WPCNR The Flying News. December 16, 2007: One-hundred four years ago Monday, the Wright Brothers flew the first powered aircraft.  Livingston Taylor the pop-folk singer, and a pilot in his own right, wrote a song in 2002 celebrating The Wright Brothers achievement. With Mr. Taylor's permission we celebrate The Wright Brothers' achivement today with the lyrics of Kitty Hawk, December, Nineteen-Three. For more on "the First Flight," WPCNR invites you to visit www.firstflight.org.

The First Flight. Photo by John T. Daniels, December 17, 1903

KITTY HAWK, DECEMBER, NINETEEN-THREE
By Livingston Taylor
©2002 L. Taylor/Morgan Creek Music (ASCAP)


We can fly
We can soar into the air
Look into forever
And find the future there
Spread your wings
You're about to be free
Kitty Hawk, December, Nineteen-three

What a time for human kind
What an era to be in
Electric light to push back night
Einstein in Berlin
Edison and movies
Fords rolling wheels
Rockafellas energy
Morgan's ruthless deals
Big men chewing big cigars
And chewing through the land
Destiny was manifest
Fate was in their hands

Add to this mix
Two earnest quiet men
With their sister Katherine
The adventure did begin
In the hubrus that was the time
They decided they could try
To build a heavier than air machine
And climb into the sky

And they could fly..........

They read the work of Lilienthal
Langley and Chanute
But the theories of these pioneers
In test did not compute
So they cleaned the table to the wood
And started in again
To answer twisting riddles
So the sky would let them in

They found a place to test their thoughts Off the coast of Caroline
Private and remote
Windy all the time
They learned of lift and drag and thrust
And wind-tunneled everything
The delicate pitch of the canard
The roll of warping wings
And the rudder was the final piece
That late one night they saw
The triad that became flight
Pitch, roll, yaw

And they could fly...........

The morning comes the wind is right
The plane is on the rail
And Daniel's camera sees the moment pass
For twelve small seconds
They fly across the sands
And the end of an ancient dream
Is here at last

It's a hundred years later
But imagine what's in store
As we tug on God's great beard
And tap upon his door
To the truth that lives in space
We have set our sights
Standing on their shoulders
Wilbur and Orville Wright

And we can fly...............