Did you know that Wilbur and Orville Wright were avid photographers? They took photos of everything, which back in 1903 was more difficult than today.
When they awoke the morning of December 17, 1903 … 6 degrees and a 28 knot wind blowing …. Wilbur pronounced it perfect weather for their first attempt at powered flight. They quickly dressed in their suits and went down to the local lifesaving station to ask a few of the guys to help with the powered glider. Once everything was in place, they realized that BOTH of them would be occupied and they could not take a photo of perhaps the most important event of their lives.
John T. Daniels squeezes the bulb taking the famous photo that he didn’t remember taking!
Wilbur asked one of the lifesaving station men, John T. Daniels, if he had ever used a camera. “No”. “Well, it isn’t that hard”, Wilbur told him. “It’s all set up, all you have to do is squeeze this bulb, can you do that”? John T. said yes he could.
Fast forward, Orville Wright flies for 12 seconds 20 feet off the ground at Kill Devil Hill’s, North Carolina. Everyone was so stunned that the plane actually flew that pandemonium broke loose. After things had a chance to calm down, Wilbur asked John T. if he took the photo.
John T. was so excited that the plane flew that he could not remember squeezing the bulb! So he had no idea if he took the photo or not.
Later that day, John T. was also the guy nearest to the plane when a huge gust of wind caught it. In trying to stabilize it, John T. was the first survivor of the first airline crash. The plane was damaged beyond saving and the Wright Bros returned to Dayton, OH.
The famous photo that John T. didn’t realize he took shows Orville piloting the plane and Wilbur running alongside after just releasing the right wing.
Sometime later, they developed the photos in the camera. And as it turned out, John T. Daniels DID remember to squeeze the ball and the resulting photo has become famous … much more so than John T. Daniels. John T never took another photo.
A mere 66 years after the Wright Bros First Flight, Neil Armstrong would carry a piece of the wing of their first powered airplane to the Moon and back. 66 years. David is 67 years old … think about the advances in flight in a mere 66 years ….
The starting point, the rail for the plane and in the distance showing the first flight (and the subsequent 3 more that day)
