After repairs, the brothers were ready again on Dec. 17. This time, it was Orville's turn. At 10:35 in the morning, he accelerated the Flyer along the rail, with his brother running alongside steadying the wings. This time, the bird took off, and man's first flight lasted 12 seconds and covered 120 feet. Taking turns, Wilbur and Orville made three more flights that day, ending with Wilbur's record-setting 59 seconds aloft, covering 852 feet.

It all sounds quite easy, but everything they did that day and in all the days leading up to the historic flight was arduous and chancy. After their last flight, a gust of wind caught the parked machine, tipped it over and smashed it beyond repair. The brothers returned to Dayton.

Throughout the next two years, they refined their airplane, and by 1905 they could fly in circles for nearly 40 minutes. When they offered their contraption to the United States Army, they were snubbed. Washington doubted their claims. For the next three years, they gave up flying, as government aviators in Washington and Paris tried to duplicate their achievement. All failed badly (by 1906, none had remained above ground for more than a few seconds), and doubts about the Wright brothers' claims spread.

Not until 1908 did they sign agreements with our government and the French to assist those governments' faltering flying programs. Then, joining with the Army and the French, the Wrights proved their superiority. Soon Wilbur, in a more advanced plane, could remain aloft for 2 hours, reaching an altitude of 360 feet. No one in the Army or in France had matched them. Now they had proved their genius.

Here in Kitty Hawk, their genius has been proved again. On Nov. 20, modern Americans tried to fly a replica of the Wright brothers' plane in preparation for the centennial on Dec. 17. It flew 119 feet, one foot short of the brothers' first flight, and crashed badly. No one was hurt, but the plane is a mess. Now with great drama, a crew of 21st century technicians is trying to get the plane back together for the take-off at 10:35, 100 years after the first flight. They hope they can repair their modern-day airplane so it can be flown on the day of the great celebration.

Maybe they can, but they have another problem. What if our modern engineers and aviators fail to fly it as far as Orville flew his? Yeager broke the sound barrier. Armstrong walked on the moon. But here at Kitty Hawk, it is too early to say that we moderns can match those bicycle entrepreneurs from Dayton, Ohio.