F-16 Fighting Falcon News

December 17, 2003 (by Stefaan Vanhastel) - Exactly one hundred year ago, on December 17, 1903, the Wright Brothers made the first successful flight with a heavier-than-air flying machine at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The first flight, with Orville Wright at the controls, covered 120 feet in 12 seconds, from wich an average speed of nearly Mach 0.01 (at sea level) can be deduced.
Their airplane, known as the Wright Flyer, but sometimes referred to as the Kitty Hawk Flyer, was the product of a sophisticated four-year research and development program conducted by Wilbur and Orville Wright in which they pioneered many of the basic techniques of modern aeronautical engineering, such as the use of a wind tunnel and flight testing as design tools.

The Wright brothers were not only responisble for the breakthrough first flight of an airplane, but also for establishing the foundation of aeronautical engineering.