But at the turn of the last century, flight was the ultimate goal and team after team built cumbersome flying machines with very short histories. The first flight, piloted by Orville Wright, lasted just 12 seconds. Wilbur manned the second flight, which lasted as long as the first, but traveled farther. The fourth flight of the day, also piloted by Wilbur, lasted 59 seconds and covered 852 feet. The Wright brothers finally had done it.
Great things happen in Dayton, Ohio.
Well, OK, it happened in North Carolina. But that's not the point. Between 1871 and 1914, the Wright brothers lived in Dayton, moving from Indiana where their father was a minister in the Church of the United Brethren in Christ. Wilbur and Orville, born in 1867 and 1871, respectively, were always mechanically gifted, starting their own printing firm in 1888 after building a press using pieces of a buggy and a damaged tombstone. Sounds like MacGyver circa 1900.