On the morning of December 17, 1903, on a beach in North Carolina, Wilbur Wright, 36, and his brother Orville, 32, changed the course of history. The two brothers, bicycle makers from Dayton, Ohio, flew a plane of their own design and making, and brought the world the freedom of the skies.
Brought up in a warm family full of love and protection, Wilbur and Orville were fascinated by mechanics1 as children. Their earliest interest in flight could be aroused by a toy helicopter2 from their father. The path from toy helicopter to human flight might be marked by an accident at high school that changed the course of the brothers' lives.
Wilbur was 18 when he had a bad sports accident in 1885. He lost most of his teeth, and he had bad injuries to his face; he got heart and stomach trouble, too. For ten years Wilbur stayed at home, filling his days with reading and caring for his sick mother.
Meanwhile his brother Orville had left school. He learned printing, and the brothers produced a small newspaper together. They began to call themselves “The Wright Brothers”. Then, in 1892, they opened a bike shop. They sold and made bicycles, using tools designed and made by themselves.
One day Wilbur read a magazine article called The Flying Man. It was about a German, Otto Lilienthal, who had managed to make a glider3 that really worked. Then, in 1896, Lilienthal was killed in a glider flight. At that time, there were hundreds of scientists ready to explain why flight was impossible for Man. Nearly two hundred "flying machines" had been invented before the Lilienthal glider. All were failures. None ever left the ground. But Wilbur began to wonder about flight.
He spent many hours watching birds in flight. In 1899, he was ready to start work. He collected all the information he could find, studying everything that had been written about flying. Wilbur and Orville quickly developed their own theories. For the next four years, they devoted themselves to the goal of flight while running the bike shop.
Failures repeated many times in their experiments, until the brothers discovered just how much curve4 the wings should have. This was what had killed Lilienthal.
On the evening of September 6, 1900, Wilbur got on a train, with their glider to Kitty Hawk. It was a lonely little place, all wind and sand, on the coast of North Carolina. He had chosen this place to test the glider because of the wind-speed there.
Before he was ready to fly, Wilbur tested every piece of wood that went into his machine. Most inventors in those days got other people to put their ideas into practice. But Wilbur was not going to trust his safety to anyone except himself.
Having found someone to look after the shop, Orville joined in his brother. At last the glider was ready to fly. The unusual thing about it was that it did not have a tail. But they flew only a total of two minutes for all their efforts.
The brothers went back home. They had Charles Taylor manage the shop for them so that they could give their attention to flying.
In the summer of 1901, they set off for Kitty Hawk again with a new glider. It had wider wings and was nearly twice as heavy as the old one. But the results were disappointing. Flight after flight, there was still something wrong with the wings. At last the brothers decided they had had enough. “When we left Kitty Hawk at the end of 1901,” wrote Wilbur, “we did not think we would ever continue with our experiments... When we looked at the time and money we had spent, and considered the progress we had made and the distance still to go, we considered our experiments a failure.”
On the train going home, Wilbur said to Orville, “Man will not fly in our life-time—not in a thousand years.”
But they were both deep in thought. Orville realized they didn't have to risk their lives with untried wings. They worked with models, testing Lilienthal's figures. They made and tested more than 200 wing shapes and sizes. The following year, the brothers were at Kitty Hawk once more with yet another glider. It was the biggest, with wings 32 feet across and weighing 112 pounds. For the first time, it had a tail. The brothers made many short practice flights and observed the way their glider behaved. Then they decided to use a motor for power.
The motors they saw were all too heavy, so they had to make their own. Wilbur set to work with Orville to design a propeller5 for their machine. For weeks they argued about it, at home, in the shop—everywhere. In the back room of their shop, they worked from late fall of 1902 through summer 1903. Thanks to6 the help of Charles Taylor, they built their own motor, and at last their plane—Flyer—was born.
Carefully they tested every part of the new machine, then the whole Flyer. They were back at Kitty Hawk again, but the flight was delayed by some problems in the left propeller. Then rain, snow and high north winds kept the brothers on the ground until December 17.
Then who was going to fly it? The decision was made by throwing a coin, and Orville won. The machine traveled 120 feet in 12 seconds, against a high wind. Then Wilbur stayed up 13 seconds. At last, at noon, after many shorter flights, Wilbur traveled 853 feet in 59 seconds. This was Man's first powered flight. Man's centuries old dream of flying has been made true. But there was no audience7, only the sand and the whistling wind.
The brothers tried to let the press know about the flights, but the world refused to believe it. Orville later said, “Flight was generally looked upon8 as an impossibility, and hardly anyone believed it until he actually saw it with his own eyes.”
In 1904 and 1905, they developed the Flyer to the full, without telling anyone how it worked. The new Flyer had a better engine and stronger wings. A Dayton farmer's field became the brother's secret testing ground. They made better and better flights. Orville flew 12 miles in 21 minutes, then 20 miles in 33 minutes. They had never shown the Flyer in public, fearing that their ideas would be stolen.
Wilbur went to the American government with the idea of selling them the machine. But it was a long time before anyone understood just how important the invention was. Meanwhile the brothers were trying to sell their machine to Britain too. “We do not wish to take this invention abroad,” wrote Wilbur, “unless we find it necessary to do so.” Again the British Army could not see the possibilities any more than the Americans could. Then Wilbur tried France.
At last, in 1908, the brothers decided to make two machines and show the Flyer in France and America at the same time, Wilbur in France and Orville in America. On August 8, dressed in a grey suit and a green cap, Wilbur climbed onto the Flyer. The machine showed perfect control, flying up and down like a bird. The Wright brothers became famous in France overnight. In Washington, Orville broke his brother's records, staying in air for more than 70 minutes. Then tragedy struck. Orville crashed and was badly hurt, with a passenger on board killed.
In spite of the accident, the U.S. Army bought one of the first Wright planes. In June 1909 the brothers' greatest day came. At the White House, the President gave them each a gold medal.
Wilbur did his last public flight in New York around Manhattan Island, watched by thousands of people. The two brothers formed the Wright Company to build their planes. In 1912, Wilbur, 45, died of a fever. Orville kept out of the public eye until his death in 1948. It was not until after he died that we could read about the Wright brothers' dream that came true.
1903年12月17日这一天，在北卡罗莱纳州的一处海滩上空，36岁的维尔伯·莱特和32岁的弟弟奥维尔改变了历史的进程。这对来自俄亥俄州戴顿市的自行车制造商兄弟驾乘着自己设计和制造的飞机飞上了蓝天，给世界带来了翱翔天空的自由。
在充满关爱的家庭中长大的维尔伯和奥维尔从小就对机械着迷。兄弟俩最初对飞行的兴趣可能来自父亲买的一架玩具直升机，而发生在高中的一次意外或许就是从玩具直升飞机到载人飞行之路的转折点。这次意外改变了这对兄弟的人生。
1885年，18岁的维尔伯在运动时意外受了重伤，牙齿几乎一颗不剩，脸部也受了重伤，心脏和胃也留下创伤，此后的十年维尔伯就呆在家里，靠读书和照顾体弱多病的母亲打发日子。
当时弟弟奥维尔也离开了学校。他学了印刷，兄弟俩合办了一份小报，开始以“莱特兄弟”自称。1892年，他们开了一家自行车行，用自己设计和制造的工具制作、出售单车。
一天，维尔伯在杂志上读了一篇名为《飞人》的文章。文章说一个名叫奥托·里兰萨尔的德国人做出了能上天的滑翔机，然而，1896年，里兰萨尔在一次滑翔飞行中丧生。当时，许多科学家都认为飞行对人类而言是不可能的事情。在里兰萨尔之前，人类发明的近两百种“飞行器”都宣告失败，没有一架离开过地面。但是维尔伯却开始了对飞行的憧憬。
他开始长时间地观察鸟类的飞行。1899年，他着手工作了。他收集了能找到的所有资料，研究一切有关飞行的文献。很快，维尔伯和奥维尔就提出了自己的理论。接下来的四年，他们一边经营车行一边钻研自己的理想—— 飞行。
试验失败了无数次，最终他们找到了机翼理想的弯曲度，而机翼曲度不合理正是里兰萨尔丧生的原因。
1900年9月6日晚，维尔伯带着他们的滑翔机搭上了开往基蒂霍克的列车。那是北卡罗莱纳海岸边的一个荒野小镇，到处都是风沙。选择这个地方测试滑翔机是因为看中了那里的风速。
试飞之前，维尔伯测试了滑翔机的每一块木板。那时多数发明家都是让别人把自己的设想付诸实施，但维尔伯却不想把自己的安全寄托在别人身上。
奥维尔找到别人帮忙照看店铺，随后加入到哥哥的行列。滑翔机终于可以试飞了，它的特别之处在于没有机尾。可是，他们尽了全力，也只滑了两分钟。
兄弟俩回家后，把店铺交给查尔斯·泰勒打理，好让自己全身心地投入到飞行上。
1901年的夏天，他们带着新的滑翔机再次来到基蒂霍克。这次的滑翔机有更宽的机翼，而且比以前的几乎重一倍，然而结果却令人沮丧。飞了又飞，但机翼始终有毛病。兄弟俩终于受够了。维尔伯写道：“1901年底离开基蒂霍克时，我们就想再也不会继续试验了。看看我们耗费的时间和金钱，想到我们取得的进展和还要走的路，我们认为试验失败了。”
在回家的火车上，维尔伯对奥维尔说：“在我们的有生之年人类别想飞了，再过一千年也飞不起来。”
但他们俩却在深思。奥维尔意识到他们没必要冒着生命危险使用未经试验的机翼。他们做了200多种不同形状、不同大小的机翼模型来测试里兰萨尔的那些数据。第二年他们又带着新做的滑翔机再次来到基蒂霍克。这部滑翔机比以前的都大，翼展32英尺、重达112磅。兄弟俩第一次为他们的滑翔机装备了机尾。他们做了多次短距离的试飞，观察滑翔机的飞行情况。之后他们决定用马达提供动力。
他们见过的马达都过于沉重，因而只好自己动手制作。维尔伯和奥维尔首先着手为他们的飞机设计一个推进器。一连好几个星期，不管是在家里还是店里，两人处处争论不休。在店铺的里间，他们从1902年深秋一直忙到1903年的夏天。多亏了查尔斯·泰勒的指点，他们造出了自己的马达，终于他们的飞机 —— “飞鸟 ”诞生了。
对新机器从每一个部件到整体进行了仔仔细细的测试之后，他们又回到了基蒂霍克，但是试飞却因为左侧推进器的故障而推迟，紧接着又是雨雪和强劲的北风，把兄弟俩一直困到12月17日。
谁来驾驶呢？扔硬币决定吧，结果奥维尔赢了。飞机在12秒的时间里顶着强风飞了120英尺，接下来维尔伯又在空中飞了13秒。后来又飞了几次，中午时分维尔伯飞了59秒，飞行了853英尺。这是人类首次借助动力飞行，人类多少世纪以来飞行的宿愿终于成为现实。只是当时没有观众，只有呼啸的风沙。
兄弟俩尝试着通过媒体报道这次试飞，但是世人却不信。奥维尔后来说：“人们普遍认为飞行是不可能的，除非亲眼目睹，否则很难有人相信。”
1904和1905年，他们全面改进了“飞鸟”，但一直没有公开它的奥秘。新的“飞鸟”引擎更好，机翼更坚固。戴顿的一片农田成了兄弟俩的秘密试飞基地。他们的飞行越来越棒，奥维尔有一次用21分钟飞了12英里、另一次用33分钟飞了20英里。他们从未公开展示“飞鸟”，怕自己的创意被人窃取。
维尔伯想把飞机卖给美国政府，但是要让人知道这项发明的重大意义还需要漫长的时间。同时兄弟俩还试图把飞机卖给英国。“我们不希望把这项发明卖到国外，”维尔伯写道：“除非我们觉得有这个必要。”而英国军方也同美国人一样否定了人类飞行的可行性。于是维尔伯又到法国试试运气。
最后在1908年，兄弟俩决定制造两架飞机，在法国和美国同时展示“飞鸟” —— 维尔伯在法国，奥维尔则在美国。8月8日，维尔伯身着灰色西服头戴绿色礼帽登上了“飞鸟”。飞机显示了良好的操作性能，像鸟儿一样上下飞翔自如，这使得莱特兄弟在法国一夜成名。在华盛顿，奥维尔则打破了他兄弟的记录，滞空时间超过了70分钟。可是悲剧发生了，奥维尔失事受了重伤，机上乘客死亡。
尽管出了事故，美国军方还是购买了第一批莱特飞机。1909年6月，兄弟俩最激动的日子到来了，总统在白宫为他们每人颁发了一枚金质奖章。
维尔伯的最后一次公开飞行是在纽约环绕曼哈顿的表演，成千上万的观众观看了这次飞行。兄弟俩成立了莱特公司制造飞机。1912年，45岁的维尔伯因发烧病逝。奥维尔也从公众视野里消失，直到1948年去世。他死之后，这对兄弟梦想成真的故事才公之于世。
1. mechanics n． 机械
2． helicopter n． 直升飞机
3． glider n． 滑翔机
4． curve n． 曲线
5． propeller n． 螺旋桨，推进器
6． thanks to 由于
7． audience n． 观众
8． look upon 看作