Jim Butcher (American, B. 1944) "Winter Mischief" Original Mixed Media painting on Illustration Board. Provenance: Collection of James A. Helzer (1946-2008), Founder of Unicover Corporation. From the beginning of civilization, man has been fascinated by the dream of flying. By the mid-19th century, the Union Army had used balloons for reconnaissance of the Confederate forces, and by the end of that century inventors everywhere in the Old World and the New were trying to construct airplanes. Wilbur and Orville Wright, two children born of a Bishop of the Church of the United Brethren, were among these inventors. When scarcely grown out of kneepants, they built themselves bicycles and then balloons, and in the early 1890s they built a model biplane with a five-foot wingspread. A few years later, with their inventive minds dedicated now to the airplane, they moved to Kitty Hawk in North Carolina where they set up what amounted to an airplane laboratory. After hundreds of experiments with glider planes in a specially built wind-tunnel, they managed to build a plane powered by a motor which provided twelve horsepower, but had to be launched by a catapult. In 1903, Orville -- the elder and the leader of the two -- launched a gasoline-powered plane and sent an historic wire: "Success four flights Thursday morning against 21-mile wind. Average speed 31 miles. Longest 59 seconds." Though this first success attracted little attention at the time, the brothers were able to raise enough money to carry on their experiments. By 1905, one of their planes had stayed aloft for thirty-eight minutes and they took out a patent on their airplane -- soon to remake the world. Image Size: 16.5 x 21.25 in. Overall Size: 20 x 23.25 in. Unframed. (B05976)