They Had Done It!

They Had Done It!. Huffman Prairie Flying Field. As spring weather improved in 1905, the Wright brothers were back here at the flying field every day, hard at work. They put up a hanger, and readied their new machine. Steering was the last great riddle. By trying out ideas for balancing the control surfaces---the elevators, the twin rudders, and wing warping, they finally found ways to put full command of their flyer into the hands (and hips) of a pilot., My mid-October, the Wrights had perfected their machine. They were ready to stop test flying, secure a patent, and start marketing their invention., Total Time in the Air , 1904- -49 minutes--106 flights , 1905- -262 minutes--50 flights, ....Nine years of trial and error, discouragement and hope, risk to life and limb, and brilliant engineering effort had culminated in the air over this Ohio cow pasture. , Tom Crouch, Wright biographer, (Inscription over the photo in the upper right side of the marker) , A Record Set , Wilbur amazed a small crowd of guests and passerby here with a 40-minute, 24 mile flight. They watched him orbit this flying field 29 times. He only landed when he ran out of gas. , October 5, 1905, (Inscription over the photo in the lower right side of the marker) , The wooden shed (in front of you) is a replica, built in 1990 on the site of the Wright’s original 1905 hangar.