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Flight History
Two states are staking their claim in the flight history books, with both Ohio and North Carolina claiming to be the state with the first flight. However, there is no fight about Orville and Wilbur Wright being the first with powered flight. From their bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio the brothers worked on their airplane using pedals hooked to a propeller to power their invention. Unfortunately, they had trouble achieving the speed needed to attain enough lift so they packed up their tools and their toys and traveled to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The are had the space they needed, hilly terrain and a steady wind into which to try to launch their plane into flight, assuming major roles in flight history.
The flight history of space flight is slightly more involved, but another Ohioan, John Glenn became the first man to orbit the Earth. He was later elected to Senate and after retirement from his elected position, he again went into space during the space shuttle era, adding to his place in flight history.
The history of flight timeline obviously begins prior to the Wright brothers attempts as they studied others’ attempts’ from France and England before building their biplane. America’s entry into the manned space program didn’t begin until the late 1950’s after other countries, specifically Russia, which it was known as at the time, ventured into space ahead of the rest of the world. The United States quickly played catch-up an in 1969 was the first to land a man on the moon.
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