How far we've advanced in flight.

[ThatRandomGuy]

This is awesome! See how much we have advanced in flight since 1903

1903:
Orville and Wilbur Wright Make the first heavier-than-air powered plane.

1927:
Charles A. Lindbergh flies non-stop across Atlantic ocean.

1930:
First jet engine built.

1939:
Heinkel 178 is the first successful jet aircraft.

1947:
year in which the Bell X-1 exceeded the speed of sound.

1957:
Sputnik 1 launched into space, First man-made satellite.

1961:
First man in space, Yuri Gagarin.

1969:
Neil Armstrong and buzz Aldrin are the first to walk on the moon.

Look at that, in 57 years we put a man in space.  66 years since he first plane, we put a man on the moon...

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/wb-timeline.html Full timeline

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[Jairo]

we put a man on the moon in 1969, not 1968

[Camel]

and now we fly coach on southwest and sit next to a single mom with IBS and a middle ages stockbroker, eating peanuts and drinking sprite

[Fab]

Wright brothers didn't invent the airplane.

[TheEpicRobot]

Wright brothers didn't invent the airplane.

True, but to an extent, they did perfect it.

[ZSNO]

We also have scramjets that make missiles go at mach 9.8~

[Jaxx]

True, but to an extent, they did perfect it.

they didn't even do that much
they managed to make a flight for 12 seconds
that was the longest thus far, and they knew exactly how to sell their invention
they were essentially the apple of their time: taking all the best ideas everyone else already had and marketing it well

[Slate521]

Wright brothers didn't invent the airplane.

US patent office recognizes the Wright Brothers - at least formerly - for holding the patents for the technology that allows fixed-wing flight.

More specifically, wing-warping technology and certain cross-section designs.

What's way cooler than all of this is that I think Orville Wright survived to see the X-1 flight, and was personally invited to Edwards to see it happen. He survived from the ages of horse and buggy to the dawn of supersonic flight. That's really cool.

they didn't even do that much
they managed to make a flight for 12 seconds
that was the longest thus far, and they knew exactly how to sell their invention
they were essentially the apple of their time: taking all the best ideas everyone else already had and marketing it well

Nope. Lots of Wright Brothers aircraft made flights way longer than that. One personal record was something like an hour and 100+ miles.

edit: Ain't the one I was looking for, but this is one: 33-minute flight by Wilbur at the bottom of this page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_Brothers_flights_of_1909

[Jaxx]

was exclusively discussing the kitty hawk flight, which is why i said "longest thus far".

[Maxwell.]

I think it sucks britain didn't give funds to frank whittle, because if it did ww2 could have been dealt with quickly. It lead to britain getting the jet way too late and all it was used for was knocking V1 rockets out of the sky