Fly with the brothers
February 20, 2009 by Ian J. Twombly, Associate Editor
The footage below is certainly something I’ve never seen, and I would venture to say 99 percent of other pilots haven’t either. It dates back to 1909 when the Wright brothers did a demonstration in Italy. And while the Wrights had done this type of thing before in front of video cameras, the hosting Web site claims it’s the first ever on-board aerial footage, and it’s cool!
More than anything, I was struck at the pitch instability the aircraft possessed. Something tells me I would have been a goner had I flown that thing.
Tags: Ian Twombly
March 4th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
@ Ian,
I realize that’s it’s a ubiquitous part of our lives and we use the term to refer to most forms of viewable media, but the Wright brothers would have recorded their on-board footage on film rather than video as video technology (as we know it) was still waiting to be invented in 1909.
Although, imagine if hand-held video cameras and YouTube had been around in the beginning days of aviation…
March 4th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
You’re right Ken. I didn’t even think about that.