Tomorrow in the United States, when it will then be December 17th, will mark the 109th anniversary
of when John T Daniels, a coastal lifeguard, squeezed the bulb to trigger the shutter
of a
Gundlach Korona 5"x7" view camera to take this famous photograph -
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...st_flight2.jpg
It caught the moment on 17th December 1903 when Wilbur Wright, piloting the
Flyer, first successfully flew it for 12 seconds covering a distance of 120 feet.
Three more flights were conducted that day, the final flight covering 852 feet in
59 seconds.
Whilst hauling the Flyer back from its fourth flight, a strong gust of wind caught the
aircraft and Daniels grabbed a strut to try and hold it down. The Flyer flipped end
over end whilst Daniels was caught on the wing and though the engine block spit in
half, Daniels was not seriously hurt. However, Daniels liked to tell
the story how he "survived the first airplane crash" for the remainder of his life.
Daniels died 31 January 1948, one day after the death of Orville.
A bronze sculpture depicts Daniels taking the famous photograph at the
Wright Brothers memorial in North Carolina -
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...hn_Daniels.JPG
Celebrating the 109th anniversary of one of the world's greatest photographs
