They were now facing a flight with pilot to see whether it was really worthwhile.
The 17th, the Wright brothers initiate a take-off procedure that will become familiar with the few inhabitants of Kitty Hawk : one brother laying on the machine, while the other assisted by Bill Tate, holding the wing tips ran down the mound in the wind. until it got airborne.
Initially they feared that landing in recumbent position might be harmful, but after a few flights they realized that the rudder provided a perfect equilibrium and allowed the pilot an easy control of its landing.

Flights of 90 to 120 meters and landings at 50 kph convinced them that the recumbent position was safe and confortable and they decided to stick with it. They also kept the elevator in front as a protection against diving.
Other details remained unresolved. Using the same curvature of the aerofoils as Lilienthal's they didn't obtain a comparable lift to that reported by the famous German innovator. Back in Dayton, during 1901, they decided to build an improved version of their glider.

July 10, 1901, the Wright brothers returned to Kitty Hawk, more confident than previous years. Their reputation increased. English and German newspapers published technical articles by Wilbur on flying. Octave Chanute described also their experiments in a leading magazine on mechanics. And other persons came to stay a while at Kitty Hawk, like Edward Huffaker or George A. Spratt, two collaborators of Octave Chanute. They assisted at the flight of July 27, 1901, made during a steady breeze of 16 to 20 kph. The inventors hoisted the glider up the dune. Orville and Spratt helped at take-off and Huffaker looked on ready to intervene if need be. Wilbur was laying on the lower plane. Orville and George Spratt running, they hauled the contraption 60 cm above the ground, then let it go. It fell in the sand a little farther. Inferring an erroneous position of Wilbur, he changed place, but without further succes. Wilbur moved 30 cm backwards. Their 9th test resulted in a nice gliding flight of 90 meters. Huffaker was dumbfounded by the repetitive flights of Wilbur and Orville, but the brothers had had better experiences and they were disapointed.

The glider behaved erratically, sometimes diving, sometimes nosing up. During another test flight the machine became completely uncontrollable after 10 meters. Quickly Wilbur shifted foreward while operating the elevator and finally managed a soft landing. But they sorely felt that the 1901 version didn't match the 1900 original ! The brothers suspected this being due to an overly curved foil and they reduced it consequently. August 8 1901, Wilbur tried again and this time he made flights of over 120 meters with wind speed of 45 kph ; the glider reacted perfectly to all rudder actioning.

The fin didn't produce the expected results right away. September 19,1902 : the plane escaped complete destruction ! And Orville noted in his journal that evening : "I glided smoothly when I felt the plane toppling slowly" He actioned the warp mechanism to lower the upper wing but it was in vain.
10 meters away, Wilbur and Dan Tate hurried to the wreckage expecting Orville to be severely injured but he got out without a scratch.
Generally the machine functioned well, but out of 75 flights ten times it toppled without the pilot being able to prevent it. On the contrary, when the pilot tried to reestablish equilibrium, the lower wing sank even lower provoking a tail spin. Finally, Wilbur and Orville understood that the tail was the culprit.

Creating air resistance while banking, the fin apparently made tail spin worse once it started. But mobile, Orville thought, it could be used by the pilot as a rudder, moving with the wind and a help to reequilibrate the plane. To avoid another control complicating flying, Wilbur suggested that the rudder and warping cables be coupled.
The result was incredible. Thanks to the rudder, the obstruction to sideslip on the wing had finally been resolved. Wilbur and Orville were able to make a flashing display of their flying skills before the admiring glances of Chanute and his protégé Hering. During two weeks they made hundreds of flights.
The two brothers had fun beating their records on the beaches of Kitty Hawk. Wilbur made the record achievement of 196 meters in 26 seconds, followed by Orville with a close 188 meters in 21 seconds.

The Wright brothers had arrived at mastering the controlled flight. They decided to return in 1903 for achieving the feat of flying a motorized plane.

November 2, 1903, Wilbur and Orville are worrying. Samuel Langley, one of the toughest competitors in the quest of powered flying is going to launch shortly a second attempt with his "Aerodrome". After his failure of October 7, Langley has managed to obtain fresh funds. That news pushes the brothers from Dayton to speed up the completion of their flying machine. November 2 it's done, but the Flyer weights 274 kg, far too much to be launched in the usual way from the top of the dune by the ground assistants. Landing gear being useless on the sand, they decided to fix the machine on a skate such as to make it slide down the dune over a 18 meter long rail. November 5 a try-out of the engine provokes a severe desillusion. The engine backfires and the propellers start racing, get loose and damage the cables. They'll have to wait for George Spratt, a friend returning with the propellers repaired. Wilbur and Orville used the interval for some more additional calculations.
They tightened the cables of the foils and tried out the rail with the glider of 1902.
On Friday, November 20, the propellers were ready. The trials of the next day were positive but during the final try-out of November 28 an anormaly of the propeller shaft is detected. There's a crack in the metal, requiring them to hastily return to Dayton and to make stronger shafts.

They also worried about the next attempt by Samuel Langley who risked one's all this 8th December, 1903. His flying machine, the "Aerodrome", was to be catapulted from the top of a 12 meter high floating structure. The launch at 4:45 P.M hurled the "Aerodrome" towards the cloudy sky.
The machine leaped into the air before arriving at the end of the rail, nosed up, its tail folded and broke, and it fell in the Potomac River. The pilot was rescued but for Samuel Langley it was a rude awakening. Henceforth, the Wright brothers had no rivals.

Many reporters derided the poor guy, adding that men couldn't fly in something heavier than air.

The Wright brothers would prove them wrong...

Sunday, December 13, 1903, five men from the lifeboat station at Kitty Hawk come to help the Wright brothers hurling the Flyer up to the top of "Big Hill" dune. Two little boys came running to see the extraordinary machine and hear the deafening noise of the engine readying for the moment of truth. The Wright brothers tossed up for the first flight. Wilbur won and laid himself on the lower plane. While Orville held the tip of a wing, Wilbur dropped the moorings and the "Flyer" got into effortless motion. All eyes fixed the machine when it left the rail at 2 meter from the end. Orville released his stop watch. The machine climbed suddenly to some 5 meter height, but the nose was too much up. Wilbur's climb was too sudden because he didn't know the reactions of the elavator controls. He could'nt help he lost lift ; three and a half second later the "Flyer" made a hard landing, ploughing the soil at 32 meters from take-off. In spite of this mishap, the brothers displayed good spirits. In the evening Wilbur wrote "Take-off is a snap, power is largely sufficient and apart some slight error due to our inexperience with this machine and its way of launching, it would have been flying magnificiently. There is no doubt now we will succeed !"

December 17, 1903 : rather strong wind, weather quite unfavorable, the puddles are frozen. Early in the morning, Orville and Wilbur get the machine out of the hangar and at 10:30 A.M. the launching rail is ready. Five observers arrive from the lifeboat station. The two brothers are in overalls, peaked caps and shirts with white collar. A photographer is placed at 15 meters behind the rail, not far from the hangar, ready to immortalize this moment. The brothers talk a few minutes, then shake hands as if they might not see each other again. The engine sputters in the glacial air. Orville goes to the machine and slides in the pilot's place. The lifeboat people encourage the two brothers with their cheering and clapping. At 10:35 A.M. Orville drops the moorings and the machine slowly starts moving against a head wind of 43 kph.

The "Flyer" is taking off on December 17 - This painting is a symbolic representation of the first human powered flight - 32 x 28 inches Poster avalaible ! (B. Freudenthal)