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 they through a coin to see who should take the first go, so it fell on Mr. Orval, 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 or more before he came Down. He flew so close to the top of a little hill the he Pulled the Rudder off so we had to Bring her back to the camp, and it was there I got tangled up in the machine and she Blew off across the Beach with me hanging in it, and she went all to Pieces. It Didn’t Hurt me much I got bruised me some. They Packed up every thing and went home at Dayton. That ended the Day. I snapped the first Picture of a Plain that ever flew. They were very nice men and we all enjoyed Being out at the Camp with them mostly every Day.
That accident made me the first airoplane causiality in the world and I have Piece of the upright that I was holding on to when It fell.
Would be glad to Render any informattion at any time you need it.
Sincerely,
John T. Daniels
Manteo NC
Box 1W
It is my understanding that the Wrights were launching the Flyer from the hill on the 14th, but as shown in the photo above, they moved the rail to the flats on the 17th.
eetrojan, you are quite correct. The flights on the 17th began at the lower end of the red line, which as you can see is quite some distance north of the hill, which is at the bottom with the circular road around its base.
The launch point for the flights on the 17th was identified by Dough, Etheridge, and Moore in 1928 - who had witnessed the flights. The following is the wordings of their findings in locating the spot, since the area had changed somewhat since 1903.
"Beginning with the site of the building which housed the Wrights’ plane at the time, distinctly remembering the wind direction at the time, and that the track was laid directly in the wind, collaborating our memory on these facts by the records of the Weather Bureau, remembering that we helped bring the machine from the building and placed it on the track, referring to distances laid down in feet in Orville Wrights article, "How We made our first flight."
"We proceeded to agree upon the spot, and we individually and collectively state without the least mental reservation, that the spot we located is as near correct as it is humanly possible to be with the data in hand to work from after a lapse of twenty five years. We marked the spot with a copper pipe driven into the ground."
In 1932 at this location, The American Aeronautical Association placed a large granite boulder containing a commemorative plaque consisting of the pictures of Orville and Wilbur and a statement that reads, "THEY TAUGHT US TO FLY."