Henry Jacob

CRUNCH! the No. 3 glider, piloted by Orville Wright, settled back to earth after a miraculous flight of 622 1/2 feet. In one exhilarating demonstration over Kill Devil Hill near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the era of aviation was born. Wilbur and Orville Wright's dramatic feat took place in October, 1902, but it was not until World War I that airplanes first began to be put to practical use. In that war, both Allied and Central European strategists saw that aircraft could be exploited for reconnaissance purposes, and the aviators who flew these planes constituted a small elite.