Hey!
- I'm Billy, come on in.
- Baratunde.
Veteran pilot Billy Vaughn runs
a flight school just outside of Kitty Hawk,
where he and his crew bring the story
of the Wright brothers to life.
Is this a plane?
- This is a replica of a 1902 Wright glider.
This is the airplane they learned to fly on.
No engine, but this is where flight really started.
- With no engine?
So who provides the power?
- Oh, that would be you,
and me, and a couple of guys that are gonna help us out,
out on the hill, and the wind.
So are you stoked?
- I think I am.
You saw the hesitation, I'm not gonna lie--
- I did see some hesitation.
- I'm excited in the full sense of the word.
- [Billy] Good, good.
- [Baratunde] You heard that, right?
I'm gonna fly in one of these things.
I'm hoping it gives me a window into what it's like
to harness those Atlantic winds,
and maybe relive a piece of aviation history.
- Presto.
We've achieved airplane.
(Baratunde laughing quickly)
- [Baratunde] This is an aircraft so outdated,
even history has forgotten it.
Unless you're an expert like Billy,
then you know this glider was
part of a revolution in flight.
- I'm passionate about this aircraft being the one.
Everybody makes a big deal about December 17th, 1903,
because that's when the first airplane flew.
- [Baratunde] You might have heard
what happened that morning.
The world's first successful motorized flight.
It was an incredible feat,
but Billy says the plane he's about
to put me on was even more impressive.
- This one,
October 24th, 1902,
is the first photograph we have of an aircraft in the air
in a completely coordinated turn.
And the reason the coordinated turn was allowed to happen
is that this is the first aircraft
that had all three axis of control.
- [Baratunde] And what are those axis?
- Okay, so,
we talk about roll control is turning, right?
Wings up, wings down,
that makes it turn left and right.
- Got it, thank you.
- And pitch, which is nose up and nose down,
and that's what this canard is for.
- Okay.
- The other axis of control is yaw.
- Yaw!
- And that is this one, like a weather vane turns.
- [Baratunde] Yeah, okay.
- And what the right--
- I feel like we're doing yoga.
- Aircraft yoga, I like it.
- [Baratunde] Billy's enthusiasm for
aviation history is infectious.
It's certainly good exercise.
And despite my anxiety about flying on a plane
that seems to be made of toothpicks and cheese cloth,
he's really got me excited.
What kind of weather do we need to?
- You got incredibly lucky.
We've got perfect weather today.
The winds are north, Northeast at about 15 to 20.
20 is key, so it should be great.
- [Baratunde] So the wind is really important?
- Yeah.
And that's why the Wright's came here, was for wind,
because it blows hard.
- Okay. (laughs quickly)
- What makes any aircraft fly is air speed,
and that's simply how much air is passing over the wing.
So they came here for the strong winds
so that their path across the ground was not as fast.
And you'll see that when we go out on the hill.
We'll be running along with you, but we can keep up.
- Okay, I like you being right there--
- Absolutely.
- [Baratunde] Next to me, hanging on.
- We'll have you.
Yeah, we gotcha.
We gotcha.
- There was a little hesitation there
that makes me feel like there's some kind of joke.
- I don't want to take anything away from the fact
that you are gonna fly this thing.
- Let's do it.
- [Billy] Alright, let's go!
- So far on this journey,
I've walked in a lot of historic footsteps.
Today, it's those of Orville and Wilbur Wright.
But these are also steps that Billy's
been taking for his whole life.
- [Billy] I grew up here, yeah.
My family moved here when I was seven.
I started coming to Jockey's Ridge when I was a little kid,
and I cut my teeth surfing and skating,
and I got into hang gliding when I was probably 19,
and I've been flying hang gliders ever since.
- [Baratunde] You went from catching waves to catching air.
- [Billy] Yeah, yeah.
It's very similar, you just can't see the air.
That's the big difference.
but it's all balance.
- [Baratunde] Balance.
It sounds tricky,
but Billy's got a hundred years of
aviation history to fall back on,
Unlike the Wright brothers.
They must have wondered,
would this wooden contraption even get off the ground,
and if it did, how high would it go?
Of course, I'm asking myself the same thing.
- It's not about how high you go.
- [Baratunde] Okay.
- It's about maintaining your speed
and achieving that balance in the air.
- [Baratunde] Okay.
- Your goal is to fly as far as you can,
not as high as you can.
- [Baratunde] Balance.
(majestic music)
There it is.
If you squint just a little,
it's easy to imagine that you're back in 1902.
There is a certain feeling on these dunes
that the ocean winds that lifted
the Wright brothers are still at work today.
- There we go, that should be a little better.
- Alright.
Let's go, let's fly.
- Step over the wire and stuff.
All right, let's lift her.
Down on the glider, guys.
Down a little, there you go.
- Nice and light with your fingers.
You ready to go?
- [Baratunde] Yes, I am.
- All right, let's do it.
Three, two,
one, and here we go.
There it is, there it is.
Excellent, excellent.
Beautiful!
Look, there it is.
Stay relaxed, good.
Gentle, gentle.
Beautiful, now leave it there.
That will come in.
Slowly pull the nose up.
Nice and gently to that landing.
Beautiful, well done!
(cheering loudly)
Dude, that was sick!
- Oh, thank you!
(sighing loudly)
- [Redheaded Pilot] Yeah, right?
- So what'd you think?
- Man, that was one of the coolest things I've ever done.
- Well, welcome to my world.
(men laughing loudly)
You're in a fairly elite club now.
I think you're about number 256 of humans
who have ever flown a Wright glider.
That includes the Wright brothers.
- It's one thing to visit the sites where history was made,
but to soar across these dunes
in a flying machine that made its debut in 1902?
That's a way of experiencing outdoor
America that's new to me.
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