SAN DIEGO — Throughout most of human history, the quest of soaring in skies above has been something that many have dedicated their lives to. In fact, Leonardo da Vinci is quoted as saying “Once you have tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward.”
While many throughout history have tried, it wasn’t until December 17, 1903 that the Wright Brothers, Wilber and Orville, took to the skies in the very first machine-powered aircraft in Kitty Hawk, just off the coast of North Carolina.
“The first flight only took place for 12 seconds and went for 120 feet," said Jim Kidrick, the President of the San Diego Air & Space Museum.
As a former pilot and historian of flight, Kidrick is enamored with the brothers as they laid the groundwork for the future of aviation.
“If you could go back in time and watch something like that, the sheer excitement, the beginning of aviation!” said Kidrick.
And though we can’t go back in time, Robert McClure of Air and Space Museum did the next best thing. He built a replica of the same engine that Wilber and Orville used for their first flight in 1903, which they run every year on December 17.
“It doesn’t have spark plugs, doesn’t have a carburetor [and] doesn’t have any oil sales,” said McClure. “But miraculously, ever year it runs.”
Though it’s made out of recycled material from a junkyard and iron from a Coronado manhole cover, the engine and the flyer that it was attached to represent one of the single greatest inventions in human history: The ability to touch off of the ground and fly with the birds.
“That sound, what they heard that morning was the beginning of something so special," said Kidrick. “The whole world has benefited from what they did that day.”