Science Friday > Archives > 2003 > August > August 1, 2003:
Hour One: 100th Anniversary of Kitty Hawk, Part 1

A hundred years ago, a winged contraption made of wood and stretched fabric soared 120 feet across the sand dunes of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. It was the first powered, controlled flying machine to carry a person into the air. Its builders, Wilbur and Orville Wright, went down in history as the inventors of the airplane. But as one of the brothers remarked some years later, they, like Newton once said, "stood on the shoulders of giants."

In this hour of Science Friday--part one of our series on the 100th anniversary of the flight at Kitty Hawk--we'll talk about who came before the Wright brothers, who influenced them, and where their successful design came from.

Call in with your questions and comments at 1-800-989-8255 (2-3 Eastern), and share your opinions online in our Listeners' Lounge (registration required).

Listen to this program in RealAudio!

Guests:

Paul Hoffman
Former Editor-in-Chief, Discover Magazine
Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Author, "Wings of Madness: Albert Santos-Dumont and the Invention of
Flight," (Hyperion Books, 2003)
Woodstock, New York

Jack Carpenter
Author, "Pendulum II: The Story of America's Three Aviation Pioneers: Wilbur Wright, Orville Wright, and Glenn Curtiss ,"
(ABC Books/ Jack Carpenter)
San Juan Capistrano, California

Mike Lavelle
Museum of Flight Consultant
Aviation Maintenance Manager
F/A-22 Maintenance Operation System
The Boeing Company
Seattle, Washington