What happened December 17, 1903?

The 1903 Flyer after its last flightImage credit: Library of Congress




The First FlightImage credit: Library of Congress



The original 1903 Flyer had a very short flying career—five attempts at flight, four of them successful. Following the triumphant flights of December 17, 1903, the Flyer was completely destroyed by a gust of wind. Though the Wright brothers usually destroyed or abandoned their aircraft, they kept the wrecked Flyer, crating it up and carrying it back to Ohio.The Flyer was uncrated thirteen years later, and rebuilt. The broken and missing pieces were replaced and only partially documented. The machine which had existed in 1903 was never again complete. Since the Wrights made no drawings of the Flyer, its exact design has remained a mystery. The Flyer has had a long second career as a curiosity and museum piece. At the center of a fued between the Orville Wright and the Smithsonian Institution, it spent a quarter century exiled in England. It came back to the United Stated in 1948, and has been on display ever since. This October, it will form the centerpiece of an exhibit The Wright Brothers and the Invention of the Aerial Age at the National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C.


For a history of the Flyer and its long career as a symbol of the Wright brothers, visit In Depth: The 1903 Flyer, part I.

tHe ChUnNeL

The Channel Tunnel (French: Le tunnel sous la Manche), also known by the portmanteau Chunnel, is a 50.5 km (31.4 mi) undersea rail tunnel linking Folkestone, Kent in England with Coquelles near Calais in northern France beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover. At its lowest point it is 75 m (250 ft) deep. It has the longest undersea portion of any tunnel in the world, although Japan's Seikan Tunnel is longer overall at 53.85 km (33.5 mi) and reaches a depth of 240 m (790 ft).
The tunnel carries high-speed Eurostar passenger trains, Eurotunnel ro-ro vehicle transport and international rail freight trains. In 1996 the American Society of Civil Engineers identified the tunnel as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.

Endeavour Lands in California !!!

Image above: Space shuttle Endeavour and the STS-126 crew land at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. after completing a mission to the International Space Station.

With commander Chris Ferguson and pilot Eric Boe at the controls, space shuttle Endeavour descended to a smooth landing at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The STS-126 crew members concluded their successful mission to the International Space Station when the shuttle touched down at 4:25 p.m. EST. Endeavour arrived at the station Nov. 16, delivering equipment that will help allow the station to double its crew size to six. In addition, the STS-126 astronauts delivered Expedition 18 Flight Engineer Sandra Magnus, who replaced Greg Chamitoff, now a mission specialist who returned to Earth aboard Endeavour. STS-126 is the 124th shuttle mission and 27th shuttle flight to visit the space station.Due to the late landing time of space shuttle Endeavour, the previously reported STS-126 post-landing news conference at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., has been canceled.