The Wright Stuff

How can journaling and sketching and dreaming change the world?

Attached is a faint copy of a reproduction of the Wright brothers’ preliminary sketch of the 1903 Wright Flyer, drawn in pencil on brown wrapping paper. The notations are in Wilbur’s handwriting.

On this date (December 17, 1903) Wilbur and Orville Wright made the world’s first powered, sustained, and controlled flight in a heavier-than-air flying machine.

Today, over 16,000 pages of Wright Brothers papers are available to the general public. In his December 17, 1903 entry, Orville Wright details of all four flights that the brothers made that day. You would think that there would be a voice of excitement in the journal entry – a sense of making history and achieving a dream of mankind. Orville instead provides a matter-of-fact account packed with what he considered the necessary and important details. I assume while others celebrated, he went back to working on improvements.

So, what we have here is a couple of guys, sketch books and journals, a dream, and massive action. What they did on this date ignited the world’s passion for flying.

Here’s to the spirit of invention, journals, dreams, passion, and action.

Sir Bowie of Greenbriar