Self-propeller driven bi-plane is successful!
Don’t you just love to read: This Day in History? I Do. It is fun to see how far we have come in our technology and social awareness. Unfortunately one has advanced and one has declined. While we have made great strides in industry and inventions, we have become lax in our fellowship with our neighbors and God.
Today was the first successful fight of the self-propeller driven bi-plane at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, by Wilber and Orville Wright. These brothers never had a college education, but were very mechanically inclined. They were successful at building printing presses in 1892, making them more efficient and to run smoother. Then they branched off in 1900, making and selling bicycles in their own shop in Dayton Ohio where they grew up. These ventures allowed them to pursue the interest they had in aviation since the German engineer, Otto Lilienthal, had success with gliders in 1890. Their first glider in 1900 was a failure. The next year was better. They tested over 200 wings and airframes of different shapes and sizes. They contacted the U.S. Weather Bureau for a suitable place with steady winds to test their many attempts at flight. Kitty Hawk, North Carolina was suggested and proved to be the place of the first success with a 12 Horse powered engine bi-plane. The first test, winning it place in history was only 12 seconds and 120 feet in length. But many flights were made that day, the longest was 859 feet and 59 seconds. They continued to improve their planes and in 1909 the U.S. Army’s Signal Corps purchased a specially constructed plane, and the brothers founded the Wright Co. to build and market their aircraft.
What would have happened if after their first failure they quit trying? Perhaps someone else would have taken the mantle and continued the pursuit of self-propelled flight, but how many years would it have set back the aviation world? And what about all their advancements in printing presses and bicycles? They had many failures, but through their perseverance they succeeded.
What in your life are you struggling with, and are ready to give up on? Is it being a better parent, teacher or pastor? How about in your career, do you lack the tenacity to make it to the top? No matter what endeavors you have in your personal or professional life, never give up. You know the old adage: If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again! What do you have to lose, what do you have to gain?
As parents it is important to instill in our children perseverance. My parents use to tell me; “if it is worth having, it is worth working for.” Teach them the verse: But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, ‘With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible’. Matthew 19:26.
We as writers often hit brick walls with our writings. What would we accomplish if we gave up every time that would happen? We need to push through hard times in our writings and in our real lives.
And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
Galatians 6:9
For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.
Proverbs 24:16
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Hebrews 12:1-2
Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:
Philippians 1:6