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How long was the first powered flight, by the Wright brothers in 1903?
It covered about 120 feet on 17 December 1903.
The flight on 17 December 1903 near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, began at 10:35 a.m. with Orville Wright lying prone on the lower wing and steering by shifting his hips to warp the wings. Wilbur ran alongside to steady the machine until it left the ground. The first hop covered about 120 feet in about 12 seconds.
The brothers made four flights that morning, each longer than the one before. The longest, flown by Wilbur, lasted 59 seconds, and from memory covered roughly 850 feet. A telegram home misreported it as 57 seconds. Later in the day a gust of wind overturned and wrecked the Flyer, which ended flying for the season.
What made this flight historic was not distance but the combination of features: a powered machine, carrying a pilot, that took off under its own power, flew under control, and landed at a point as high as its start. The Flyer's wing-warping and rudder gave control in three axes, a design that other contemporary experimenters lacked. It was a heavier-than-air craft powered by a lightweight gasoline engine the brothers built themselves with their mechanic Charlie Taylor. The craft's low ground speed owed much to a strong headwind that day.