Grandpa Benny and the Wright Brothers
By: Ran Levi
Grandpa Benny and the children stood at the kitchen window and flew paper airplanes.
’Gosh Grandpa!!’ Maya exclaimed in frustration. ‘My plane never flies far.’
’I think I have something that will help you.’ said Grandpa Benny. He walked out of the kitchen and returned a few moments later. He was holding a pair of strange glasses in his hands.
’Glasses, grandpa? How can glasses help me fly my plane?’ asked Maya.
’Ah ha! These aren’t ordinary glasses…have I ever told you about my adventure with the Wright brothers, the people who invented the first airplane?’
’Did you really meet them, Grandpa?’ asked David.
‘Yes,’ replied Grandpa Benny, ‘I knew them when they were just the owners of a small bicycle repair shop, before they became so famous.
’One day I arrived at the bike shop, to deliver a small package to them. I rang the bell, and Wilbur, the older of the two brothers, opened the door. ‘Hello, Benny the Mailman,’ he called cheerfully, ‘Orville, come quick – the glasses that we ordered have arrived!’
Orville joined us, and together they opened the package.
‘Excuse my curiosity, but what are these strange glasses?’ I asked.
‘These are the glasses that we will wear when we take off in our plane!’ said Orville.
‘Plane?’ I wondered. ‘What is a plane?’. ‘A flying machine, ‘ said Wilbur, ‘come and see for yourself.’
We went out to the backyard, where the Wright brothers’ plane stood, tall and impressive. ‘We built it by ourselves,’ Wilbur proudly explained, ‘and we’re almost ready for the first flight.’
Meanwhile, three robbers hid behind a thick bush outside the shop.
’I like those glasses,’ said the gang leader, a scary and muscular bully.
’Maybe we’ll just steal them boss? What do you think?’ said the second robber, and rubbed his hands together gleefully. ‘Yes, those three look like weaklings…’, the gang leader chuckled, and his two friends joined in on the laughter.
I gently stroked the side of the airplane. ‘But, how can such a heavy machine fly?’ I asked.
’Look closely at the wing, Benny.’ Orville explained, ‘it is arched, like the shell of a tortoise. When the plane moves forward quickly, the air will flow around the arched wing – and that will cause the plane to rise.’
’And these are for steering.’ Wilbur pointed at a pair of rods at the center of the plane.
’The pilot can pull them, and the plane will turn left or right, or go up and down.’
‘Amazing!’ I said, ‘then why aren’t you taking off?’
Orville scratched his head in embarrassment. ‘We just have one problem.’ He pointed at the wooden propeller. ‘The propellers will cause the plane to move forward – but we still haven’t decided where we need to place them.’
’Oh, come on Orville, it’s clear!’ said Wilbur, ‘the propellers need to be at the tail of the plane.’
’No way,’ his brother shook his head, ‘I think they have to be on the roof of the plane.’
’At the tail, Orville!’
’On the roof, little brother, the roof!’
The Wright Brothers continued arguing, when suddenly there was a scary noise behind us. ‘Hands up, weaklings!’ the gang leader shouted threateningly. The three criminals held large pieces of wood in their hands. ‘Hand over those glasses, and don’t give us any trouble…unless you want us to show you…’
’Oh no!’ Wilbur whispered, ‘we can’t let them steal our glasses! These are our flying glasses. Without them we won’t be able to take off on our first flight.’
I knew I had to help the Wright Brothers, otherwise all their hard, important work would have gone down the drain.
’Hey, ugly robbers!’ I yelled.
’What did you call us?’ the big bully robber was shocked.
’I said you were ugly. ‘ I yelled loudly, ‘you look like a baboon, and your two friends look like chimpanzees!’
The leader’s face reddened with rage. ‘Did you call me a baboon?! You have a lot of nerve! Catch him!’ he bellowed at the two other robbers.
I hopped on one of the bikes parked nearby and tried to escape.
’Quickly, get on the bikes!’ yelled the enormous robber to his friends.
’But boss, what about the glasses?’ asked the short robber. ‘Forget about the glasses – we need to teach this mailman a lesson. Let’s go, chase him!’
I pedaled as fast as I could, and rode quickly down the street. I looked back, and saw the three robbers chasing me on their bikes.
The three of them panted like an old steam engine: Just as I had thought, they may have looked scary, but they definitely weren’t athletes.
’Boss…boss…this is really hard…’ The short robber panted, red in the face and sweating.
’Don’t stop…..chasing…..him…..’ the gang leader ordered, but he already looked tired and worn out.
I turned onto a side path and continued pedaling quickly. I thought that if I could just manage to dodge them for a few more minutes, the tired robbers would give up and leave me alone.
But suddenly, I discovered that the small path had ended: I found myself standing at the edge of a tall cliff, with no way of escaping. The three robbers caught up to me. They climbed off their bikes, and started to approach me with large, menacing steps. I didn’t know what to do.
’Ha ha ha…’ the gang leader laughed cruelly, ‘we've got you, annoying mailman. Now I’ll teach you a lesson for calling me a chimpanzee…’
’Boss, you’re the baboon. We’re the chimps,’ the fat robber said.
’Does it really matter?!’ said the heated bully, ‘as long as we….teach him a lesson!
What’s that noise?’ There was a loud buzzing sound above us, and all of us looked up to the sky.
It was Orville Wright, with the flight glasses on his head, hovering over us in the flying machine.
’Hey, robbers! Let’s see you catch this!’ He laughed and threw something out of the plane.
Splat!! A yellowish liquid ran down the gang leader’s face. ‘Ouch! What is that?’ The robber looked at the thick liquid smeared all over his fingers. ‘An egg?? Ewwwww!!’
Splat!! Splash!! Splat!! A shower of broken and sticky eggs landed on the criminal’s heads. ‘This is so gross! Run!!’, the thieves howled, and ran away as fast as they could.
Orville landed the plane near me, Wilbur quickly joined us.
’How lucky! You saved me – I was afraid that these wicked robbers would catch me…’ I smiled with relief. ‘Thanks for risking yourself for us, Benny. That was very noble of you.’ Wilbur shook my hand.
’I thought the plane wasn’t ready yet – how were you able to take off?’ I asked the brothers.
‘We worked out where we have to put these rods: on the wings.’ explained Wilbur, and pointed to the large pair of rods that had propellers attached to them. ‘When the rods turns quickly, the propellers push the air towards the tail, and the plane moves forward. Wind flows around the wings, and the plane lifts off from the ground.’ Orville took off his flight glasses and gave them to me. ‘Benny, keep these glasses as a souvenir from the first flight ever!’
‘The Wright Brothers received a lot of attention,’ Grandpa Benny concluded, ‘and their flying machine is on display in a museum in the United States until this very day.’
He placed the glasses on Maya’s head. ‘Here, try flying the paper airplane now.’
Maya aimed the plane and threw it forward with all her might. The paper airplane glided out the kitchen window and sailed far, far away, until it reached the end of the yard. ‘Wow! Look how far it flew!’ she called out happily.
’What did I tell you, children – these glasses aren’t so ordinary….’ Grandpa Benny smiled.
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