Bonus Episode 1: The Hockey Injury That Launched Air Travel

Why the story of human flight begins on a frozen pond in Dayton, Ohio…and why there was only one Wright Brother with the Right Stuff.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome to Dayton, Ohio. It's the middle of winter. A
group of teenage boys is doing what teenagers sometimes do
in the winter, playing hockey outdoors. This particular game takes
place on a frozen pond next to the Dayton Soldiers home,
and one of its participants will be a household name

(00:30):
in America by the turn of the century. But right now,
he's just eighteen, and he's about to meet with an accident. Wilburg,
you're right, you knocked out his teeth. Wilbur is Wilbur Wright,
of the famous Wright Brothers, and in eight six, during
a friendly game of hockey in his hometown of Dayton,
Wilbur was struck in the face with a hockey stick.

(00:53):
The blow broke his jaw and knocked out most of
his upper front teeth. Somebody fetch a doctor. It was
the kind of accident that happens all the time in
youth sports, especially hockey. But Wilbur Right was not your
ordinary kid. And believe it or not, you can trace
the origin of manned flight right back to the ice
where Wilbur Right lay bleeding on that pond in Ohio.

(01:15):
That devastating injury would almost ground Rights entire life, but
it didn't, and from the crucible of his pain and
suffering would emerge an invention that would allow humans to
soar for the first time. Modern aviation depends upon a

(01:38):
lot of things, the development of balloons and gliders, the
invention of the internal combustion engine, oh and also a
ton of trial and air. But mostly it depends on
Wilbur Right. You'll notice I didn't say the right brothers.
We'll get to that. Nearly twenty years before the Wright

(01:59):
Brothers eight history, on the beaches of North Carolina, something
happened that would change the course of their lives forever.
Not to mention your life, and my life, and the
lives of millions of others. Today, welcome back to Flashback.
In our first season of the podcast, we told you

(02:21):
ten stories of how some incredible, unintended consequences had shaped history,
and we are hard at work on season two. But first,
between seasons, we're going to share with you some brand
new bonus episodes every week. Sometimes these will be tied
to events in the news. Sometimes they will be related
to upcoming or previous seasons of the show. We start

(02:42):
with a series of short stories about fateful moments from history.
First up, the hockey accident that launched air travel. In
this episode, we'll learn how necessity is indeed often the
mother of invention, but sometimes she can be outright cruel.

(03:03):
Wilbur and Orville Wright were the sons of Milton Right,
a bishop of the Church of the United Brethren in christ. Wilburt,
the eldest was a smart and studious young man who
excelled as both a student and multi sport athlete. He
had an incredibly bright future that was headed to Yale.
Then Wilbur's life took a detour during the winter of
his senior year in high school. The detour took the

(03:25):
form of a hockey stick belonging to the neighborhood bully,
Oliver Crook Haw, The teenager lived two blocks from the Rights.
We'll never know for sure if he intended to hit
Wilbur right in the mouth, but there's a pretty decent
chance he did. You see, Haw had his own dental problems,
severe toothaches. Fortunately, he worked at the town pharmacy so
he could self medicate with cocaine laced lozenges, perfectly legal

(03:49):
at the time. Hall is not just addicted to cocaine.
He was also likely a psychopath. Years after striking Wilbur Right,
he grew up to be a serial killer, one who
was elected recuted in nineteen o six for slaying at
least sixteen people, including his own family. But in a
perverse way, we all owe Oliver crook Haw some debt

(04:10):
of gratitude for what he did to Wilburg. Right, though
it certainly didn't seem so at the time. Has blow
sent Wilburg's life spiraling in a new direction. Right had
to have his jaw set and get fitted for false teeth.
For months, he suffered excruciating pain in his face, as
well as heart palpitations and indigestion, but the physical ordeal

(04:31):
was brief compared to the psychological one. Wilburg suffered bounce
of severe depression for years. He remained at home, recovering
and helping to take care of his mother, who was
dying of tuberculosis. Paul talk of going to Yale stopped.
The once bright eyed eighteen year old became a reclusive
and an invalid. It would take almost eight years for

(04:57):
Wilburg to recover from the injury. During this time, however,
he took advantage of his homebound existence to devour every
book he could get his hands on. He began a
remarkable self education that would fuel the rest of his
life and career. And during this period he also developed
a singular obsession. This is how Right described it in
a letter to a friend in nineteen hundred. For some years,

(05:20):
I've been afflicted with the belief that flight is possible
to men. My disease has increased in severity, and I
feel that it will cost me an increased amount of money,
if not my life. To help him pursue his dream,
Wilbur enlisted his younger brother, Orville. Morville was not a
visionary like Wilbur, but he was a capable engineer, and
together they made history at Kittie Hawk, North Carolina, in

(05:42):
nineteen o three, rotting for a takeoff down a sixty
ft track. The foar cylinder engine generated only twelve warh power,
but it broo something no other motive machine had ever done.
It made far flight that epical day, the longest of
which was only eight hundred fifty two. Today we tell

(06:04):
the tale of the daring brothers who pioneered aviation, but
the truth is there really was only one Right brother
with the right stuff. It was Wilbur Right alone, who
was an incredibly intuitive scientist, who diligently studied birds, who
played around with complex aeronautical data, who had the burning
fire to create a flying machine, who worked out the

(06:25):
wing design that would finally allow people to transcend the ground.
Thank you all, Thank you all. In December two thousand three,
just outside Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, America celebrated a century
of human flight. It was a big deal. President George W.
Bush was there. For as long as there is human flight,

(06:50):
we will honor the achievement of a gold morning on
the outer banks of North Carolina. About two young brothers
name Horrible and Wilbur Right, and both brothers deserved to
be celebrated. Every time Wilbur and Orville made a flight attempt,
they were risking their lives. But they weren't fifty fifty partners.
It wasn't Linnen and McCartney. Still today the two men

(07:13):
are inseparable. How did this happen? Well, it was Wilbur's
health that once again helped to find his life and legacy.
Wilbur died at age forty five from typhoid fever. Orville
would live another thirty six years, thirty six years in
which he alone would define the brother's accomplishments and accept
the awards for them all they all Right, as his

(07:35):
name in the Annimals of All American Greats, Ambassador of Aviation,
first man in buying all Right. When the first definitive
biography of the brothers came out in nine Wilbur had
been dead for three decades. Orville was the only real
source for their story, and so of course focused on

(07:57):
what the two men had done together. The right There's
collectively became the Fathers of flight. It's funny we have
a tendency with history to valorize the accomplishments of single individuals,
and usually the idea of one person changing the course
of human history is an oversimplification. But here, despite the

(08:20):
fact that we almost always refer to the Wright brothers collectively,
we do have such an impactful individual and will were
right in this case, thanks to that teenage hockey accident,
we really do have an instance of that proverbial loan
genius slaving away in obscurity, obsessed with realizing a vision
that will someday change the world. Flashback is written and

(08:50):
hosted by me Sean Braswell, senior writer and executive producer
at Azzi. It was edited by Mae mcgoren and produced
by Tracy Moran. Chris Hoff engineered our show. Oh make
sure to subscribe to Flashback on the I Heart Radio
app or listen wherever you get your podcasts. If you
want to read more about the accomplishments of Wilbur Right,
I encourage you to pick up a great new book

(09:11):
called Right Brothers, Wrong Story by William hazel Grove. Thanks
for listening.