Key Stage 1 history · Events beyond living memory

KS1 history: the Wright brothers and the first aeroplane flight

On 17 December 1903, two brothers from the United States made the first powered, controlled flight in an aeroplane. In Years 1 and 2, children learn who the Wright brothers were, what happened that morning, how we know from a famous photograph, and how travel has changed since. Schools choose which events to study, and this is one of the options the curriculum suggests.

The first aeroplane flight, explained

The National Curriculum asks schools to teach about events beyond living memory that are significant nationally or globally, and it names the first aeroplane flight as one possible example. Not every school chooses it. The flight took place on 17 December 1903 on a cold, windy beach at Kill Devil Hills, near the town of Kitty Hawk in North Carolina, USA. Two brothers, Orville and Wilbur Wright, from Dayton, Ohio, had built the aeroplane themselves from wood and cloth. They called it the Flyer. They designed the propellers themselves, and the engine was built in their own workshop.

The first flight was short. Orville lay on the lower wing and flew for about 12 seconds, covering around 37 metres, less than the length of a large modern passenger plane. The brothers took turns and made four flights that day. The longest, flown by Wilbur, lasted 59 seconds and covered about 260 metres. It sounds small, but it was the first time a machine heavier than air, with an engine, had lifted off under its own power, carried a person and been steered by the pilot.

Others had flown before, but in different ways. Hot-air balloons had carried people since the 1780s, and gliders without engines had flown too. The Wright brothers, who ran a bicycle business, spent years studying birds, building gliders and testing wing shapes in a homemade wind tunnel before they added an engine. A key idea was controlling the aeroplane by twisting the wings. So when teachers say “first aeroplane flight”, they mean the first powered, controlled flight, not the first time anyone had left the ground.

We know about it because there is a famous photograph, taken at the moment of take-off by one of the few people watching. There are also letters, diaries and newspaper reports, and the original Flyer still survives in a museum. Children are asked questions such as how people travelled before aeroplanes, what is different about the first plane and a plane today, and what is the same. In 2026 the flight is about 123 years ago, and the first Moon landing followed just 66 years later, which many children find astonishing.

Words your child will hear

Pilot: The person who flies and steers an aeroplane.
Inventor: A person who thinks up and makes something new.
Glider: A flying machine with wings but no engine, which glides on the air.
Engine: A machine that makes power to move something. The Wrights’ engine was built in their own workshop.
Propeller: Spinning blades that push or pull an aeroplane through the air.
Powered flight: Flying with an engine, rather than drifting like a balloon or gliding.
Photograph: A picture made with a camera. A photograph of the first flight survives.

What the National Curriculum says

The programme of study for Key Stage 1 says:

Pupils should be taught about events beyond living memory that are significant nationally or globally
Pupils should ask and answer questions, choosing and using parts of stories and other sources to show that they know and understand key features of events.
Pupils should know where the people and events they study fit within a chronological framework and identify similarities and differences between ways of life in different periods.

Objectives from the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Try it: comparing the first plane with a plane today

Look at the famous 1903 photograph of the Wright brothers’ aeroplane and a photograph of a passenger plane today. What is the same, what is different and what can we learn?

Describe the 1903 photograph. A small aeroplane with two wings, one above the other, is just off the ground over sandy beach. A man is lying on the lower wing and another runs alongside. Everything looks to be made of wood and cloth.
Describe the plane today. It is much larger, made mostly of metal, and has a long body with seats inside, windows and wings that sweep back. Engines hang below the wings.
List the differences: size, materials, the number of people carried, how high and how far it can go. The first plane carried one person and flew about 37 metres on its first flight.
List the similarities: both have wings, both have engines, and both need a pilot to steer them.
Say what the photograph tells us and what it doesn’t. It shows what the aeroplane looked like, but not how loud the engine was or what Orville felt.

The first aeroplane was small, light and made of wood and cloth, and carried one pilot for less than a minute at a time. Planes today are huge, made mostly of metal and carry hundreds of people across the world. Both have wings, engines and a pilot. The photograph is a useful source because it was taken at the time.

Common mistakes and how to help

Thinking the first flight was long, or crossed the sea

“Famous first flight” sounds grand, and children picture modern aeroplanes.

What helps: Pace it out. In a park or large garden, measure about 37 metres, around 45 adult strides, and count 12 seconds aloud. That was the whole first flight.

Believing that nobody had ever flown before 1903

“First flight” is easily heard as “first time anyone flew”, but balloons and gliders came before.

What helps: Use the full phrase: the first powered, controlled aeroplane flight. Explain that balloons floated and gliders glided, and the new thing was an engine plus steering.

Thinking the Wright brothers invented flying entirely on their own

Simple retellings highlight two names and leave out the many people who tried before.

What helps: Say that others built gliders and tested ideas before them, and the brothers learned from this and from their own testing. Big inventions usually build on earlier ones.

Assuming that everyone started flying soon after 1903

Today flying seems ordinary, so children imagine it always was.

What helps: Show on a timeline that it took decades for aeroplanes to become reliable and for passenger flights to become common. Ask how most people travelled long distances in 1903.

How to help at home

Fold and test paper planes. Make two or three different designs and fly each one from the same spot. Pace out the distances and compare. Change just one thing at a time, such as the size of the wings, so it is a fair test.
Pace out the first flight. In a park or garden away from roads, measure about 37 metres, roughly 45 adult strides. Count to 12 slowly. Then ask how far a modern plane travels in the same time.
Look up and talk. When a plane goes over, ask what you can see: wings, a tail, a trail of white cloud. Ask how people travelled to faraway places before there were aeroplanes.
Compare ways to travel. Talk about how long a journey takes by foot, bike, car, train and plane. Ask your child to put them in order of how long ago each was invented, and be ready to be surprised: the bicycle and train came first.