For most of human history, we mere mortals have dreamt of taking to the skies—from the myth of Icarus, to kites in China, to the development of hydrogen-filled balloons in the 8th century, to early experiments with gliders in the 19th. Then, 115 years ago on on December 17, 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright achieved what many thought impossible—flight by a powered heavier-than-air aircraft.