Imagine how the brothers' hearts must have been racing, faster even than the propeller spinning on their biplane: Orville manning the controls of the plane while Wilbur, perched on the outer banks, watching breathlessly as the plane slowly inched upward off the ground, eventually rising about 10 feet and cruising for about 120 feet before it slid back into the sandy dunes of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
Orville and Wilbur Wright's 1903 inaugural flight lasted only about 12 seconds, but their invention marked the birth of the aviation industry, transformed how people travel even relatively short distances and eventually eased the way to space exploration and the creation of NASA.