Beschreibung:

WRIGHT, ORVILLE. Typed letter signed in full to the journalist Carl Dienstbach of New York, Dayton, Ohio, 8 January 1904. 1 1/2 pages, 4to, on pale gray-blue stationery, head of each page imprinted with the large logo of the Wright Cycle Company ("Established in 1902"), both leaves separated along original folds, without loss of text (repairable), pasted to the bottom half of the second page is the original clipping enclosed by Wright: 2 columns, headed "Wright Flyer," with the original postmarked envelope (torn) present. THE BIRTH OF FLIGHT: THREE WEEKS AFTER THEIR TRIUMPH AT KITTY HAWK, ORVILLE DESCRIBES THE FIRST FLIGHT On December l7, l903, at l0:35 a.m., the Wright Brothers' fragile biplane, with Orville at the controls and Wilbur running alongside one wing, lifted into the air against a 27 mile-per-hour wind on a bare stretch of sand at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Although that first flight covered a mere 120 feet, and the aircraft remained aloft for only 12 seconds, it consitituted man's first powered, sustained and controlled flight and was the realization of a centuries-old dream. The third of four flights made that day lasted 59 seconds and covered 852 feet. Most journalists and the general public, though, refused to credit reports of the Wright's success, and the few published reports were extremely garbled (see, in this connection, Orville's l943 letter regarding the first newspaper reports, in lot ). Carl Dientsbach, a journalist for the Illustrierte Aeronautische Mitteilungen , wrote to the Wright brothers the day after reading the first reports of their successful Kitty Hawk flights of December 17, l903. In the meantime, the Wrights returned with the Flyer (damaged in their fourth and final flight that day) to Dayton and were absorbed in the redesign and refitting of their aircraft. "Your letter...has been received, and we [Wilbur and Orville] will try to make clear some of the points on which you wish further explanation. "Our longest flight was limited to 59 seconds only through the inexperience of the operator with the particular machine. The rudder of our power 'Flyer' was much larger and more powerful than any we had been accustomed to on our gliding machines, and was also more sensitive to the slightest movement of the controlling lever. As a result our first flight followed a very irregular course with reference to the ground. The succeeding flights became steadier and longer as we became more accustomed to handling the rudders, and on the fourth flight on Dec. 17th, the machine was pursuing a fairly even course until after passing a small hummock which has caused it to rise higher in the air. In attempting to bring the machine down again, the rudder was turned too far. The machine made a more sudden descent, than the operator had expected: the reverse movement of the rudder was a little too late to prevent it touching the ground. "An indicator attached to the engine showed the speed of the engine to be 1030 rev. per minute while in flight, at which speed, of course, the engine does not develop its maximum power. Nevertheless, there was a surplus of power over that required for horizontal flight, as was demonstrated by the fact that it could rise rapidly from the ground. The enclosed clipping [still present] gives the only accurate and authentic account of the trials of our machine that have as yet been published...." As far as we are aware, this is the only letter of the Wrights in private hands which gives an account of the Kitty Hawk flights at a date close to the event. The letter is apparently unpublished: not in Fred C. Kelly, ed., Miracle at Kitty Hawk: The Letters of Wilbur and Orville Wright (New York, l951), although Kelly only publishes select letters. As he states in his preface, Kelly had access to the Wright letters in the Lester D. Gardner collection.