On 17 December 1903 at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville and Wilbur Wright achieved the first sustained, controlled, powered flight of a heavier-than-air craft, covering a short distance under engine power and pilot control. Building on systematic experiments with gliders, wind-tunnel data and their own light engine and propellers, they solved the problem of three-axis control. Their breakthrough founded practical aviation, which advanced rapidly through the following decades. Powered flight progressed from fragile machines to mass air travel within two generations.
Air travel created the airport as a major urban land use and a driver of regional economies. Cities reorganised around hub airports and the access corridors, hotels and logistics that cluster about them.
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