[Orchestral music plays]
In 1903,
the Wright brothers used American ingenuity
to achieve the first powered, controlled,
and sustained flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
But over the next decade,
European nations invested in aviation research,
leaving the United States behind,
by the time of the First World War.
To advance U.S. flight research,
a committee of government, military,
and industry leaders was formed in 1915.
It was called the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics.
The NACA.
It contributed to some of the most important advancements
in the history of flight.
And its people,
its laboratories,
and legacy
became the basis for NASA
at the dawn of the space age.
[Orchestral music fades]