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The Wright brothers set out to solve the “flying problem” for the world. They not only gave the world the “technology of flight” (as they called it) that we use today but also did what men and women had only dreamed of doing for centuries—they flew! ✈️ What made it possible?👇 
Turns out working against gravity isn’t easy! 🙇♀️ Governments were losing billions of dollars and the leaders of the aviation industry were failing. 😭 The world leader in glider flight, Otto Lilienthal, died when his glider plunged to the ground.
In 1900, the Wright brothers began the first manned-glider flight tests at Kitty Hawk based on calculations made by Lilienthal. 😁 But the wings failed to produce as much lift as Lilienthal’s tables suggested. Disappointed, the brothers made their way home! 😞
In 1901, they returned with larger wings, again shaped according to Lilienthal. This time, the results were even worse! 💔 Disheartened, Wilbur Wright on his way back home said, “Not within a thousand years would man ever fly!”
The failure had brought them to the point of quitting! 😔The gliders produced ⅓ the lift the brothers’ calculations predicted. Everything seemed to work on paper, nothing in practice. 💔 And their dream looked more elusive than ever...
The brothers had devised everything based on their first-hand learnings from years of experimentation. Where were they going wrong?🤔 They questioned the only thing they used from others’ work—Lilienthal’s data. 💡
The Smeaton coefficient (the coefficient of air pressure) in the traditional formula for the lift and data tables was exaggerated, causing an overestimate of the lift by 40%. 😖 The wrong formula had been in practice for 100 years! 😲
Yes, you heard me right, 100 years! 🙄 So when the data didn’t make sense, they created their own wind tunnel and ran over 50 simulations. They determined the correct value to be 0.0033, and not 0.005. 😎
Armed with better numbers, the Wrights redesigned the glider based on their own calculations and data. 🤓 Their next glider, shaped by the new data, performed brilliantly at Kitty Hawk in 1902. 🚀
18 months later, on 17 December1903 man’s first “powered, controlled and sustained flight” came to life. 🙌 That first flight lasted just 12 seconds and covered 120 feet, but later that day, Wilbur flew for 59 seconds over a distance of 852 feet. 👬
For the first time, a manned, heavier-than-air machine left the ground by its own power, moved forward under control without losing speed, and landed back safely. The world was never the same! 💙
In the new world, it was now possible to fly! 😍 The Wright brothers had achieved what so many before them believed to be impossible and paved the way for the aviation industry we know today. ✈️
The brothers, who did not even finish high school, had made history. Was it because they were committed? 🤔 So were the many before them! Their success was a result of their self-reliance–they did not accept what others said but constantly questioned beliefs. 💪
They questioned what the whole world believed to be impossible and then made it happen! They are a timeless example of what #HumansOfData can achieve. 🏆 The celebration doesn’t stop—I’ll be back with more tomorrow. Stay tuned! 👋
