IT WAS A POWERED FLIGHT (4 flights actually). IT started from level without a catapult. Members of the UNITED STATES LIFE SAVING SERVICE were witnesses. (the life saving service was the start of the coast guard, SEMPER PARATUS) They also helped in moving the plane.
The only witness that said something helpful about the alleged powered flights performed on Dec. 17, 1903 was John T. Daniels who in a letter addressed to a friend, 30 years after the events, wrote:
"
Manteo NC, June 30 —- 1933,
Dear friend,
I Don’t know very much to write about the flight. I was there, and it was on Dec the 17, — 1903 about 10 o’clock. They carried the machine up on the Hill and Put her on the track, and started the engine … and he went about 100 feet or more, and then Mr. Wilbur taken the machine up on the Hill and Put her on the track and he went off across the Beach about a half a mile …
Sincerely,
John T. Daniels, Manteo NC, Box 1W"
Source:
Eyewitness Account of First Flight by John Daniels
John Daniels talks about two, not four flights, and clearly specifies the plane was carried up on a hill before each flight.
Engine assisted descents in strong headwinds do not qualify as true powered flights.
WING WARPING was not the EUREKA MOMENT of the WRIGHT's. IT WAS THE RUDDER which, when coupled to the movement of the WING WARPING overcame what the WRIGHT's called, "WARP DRAG" and what we now call adverse aileron yaw.
The Wright brothers had this idea to couple the movements of the rudder with those of the Wing Warping ailerons by using a mechanism but soon they realized they had made a mistake and came back to separate controls for the rudder and ailerons.