When the Flyer lifted off and flew 120ft over the sands of Kitty Hawk on December 17, 1903, with Orville Wright on board, it opened up a whole new world for humankind; the world became a smaller place after that 12-second flight.

When the next day four American newspapers reported the epochal event, many in fact dismissed the news as exaggerated.

But what the Wright brothers, Wilber and Orville, had done brought together people, cultures, and opened up places like no other invention in the history of mankind.

K L Paape looks at a replica of the Flyer with a bronze statue of Orville on board in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina.

The six-day First Flight Centennial Celebration of the historic flight will culminate on December 17 with a speech by US President George W Bush and a re-enactment of the flight using the world's most accurate Flyer reproduction.

Photograph: Tim Sloan/AFP/Getty Images