First flight photographer was in ‘right place at right time’

John T. Daniels Jr. was a “one-shot wonder” as a photographer. 

He miraculously captured the liftoff moment of the Wright brothers’ historic first flight on Dec. 17, 1903, at Kill Devil Hills, N.C.

 

John T. Daniels Jr.

At the time, Daniels was a surfman with the U.S. Life-Saving Service and stationed at Kill Devil Hills. Often, those surfmen who were off duty helped Wilbur and Orville Wright with their flying experiments. Daniels was among the most loyal volunteers who gladly would lend a hand. 

Historian Bryan Patterson of Wake Forest, N.C., commented that in preparation for the historic flight, John Daniels and four other surfmen moved the flying machine out of the shed and rolled it through the sand into proper position. 

The weather conditions that day were raw – chilly temperatures in the lower 40s with brisk north-northeast winds gusting in excess of 20 mph. But it was perfect weather for flying, Orville Wright insisted. 

“Once Daniels had built a fire in the outdoor stove nearby the site, the men who were present huddled around to warm their hands against the cold Outer Banks breeze. Daniels then had to chase a few razorback pigs off so that they would not interfere with the takeoff and flight path,” Patterson wrote. 

Daniels was given the additional assignment of operating the Wright brothers’ expensive camera to capture the first flight on film. As a photographer, Daniels was greener than green. He’d never even seen a camera before that day. Piece of cake, Orville indicated. 

Orville set the boxy camera on a tripod, positioned it and prepared the 7x5-inch glass-plate negative. He then instructed Daniels to squeeze the camera’s shutter release bulb once the craft was airborne. 

Orville climbed aboard the flyer and started the engine – a four-cylinder model that delivered more than 12 horsepower. The flyer set off along the launch track as Wilbur ran beside, steadying the right wing before takeoff. 

Daniels triggered the shutter as instructed, capturing Orville’s ascent at precisely the right moment…“forever immortalizing one of history’s most groundbreaking technological achievements,” Patterson asserted.

The flight of 120 feet lasted 12 seconds.

Daniels may also have provided the best narrative. Patterson reported that Daniels said: “I don’t think I ever saw a prettier sight in my life. Its wings were braced with new and shining copper piano wires. The sun was shining bright that morning and the wires just blazed in the sunlight like gold. The machine looked like some big, graceful golden bird sailing off into the wind…it made us feel kind o’ meek and prayerful like.” 

Before they were done for the day, Wilbur piloted a flight that measured 852 feet and consumed 59 seconds. The landing was a bit of a nose dive, however. The frame was slightly fractured, so the flying session ceased for the day…and the season. 

Sadly, to the Outer Bankers, the Wright brothers did not return to Kill Devil Hills in 1904. They said they had learned enough so that it would be possible for them to conduct their test flights in the flat, open fields around their hometown of Dayton, Ohio. 

A sister, Katharine Wright, thought her brothers wimped out because of the Outer Banks mosquitos. 

She cited a letter sent from Orville, in which he wrote of his mosquito bites: “Lumps began swelling up all over my body like hen’s eggs.”

Below are scenes from the Wright Brothers National Memorial, located in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, commemorates the first successful, sustained, powered flights in a heavier-than-air machine.