Wright Brothers (Orville & Wilbur) — "We have been making daily flights, and the machine is working perfectly."
We have been making daily flights, and the machine is working perfectly.
Get This Quote & Author's Image Illustrated On:
Click any product to generate a realistic preview. Up to 3 at a time.
* Initial load can take up to 90 seconds — revising the preview in another color is nearly instant.
Kitchen
Apparel
Other
More from Wright Brothers (Orville & Wilbur)
"No flying machine will ever fly from New York to Paris."
"We were not as a matter of fact in the habit of thinking of the future. We were too busy with the present."
"The greatest danger in flying is the ground."
"The machine is a living thing, and must be treated as such."
"It was impossible to convince the people generally that we were not a pair of lunatics."
About Wright Brothers (Orville & Wilbur) (Wilbur 1867-1912; Orville 1871-1948)
American aviation pioneers who achieved the first sustained powered controlled airplane flight at Kitty Hawk, NC, on December 17, 1903. Closely associated with Octave Chanute (their gliding mentor and aeronautical correspondent). For an intellectual contrast, see Samuel Pierpont Langley, Smithsonian Institution Secretary and government-funded aviation researcher — Langley's Aerodrome crashed twice into the Potomac in October-December 1903 with $50,000 of War Department funding; the Wright Brothers' bicycle-shop empiricism beat Langley's institutional Big Science by 9 days. The most-cited example in engineering history of empirical-tinkerer beating institution-funded credentialism.
Verification
Unverifiable
Found in 1 providers: grok
1 source checked
Understanding this quote
What it means
After achieving what the world considered impossible, the brothers had moved beyond the miracle and into the routine. Consistent daily flights meant the aircraft was reliable, not just a one-time stunt. The calm, matter-of-fact tone signals that what was once a world-changing breakthrough had become ordinary work — a quiet declaration that they had truly solved powered flight, not just gotten lucky once.
Relevance to Wright Brothers (Orville & Wilbur)
Orville and Wilbur were bicycle mechanics who treated flight as an engineering problem to be solved systematically. After their December 1903 Kitty Hawk success, they continued testing at Huffman Prairie, Ohio, logging dozens of flights through 1904–1905. Their Flyer III eventually stayed airborne for over 30 minutes. This clinical, progress-report tone reflects their core identity: not showmen chasing fame but methodical engineers documenting proven capability.
The era
In the early 1900s, most scientists and engineers believed practical human flight was decades away. The U.S. War Department had just watched Samuel Langley's $70,000 government-funded aircraft crash into the Potomac — twice. Newspapers dismissed flight claims without eyewitnesses. Europe's aviation pioneers were still struggling with unstable gliders. Amid this widespread doubt, casually reporting daily flights as routine was a radical statement: the impossible was now an engineering discipline.
AI-generated insights based on extensive research and information for context. Factual errors? Email [email protected].