At 1035 EST on 17 December 1903, humanity truly took to the air. Orville Wright made the world's first manned, powered and, most importantly, controlled flight of a heavier-than-air craft. Their best flight that day lasted just 59 seconds but it demonstrated for the first time that the air could be used for travel. Now, 100 years on, passengers can fly non-stop halfway around the world for a few hundred dollars. To celebrate a century of flight, New Scientist's Paul Marks spoke to two people deeply involved in shaping the future of flight in the 21st Century. Today, Terry Weisshaar, manager of DARPA's morphing aircraft structures programme at the Pentagon explains how telescoping and folding wings will help future planes to tailor their wing shape and size for each part of a mission. Some of the morphing work has been inspired by the study of birds, bringing the story full circle back to 1903. The all-important control demonstrated by the Wright brothers' Flyer came not just from the first wind tunnel-tested aerofoils and rudder, but also from wing warping - a technology inspired by the Wrights' observations of the way turkey vultures soared over the Miami river, near their Ohio home.Yesterday, Pam Drew, head of engineering and IT at Boeing's Phantom Works research and development lab, revealed that personal aeroplanes for all are on the drawing board. A six-page illustrated feature with much more on the future of flight appears in the 13 December issue of New Scientist print edition.
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