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"The exhilaration of flying is too keen the pleasure too great, for it to be neglected as a sport"
-Wilbur Wright
What Goes Up must
go down
In September of this year Lieutenant E. Selfridge died in the first plane crash in history at Fort Myer, Virginia. Was the plane too worn out? The cause is unknown, in order to understand this, let’s go back way in the past.
Orville and Wilbur Wright became fascinated in a little toy helicopter given to them for their birthday when they were little children. But what they did not know, they would create the first flight of a powered airplane. In 1899 they traveled to the windy sands of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina to test their 17 ft. wing spanned glider.
When everything was straightened out the brothers unveiled their fourth design. They returned to Kitty Hawk in 1903 to test out the plane.
Once it was decided Orville Wright was able to fly the plane 120 ft. above the ground for 12 seconds, the brothers created the first airplane.
In the present on September 10, 1908 the Wright brothers took volunteers in Fort Myer, Virginia, for a flight in their airplane. 26 year old Lieutenant E. Selfridge volunteered to be a passenger. With a light tapping sound and two large thumps the plane began to crash. As it headed straight for the ground there was nothing left to do. Selfridge was killed in the accident and Orville survived with many injuries. Selfridge will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery. When the plane went up, it went down… unexpectedly.