The Wright Brothers The First To Achieve Sustained Flight

Dec. 17, 1903. At Kitty Hawk, N.C., Orville Wright achieves the world's first manned, powered, sustained, and controlled flight by a heavier-than-air vehicle. His fourth and longest flight of the day is 852 feet in 59 seconds.

Three days earlier, Wilbur Wright achieved the world's first powered airplane flight--105 feet in 3.5 seconds- but crashed soon after takeoff, and his flight is not regarded as being either sustained or controlled.