Did you know the first powered flight in 1903 lasted 12 seconds?

The first flight of the Wright brothers’ 1903 Flyer lasted just 12 seconds and covered 36 metres. According to the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, which holds the original aircraft, it took off at 10:35 on 17 December 1903 from the beach at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, with Orville Wright at the controls.

The brothers made four flights that day, alternating as pilot. The second and third were in the range of 200 feet, and the fourth and longest, flown by Wilbur, covered 255.6 metres in 59 seconds. Wilbur’s earlier attempt on 14 December had failed and slightly damaged the aircraft. After the fourth flight a gust of wind overturned the Flyer, which was severely damaged and never flew again.

The machine itself was modest by modern standards: a wingspan of 12.3 metres, an empty weight of 274 kg, a wooden airframe covered in muslin and a single 12-horsepower Wright engine driving two pusher propellers through a chain transmission. Its later journey is also unusual. In 1928 it was lent to the Science Museum in London, spent the Second World War stored underground near Corsham, in England, and returned to the United States in 1948, when it was donated to the Smithsonian on 17 December, the 45th anniversary of the flights.

The Flyer is displayed in the museum’s “Wright Brothers & The Invention of the Aerial Age” exhibition in Washington, DC; visitors should check opening arrangements with the museum before going.