Kitty Hawk from 1900 through 1902 and tested various designs and means of control… including turning control via the concept of wing warping. These elements were incorporated into the 1903 Flyer along with the ingenious and light four-cylinder inline, gravity-fed engine engineered and constructed by their shop mechanic Charlie Taylor in only six-weeks.
Wilbur Wright was the first to attempt flying the aircraft on December 14th 1903, resulting in a three-second attempt where the aircraft stalled after takeoff and was slightly damaged as it hit the ground.
After the machine was repaired, Orville made the next attempt. Against a freezing headwind gusting to 27 mph, Orville set down the takeoff rail and made the first controllable flight of a heavier-than-air craft… a 12 second flight covering 120 feet. Two more flights that day by Wilbur and Orville respectively, covered 175 and 200 feet. The fourth flight of the day by Wilbur covered the longest distance… 852 feet over 59 seconds. Unfortunately the aircraft was significantly damaged by a gust of wind as it was being taken back from the fourth flight and the aircraft never flew again.
The aircraft was shipped back to Dayton and was eventually restored years later by Orville before it toured to various locations in the U.S. and eventually was placed on display at a British museum – and eventually was displayed at the Smithsonian Institution as of 1948 after a long-standing conflict over the Wright claim as first in flight and a similar claim of Samuel Langley, Secretary of the Smithsonian from 1896 to 1906, who unsuccessfully attempted flight in October and December of 1903 using his own craft, the Aerodrome. For more information on this odd controversy, follow this link.
In honor of this historic aircraft and historic flight, this beautiful black and gray inner arm tattoo was created by tattoo artist Hoffa at Ascension Tattoo in Orlando, FL. Ironically Hoffa is also from Dayton, OH himself.
Please click on the image above or the link below for a larger image.
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Certainly the aviation industry isn’t immune to the occasional curse word… hell, I have heard quite a few conversations between pilots and mechanics myself where every other word is a “colorful adjective.” That said, this colorful caricature of a female aviator (also known as an Aviatrix) buzzing about and dropping the “F-Bomb” certainly is a funny commentary on the skygods of swearing!
