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| | First Chapter (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22) |
 | | Wilbur Wright’s missive was among scores of letters raining down on Langley from those newly aspiring to fly, a fraternity that included the misguided, the unbalanced and the opportunistic, all drawn to the prospect by word of Langley’s unprecedented $50,000 grant from the U.S. Army Board of Ordnance. |
 | | Wilbur began to contemplate how buzzards, in the face of wind gusts, could keep their equilibrium by, as Wright called it, “a torsion of the tips of the wings.” This led him to build a biplane kite whose wings could be warped at the tips. |
 | | Wilbur’s seminal letter to the Smithsonian was written in the first person singular, and as late as September 3, 1900, Wilbur wrote his father, Bishop Wright, to let him know he planned to fly his glider at Kitty Hawk. |
| stephengoddard.com /first_chapter2.htm (4771 words) |
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