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100-Year Anniversary of Wright Brothers' Flight
Aired December 17, 2003 - 15:11 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Orville and Wilbur Wrights' attitude was, if at first you don't succeed, try again. Fortunately, for the advance of human aviation, they kept at it. And 100 years later, efforts to reenact their historic experiment were just as frustrating.
Let's go back to Miles O'Brien at the festivities to North Carolina.
Hey, Miles.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, they're at least persistent, though, Kyra. They're still trying. We still have the possibility that there will be another attempt. Although looking at the weather conditions, I don't know that the situation is any better, really.
The wind has shifted around. And we were hoping it would pick up some steam. Right now, it doesn't look so good. But nevertheless, we're still holding out hope for yet another attempt to fly that exact replica of the 1903 Wright flier.
In the meantime, we're joined by somebody who knows as much about this place, about as much as anybody knows about the accomplishments of the Wright brothers, Darrell Collins, who is the Wright Park historian with the National Park Service.
Darrell, good to have you with us.
DARRELL COLLINS, WRIGHT PARK HISTORIAN: Good afternoon.
O'BRIEN: Now, you grew up here. Your family is here. You have, as matter of fact, ancestors who were actually a part of this whole operation, helping out the Wright encampment. This is in your blood, isn't it, in a way?
COLLINS: Oh, yes. I was raised on the outer banks of North Carolina. My family's been here almost 141 years.
O'BRIEN: Fair amount of pride, I think, associated in the fact that it all began here, I assume?
COLLINS: Yes. This is the birthplace of aviation. This is where it all started. You never know where the fire was discovered, or where the wheel was invented, but we will forever know where the flight was first discovered.
O'BRIEN: And when people come to you, and they ask you questions about the Wright brothers, what are the typical questions? And how do you answer them?
COLLINS: Well, probably the one, the most asked questions, people come to the front gate and they head straight for the monument. They see that nice pretty monument on that hill, and they figure that is the site where the Wright brothers flew the powered aircraft. But if they had done that, they would never have been given credit as a true powered flight. It would be more of a powered glide.
O'BRIEN: That's up on a fairly high hill over our shoulders that way.
COLLINS: Yes. Launching from a higher point to a lower point. It wouldn't work.
O'BRIEN: There you go. So they had a level spot, which is down this way, right?
COLLINS: Yes. The whole purpose of the experiment was to prove that this machine could take off from a dead standstill, on level ground, by the power of the engine, thrust of the props. Just like airplanes do today.
O'BRIEN: It's -- one of the things that I've read over time, one of the smartest things the Wrights did, was choose this very spot. The combination of the dunes, to practice gliding in the sand. You have forgiving landings, and then the wind, right?
COLLINS: Oh, yes. And it basically was the wind. They brought the wide-open spaces, all this was open beach at the time of the Wright brothers. When Orville first saw it, he said this is how he always imagined the Sahara Desert looked.
O'BRIEN: And when they arrived, it must have been quite an oddity for the people in this -- at that time, extremely isolated part of the world.
COLLINS: Oh, yes. The people -- but you've got to remember, there wasn't too much going on in the outer banks 100 years ago.
O'BRIEN: Right.
COLLINS: So it was a pretty exciting time when the city boys come in town, walking up and down the beach dressed in suits and ties. Locals here only dressed in suits and ties when they went to church, got married or got buried.
O'BRIEN: And they stayed in that attire throughout their work, which was amazing to me. They always had that look.
COLLINS: Oh, yes. It was amazing. They wanted to make a good first impression, you know? Back in those days, you start talking about going flying in airplanes, people thought you were kind of...
O'BRIEN: So you had to look good, right?
COLLINS: You had to look good. O'BRIEN: Tell us what we've witnessed so far today. It wasn't that successful. Is that a big disappointment to people here, do you think, or is that sort of what a lot of people expected?
COLLINS: Well, I think what's really significant about it is, at 10:35 a.m., for people to be on this site at the exact moment in time, 100 years ago when the Wright brothers first flew their airplane, no matter if the airplane took off or not, that is the emotional part of the story.
O'BRIEN: Well, and can you recall an event like this, that has brought as many people -- 30,000-plus were expected -- I'm not sure where we got those numbers -- but a big crowd. That entire hill in the morning was filled with people.
COLLINS: Yes. I've worked here for almost 25 years, and this is the biggest crowd I've ever seen on our park at one time.
O'BRIEN: Why don't you share with the folks one fact about the Wright brothers and their experience here that most people don't know.
COLLINS: Well, most people don't know that the Wright brothers, they didn't just jump head first and try to solve the problem. Basically the key to their success was their ability to do homework and research. And that's what we try to get to the school kids that come to the site.
They identified problems, were able to go straight to the heart of the problem. They identified -- control was the key. It took them four years to solve that one problem. Three axis, roll pitching (ph), (UNINTELLIGIBLE), which has been used in every manmade flying machine, including rockets, missiles, satellites, space shuttles on takeoff and final. This is truly the immortal legacy of the Wright brothers' 100 years.
O'BRIEN: No matter what the plane looks like, these days it goes like this, it goes like that, and it goes like that. That's basically it. And they were the ones that figured that out.
COLLINS: That is the fundamental principals.
O'BRIEN: All right. Darrell Collins, thanks very much for a little history lesson. Always a pleasure to get it from somebody who has such roots in the area.
COLLINS: Thank you very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired December 17, 2003 - 15:11 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Orville and Wilbur Wrights' attitude was, if at first you don't succeed, try again. Fortunately, for the advance of human aviation, they kept at it. And 100 years later, efforts to reenact their historic experiment were just as frustrating.
Let's go back to Miles O'Brien at the festivities to North Carolina.
Hey, Miles.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, they're at least persistent, though, Kyra. They're still trying. We still have the possibility that there will be another attempt. Although looking at the weather conditions, I don't know that the situation is any better, really.
The wind has shifted around. And we were hoping it would pick up some steam. Right now, it doesn't look so good. But nevertheless, we're still holding out hope for yet another attempt to fly that exact replica of the 1903 Wright flier.
In the meantime, we're joined by somebody who knows as much about this place, about as much as anybody knows about the accomplishments of the Wright brothers, Darrell Collins, who is the Wright Park historian with the National Park Service.
Darrell, good to have you with us.
DARRELL COLLINS, WRIGHT PARK HISTORIAN: Good afternoon.
O'BRIEN: Now, you grew up here. Your family is here. You have, as matter of fact, ancestors who were actually a part of this whole operation, helping out the Wright encampment. This is in your blood, isn't it, in a way?
COLLINS: Oh, yes. I was raised on the outer banks of North Carolina. My family's been here almost 141 years.
O'BRIEN: Fair amount of pride, I think, associated in the fact that it all began here, I assume?
COLLINS: Yes. This is the birthplace of aviation. This is where it all started. You never know where the fire was discovered, or where the wheel was invented, but we will forever know where the flight was first discovered.
O'BRIEN: And when people come to you, and they ask you questions about the Wright brothers, what are the typical questions? And how do you answer them?
COLLINS: Well, probably the one, the most asked questions, people come to the front gate and they head straight for the monument. They see that nice pretty monument on that hill, and they figure that is the site where the Wright brothers flew the powered aircraft. But if they had done that, they would never have been given credit as a true powered flight. It would be more of a powered glide.
O'BRIEN: That's up on a fairly high hill over our shoulders that way.
COLLINS: Yes. Launching from a higher point to a lower point. It wouldn't work.
O'BRIEN: There you go. So they had a level spot, which is down this way, right?
COLLINS: Yes. The whole purpose of the experiment was to prove that this machine could take off from a dead standstill, on level ground, by the power of the engine, thrust of the props. Just like airplanes do today.
O'BRIEN: It's -- one of the things that I've read over time, one of the smartest things the Wrights did, was choose this very spot. The combination of the dunes, to practice gliding in the sand. You have forgiving landings, and then the wind, right?
COLLINS: Oh, yes. And it basically was the wind. They brought the wide-open spaces, all this was open beach at the time of the Wright brothers. When Orville first saw it, he said this is how he always imagined the Sahara Desert looked.
O'BRIEN: And when they arrived, it must have been quite an oddity for the people in this -- at that time, extremely isolated part of the world.
COLLINS: Oh, yes. The people -- but you've got to remember, there wasn't too much going on in the outer banks 100 years ago.
O'BRIEN: Right.
COLLINS: So it was a pretty exciting time when the city boys come in town, walking up and down the beach dressed in suits and ties. Locals here only dressed in suits and ties when they went to church, got married or got buried.
O'BRIEN: And they stayed in that attire throughout their work, which was amazing to me. They always had that look.
COLLINS: Oh, yes. It was amazing. They wanted to make a good first impression, you know? Back in those days, you start talking about going flying in airplanes, people thought you were kind of...
O'BRIEN: So you had to look good, right?
COLLINS: You had to look good. O'BRIEN: Tell us what we've witnessed so far today. It wasn't that successful. Is that a big disappointment to people here, do you think, or is that sort of what a lot of people expected?
COLLINS: Well, I think what's really significant about it is, at 10:35 a.m., for people to be on this site at the exact moment in time, 100 years ago when the Wright brothers first flew their airplane, no matter if the airplane took off or not, that is the emotional part of the story.
O'BRIEN: Well, and can you recall an event like this, that has brought as many people -- 30,000-plus were expected -- I'm not sure where we got those numbers -- but a big crowd. That entire hill in the morning was filled with people.
COLLINS: Yes. I've worked here for almost 25 years, and this is the biggest crowd I've ever seen on our park at one time.
O'BRIEN: Why don't you share with the folks one fact about the Wright brothers and their experience here that most people don't know.
COLLINS: Well, most people don't know that the Wright brothers, they didn't just jump head first and try to solve the problem. Basically the key to their success was their ability to do homework and research. And that's what we try to get to the school kids that come to the site.
They identified problems, were able to go straight to the heart of the problem. They identified -- control was the key. It took them four years to solve that one problem. Three axis, roll pitching (ph), (UNINTELLIGIBLE), which has been used in every manmade flying machine, including rockets, missiles, satellites, space shuttles on takeoff and final. This is truly the immortal legacy of the Wright brothers' 100 years.
O'BRIEN: No matter what the plane looks like, these days it goes like this, it goes like that, and it goes like that. That's basically it. And they were the ones that figured that out.
COLLINS: That is the fundamental principals.
O'BRIEN: All right. Darrell Collins, thanks very much for a little history lesson. Always a pleasure to get it from somebody who has such roots in the area.
COLLINS: Thank you very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
