First Flights

From the Wright Flyer to the DC-3—to the first flights in new airplanes today, how we learn makes a difference.

Julie Boatman

Friday, December 16, 2022 at 02:53 PM ET

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The first flight of the Douglas DC-3 also took place on December 17, in 1935. [Credit: Stephen Yeates Photography]

Key Takeaways:

Early aviation pioneers like the Wright Brothers and Clyde Cessna learned to fly through high-risk trial-and-error, often crashing multiple times as they innovated with new aircraft designs and control systems.
By the time of the Douglas DC-3, flight testing had evolved into a more methodical process, incorporating advanced wind tunnel testing and incremental expansion of the flight envelope to reduce risk.
Modern "first flights" in new aircraft greatly benefit from structured instruction and expert guidance from experienced pilots and flight instructors, making the learning curve much smoother and safer.

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When you know you’re going to mangle an airplane over and over in your attempt to fly it, you choose soft sand—or forgiving prairie grass.

This was certainly true of the Wright Brothers in 1903 as they approached the aerial tests that would either prove their theories of controlled flight—or send them crashing again and again into the sand, scattering the pieces of their now-famous fabric-and-wood biplane across the dunes.