Front:
Mifcely
REAL-LIFE AMERICAN HEROES
YORK
JUN 7
2002
10199
FIRST-CLASS
HEROES
2001
FIRST DAY OF ISSUE
G
Back:
Heetwood
In the 1890s, German inventor Otto Lilienthal constructed and
flew the first successful unmanned gliders. In 1902, inspired by
Lilienthal's successes, American brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright
created a fully maneuverable double-winged glider. The following
year, after adding a small engine and two propellors to one of their
prototypes, the Wrights executed the world's first successful man-
carrying, engine-powered, heavier-than-air flight on December
17, 1903, near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. This achievement soon
spurred many other experiments and advancements in flight technol-
ogy.After World War I, which further accelerated aviation's progress,
small commercial airlines began to transport mail. In 1926, Western
Air Express (later part of Trans World Airlines) became the first
scheduled and sustained passenger airline in the United States. By
1930, over 43 airlines (including the "big four": TWA, United Airlines,
PILOT
Eastern Airlines and American Airlines) operated a total fleet of over
500 aircraft in the country, competing for passengers at the major
hub cities of New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. Today, millions
of passengers whisk through the sky to their chosen destinations
every year, the aircraft on which they fly safely guided by skilled and
disciplined pilots. Following the September 11 terrorist attacks, the
world learned of the heroism of the pilots of the four hijacked air-
planes, whose desperate struggles to retain control of their crafts were
captured by cockpit voice recorders. Indeed, it is almost certain that
the hijacked United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed into a sparsely
populated area southeast of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was prevented
from reaching and probably destroying its intended target of the
White House only by the utterly selfless and extraordinarily brave acts
of that flight's crew and passengers.
