Diary Entry
Orville Wright
December 17, 1903

Today was a fantastic day. Today is the day of which we made the first manned flight in an aircraft. Me and my brother are extremely proud. It was very nerve racking when I was pushed off of the tall sand dune as I took control over the glider. It was not a very long flight but it was still quite fantastic. This first flight lasted 12 seconds and took me 120 feet. The wind was coming at us at about 20 miles per hour. We needed a track/launching system to keep us level as we were taking off. We had given it the nickname of “Junction Railroad”. Today we both made multiple very brief low-altitude flights which were all astonishing. The last flight of the day was flown by my older brother, Wilbur which went 852 feet and lasted a total of 59 seconds. When he had landed the flyer though, it crushed the front elevator supports which we want to quickly repair for a possible 4 mile flight to Kitty Hawk Village. Thankfully Wilbur was unharmed in this accident. We flipped a coin to decide who got to fly the first flight. Wilbur won. As the airplane left the rail Wilbur pulled up too quickly which caused him to stall making flight about a total of 3 seconds long causing minor injuries to himself and the glider. After that very first flight of which Wilbur was forced to about it took us 3 days to repair the plane. We steered the plane by using a cradle that was attached to our hips. This cradle allowed us to bank the airplane left and right.