Keith Ferris Originals

The subject is Wilbur Wright at about 500 feet into the flight of the Wright flyer on 17 December 1903.  The scene is at Kill Devil Hill on the sand banks of North Carolina.  This was the first true fully controlled powered heavier-than-air flight, proving not only flight, but control in all three axis necessary to successful flight.  The Wrights measured this flight at 852 feet in 59 seconds.

 

The artist was commissioned to paint five paintings, for publication in Popular Mechanics magazine issue of December 2003.  Together the five paintings would present a pictorial history of the progress of aviation.

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