The first powered flight
The news of the first-ever powered, heavier-than-air flight quickly entered the newspapers. The flight took place on the 17th of December 1903, but the timezone difference would have prevented it from making the following days’ newspapers. The story finally appeared on the 19th.
I was expecting media interest after a year or two, so I was surprised to find it so soon after the flight. The public awareness of the event’s significance is minimal; the story is a few lines buried within the newspaper.
One fascinating fact is that the total length of the flight was 36 m (120 ft), about half the size of a modern airliner. Another piece of mindblowing information is that it only took 66 years from the first flight before Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. Neil Armstrong was around 18 years old when Orville Wright died, so in theory, they could have met. There were undoubtedly people who had met both.
