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The Wright Brothers
There are many memorable dates in
the story of man's conquest of the air. One is December 17th, 1903.
On that day, for the first time in the history of mankind, a man
flew for just a few seconds in a machine which was power-driven
and heavier-than-air. The name of that intrepid airman was Orville
Wright.
There were two Wright brothers whose
ancestors had emigrated from England to America in the 17th century.
Wilbur was born in 1867 and Orville four years later.
When they left school, the two brothers
started a small cycle factory. One day they heard that a man called
Langley, who lived in Washington, had made an aeroplane driven by
a small steam-engine. This aeroplane flew without a pilot over the
river Potomac until its engine failed and it came down in the river.
"Let's try to make an aeroplane
that will carry a man," said Wilbur. The two brothers set to
work, designing and building gliders. Their workshop was at Kitty
Hawk in North Carolina. When they had learned how to control their
gliders skillfully, they attacked the problem of supplying power
to drive the machine.
Instead of using a steam engine,
as Langley had done, they decided to use a petrol engine, which
was smaller and lighter and more efficient.
Just before 10.30 on the morning
of December 17th, five spectators stood in the cold wind at Kitty
Hawk and watched Orville climb into his machine. It rose to a height
of eight to ten feet above the ground and stayed in the air for
twelve seconds. The first power-driven flight had succeeded.The
two brothers enthusiastically continued their experiments.
They improved the engine and the
aircraft. On September 8th, 1908, Orville amazed a crowd of a thousand
people by remaining airborne for one hour, two minutes and thirty
seconds. The machine carried a passenger and a pilot and traveled
at forty miles per hour.
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赖特兄弟
在人类征服空间的历史上有许多值得纪念的日子。其中之一是1903年12月17日。这天，一位叫做奥维尔·莱特的无畏飞行员在一架由能量驱动、比空气重的机器里进行了人类史上的首次飞行，虽然历时只几秒钟。
有两个莱特，他们的祖先于17世纪从英格兰移民美国。威尔博生于1867年，奥维尔小他四岁。
中学后，兄弟俩开了家自行车厂。有天，他们听说有一个住在华盛顿、叫做兰利的人制造了一架由蒸汽发动机驱动的飞机。这架飞机在无人驾驶的情况下飞行在波托麦克河上，直至发动机失败，坠落河中。
威尔博说："让我们造一架载人的飞机。"兄弟俩开始工作，设计和建造滑翔机。他们的车间设在北卡罗来纳的基蒂霍克。在他们已经学会如何娴熟地控制滑翔机后，他们解决了能量供应连续驱动的问题。
和兰利不同，他们决定用汽油发动机而非蒸汽发动机，前者更小、更轻，效率更大。
12月17日清晨接近10点30分，五位观众站在基蒂霍克的冷风中看着奥维尔爬上飞机。它攀升到离地面8到10英尺的高度，在空中停留了12秒。首次由能量驱动的飞行成功了。
两兄弟狂热地继续他们的实验。他们改良了发动机和飞机。1908年9月8日，奥维尔驾驶着飞机在空中呆了1小时2分30秒，着实让一千名观众吃了一惊。和他同在飞机上的还有一名乘客，一名飞行员。飞机以每小时40英里的速度飞行。
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