The first powered flight that ever took place occurred in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. 22) The two men in charge of this project were named Wilbur and Orville Wright; they were brothers. They have been credited with some of the most important scientific discoveries in the field of aviation to date. .
The Wright brothers changed the way people thought about powered flight and how it could take place. They realized that the airplane moved in three dimensions, unlike an automobile, and they realized that they needed to be in control of pitch, roll, and yaw. For pitch, or the angle of the airplane's longitudinal axis relative to the horizon, a device called an elevator was used. For roll, or the change of the angle of the plane's wings relative to the horizon, warping of the trailing edge of wings was used. The coordination of the rudder with the wing warping was used to control yaw, which is the angle of the plane's longitudinal axis relative to its direction of motion. (Boyne, p. 8) .
Before a powered airplane was constructed, the brothers did their testing on gliders. These gliders were of the biplane design. The main difference between the gliders that the Wright brothers constructed and other gliders of the time period was the control system. Instead of shifting the pilot's center of gravity to control the glider, the brothers planned to balance their gliders aerodynamically. They thought that if the lift created by each wing was different, the entire glider would bank. By connecting this system of control to a mechanism operated by the pilot, the brothers allowed for effective lateral control of the glider. The control of climb and descent was handled by forward-mounted horizontal stabilizers. (Richards, p. 7) .
After a few of the first Wright gliders were tested, the brothers decided they needed to find a way to add more lift to their gliders. They then built a wind tunnel, which was very effective for them because it measured the coefficients of lift and drag on small model wing shapes.