Phil Jordan traces American aviation history through postage stamps, from the Wright brothers to Lindbergh. The Wright brothers' key invention wasn't the engine but three-axis control, a rudder system still used on modern aircraft and the Space Shuttle. Their first flight on December 17, 1903 was clear and windy, not stormy as commonly believed.
You can trace the history of this country very easily through postage stamps, and it's certainly true in aviation. There have been numerous Wright Brothers stamps, there have been numerous Lindbergh stamps. All of the, the, the high-water marks of American aviation have been included in stamps. From my standpoint, I consider powered flight to be the most significant technological technological advancement of the 20th century. The invention of 3-axis control by the Wright brothers is the same control that's used on the space shuttle today, and every single aircraft that has existed since then has flown with this. It was absolutely the, the most fundamental decision they ever made in the process was to add that third axis control, which was a rudder to prevent the aircraft from sliding in the air. First powered flight is a giant step. The Wright brothers succeeded where other people because they knew what it took to make this happen. And it wasn't the motor that took it to happen, it was the control of the aircraft. It's interesting to know that there are no patents for the 1903 Wright Flyer. All the patents were on the 1902 Glider. So they took the 1902 Glider and with some few changes, they knew they were going to fly. But in getting into this thing, people absolutely wrong about the weather at Kitty Hawk. Nowhere in the Wright journals do they mention cloud cover, rain, or anything of that nature. They only talk about the wind, which was absolutely essential to the process. And so we tried to run down the weather report if it existed, and it did. It was absolutely clear on the 17th.
