Directions: Read the story. Unscramble the words below and enter them in the boxes. Click the button to check your work.
Wilbur Wright and his younger brother, Orville were successful in flying the
first manned plane. They had made a propeller-driven airplane and it had
stayed in the air for 12 seconds! It was called the Wright Flyer. They made
three more flights that day at Kitty Hawk. Only five people were there to see
the flights, and very few newspapers even wrote a story about it. The first
plane they had built was a glider that measured 16 feet from wing tip to wing
tip. It cost them $15 to build it. The gasoline-powered plane they flew at
Kitty Hawk cost them less than $1000 to build. They learned to love to
"tinker" from their mother. She was always fixing and repairing things. The
boys earned money by making home-made mechanical toys. When bicycles became
popular, they opened a bicycle shop. They studied birds and how they flew.
They contacted other people who were trying to fly. They made a wind tunnel at
their shop to test different kinds of wings. They continued to improve their
planes, and five years later Orville remained in the air for one hour and two
minutes. A few days later he had an accident in his plane. He had several
broken bones and his passenger died. This was the most serious accident they
ever had. After Wilbur died of typhoid fever in 1912, Orville continued to
work alone. He sold his interest in the Wright Company and retired three years
later. The original plane that flew at Kitty Hawk was placed in a Science
Museum in London in 1928. Twenty years later, the museum sent the plane back
to the United States. It can now be seen at the National Air Museum in
Washington, D.C.
