[ti:Wilbur and Orville Wright: The First Airplane]
[al:Health & Lifestyle]
[ar:VOA]
[dt:2025-03-18]
[by:www.voase.cn]
[00:00.00]Wilbur and Orville Wright are the American inventors who made a small engine-powered flying machine. 
[00:09.89]They proved that flight without the aid of gas-filled balloons was possible.
[00:17.72]Wilbur Wright was born in 1867 near Melville, Indiana. 
[00:25.22]His brother Orville was born four years later in Dayton, Ohio.
[00:32.06]As they grew up, the Wright brothers experimented with mechanical things. 
[00:38.81]Later, the Wright brothers began to design their own flying machine.
[00:45.42]They used ideas they had developed from earlier experiments with a toy helicopter, kites, the printing machine and bicycles.
[00:57.95]Soon, they needed a place to test their ideas about flight. 
[01:03.76]The best place with the best wind conditions seemed to be a piece of sandy land in North Carolina along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean.
[01:17.58]It was called Kill Devil Hill, near the town of Kitty Hawk.
[01:23.18]The Wright brothers did many tests with gliders at Kitty Hawk.
[01:29.42]With these tests, they learned how to solve many problems.
[01:34.79]By the autumn of 1903, Wilbur and Orville had designed and built an airplane powered by a gasoline engine.
[01:46.50]The plane had wings 12 meters across.
[01:51.25]It weighed about 340 kilograms, including the pilot.
[01:57.38]On December 17th, 1903, they made the world's first flight in a machine that was heavier than air and powered by an engine.
[02:10.51]Orville flew the plane 36 meters.
[02:14.79]He was in the air for 12 seconds. 
[02:18.67]The two brothers made three more flights that day.
[02:23.27]Four other men watched the Wright brothers' first flights. 
[02:28.13]One of the men took pictures. 
[02:31.24]Few newspapers, however, noted the event.
[02:36.11]It was almost five years before the Wright brothers became famous. 
[02:42.23]In 1908, Wilbur went to France. He gave demonstration flights at heights of 90 meters.
[02:53.01]A French company agreed to begin making the Wright brothers' flying machine.
[02:59.45]Orville made successful flights in the United States at the time Wilbur was in France.
[03:07.39]The United States War Department agreed to buy a Wright brothers' plane.
[03:13.97]Wilbur and Orville suddenly became world heroes.
[03:18.85]But the brothers were not seeking fame.
[03:22.28]They returned to Dayton where they continued to improve their airplanes.
[03:28.93]They taught many others how to fly.
[03:32.34]Wilbur Wright died of typhoid fever in 1912. 
[03:37.58]Orville Wright continued designing and inventing until he died many years later, in 1948.
[03:47.92]Today, the Wright brothers' first airplane is in the Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
[03:56.66]Visitors to the museum can look at the Wright brothers' small plane. 
[04:03.52]Then they can walk to another area and see space vehicles and a rock collected from the moon.
[04:12.79]The world has changed a lot since Wilbur and Orville Wright began the modern age of flight over one hundred years ago.
[04:23.75]I'm John Russell.