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Hmm. When I get a chip on my shoulder about gliding being deprived of public recognition, I like to claim that the important day of 1903 was October 21, when Orville recorded a soaring flight of '1 minute, 1/2 sec.' in the '1902 glider' (I've always been amused by the half-second precision). That was not only the longest human soaring flight in history (until 1911, I think!), but it was the longest heavier-than-air flight of 1903 and for a while after (the longest powered flight of Dec. 17 was 57 sec.).
For that matter, all the longest (in time), lengthiest (in distance), highest, and probably even fastest (take your pick, airspeed or groundspeed) heavier-than-air aviation records as of the end of 1903 appear to have been scored by the Wright Brothers... in their glider.
That's not to mention that almost all historians give the Wrights credit for their scientific approach of learning to pilot, to control their craft, by means of kiting and soaring for 3 years, before the very brief engine-driven experiments of the tail end of 1903. And that the Wright's famous patent (on control systems, not achieving powered takeoff) was based on the 1902 glider, with nary a mention of the 1903 Flyer.
Another joke to build on about Dec. 17 is that it is the day that the experienced soaring pilots Wilbur and Orville Wright got around to inventing the towplane, for which the soaring comunity has ever been grateful (hohoho, never mind that it wasn't until 1926 or so that anyone attempted the madness of aerotowing).
As to the Wrights 'giving up' soaring in 1903, Orville at least came back to it in fine style in 1911 with Alec Ogilvie at Kitty Hawk, at a time when lots of young kids (like, say, Hans Gutermuth, Ralph Barnaby, and Hawley Bowlus) were flailing around in clones of the 1896 Chanute and 1902 Wright gliders. Orville blew the record books away with that great sit of 9min. 45 sec. on 10/24/11. I would like to know if Orville ever got in a glider after that, though. Besides signing all the ABC soaring badges into the SSA era, he lived long enough that he could have shared a hop in an SGS 2-8 or a Cinema. The Adrian Soaring Club itself (previously the Toledo Glider Club) was even in existence for a long time not far away from him.
Makes me remember buying the fine book 'Manbirds' by Maralys Wills years ago (mother of pioneer hang-glider pilots Bob and Chris). It made me chuckle that the history chapter went sort of like... Lilienthal and Chanute had the right idea, the Wrights perverted things with power and... flash forward to 1970, never mind 60 years of fabulous achievements in soaring by sailplane pilots sitting enclosed inside wood and cloth contraptions. For that matter, books about ultralighting, when that came around, made it seem like the Wrights, Voisins, Farmans etc. had it right in the 1910s and.. flash forward to 1980 when true flying was rediscovered, never mind the heavier and faster perversions of Curtiss, Boeing etc. Interpretation perspective trumps facts.
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