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The Wright Brothers: Two Gentlemen From Dayton

Why do we study the Wright Brothers? It's hard to imagine our world without airplanes and jets. Yet without the incredible scientific discoveries of flight that these two brothers from Dayton, Ohio uncovered, our world might be very different. In the early 1900s there were others attempting to invent a flying machine, but only the Wright Brothers correctly understood the complexity of the problem. Their scientific approach to simultaneously solving the issues of control, lift and propulsion was revolutionary. Airplanes today, rely on the same principles of flight discovered by Wilbur and Orville Wright.

Childhood - Wilbur was born near Richmond, Indiana, in 1867, and Orville was born in Dayton, Ohio, in 1871. They were two of seven children of Milton and Susan Wright. Milton Wright, a well-educated minister in the United Brethren Church, instilled a love of learning in his children. Throughout their lives, the boys had access to their father's extensive personal library containing books on a broad range of subjects. Susan Wright was also college-educated. As the daughter of a carriage-maker, she provided them with a curiosity of how things worked and the mechanical ability to test their ideas.

Early Entrepreneurs - As young men, Orville and Wilbur started a printing and publishing company. In 1889, they began publishing the West Side News, a small four-page newspaper. A few years later in 1892, they became bicycle manufactures to capitalize on the bicycle "craze" that was sweeping the nation. Their Wright Cycle Co. produced two models — the "Van Cleve" and the "Wright Flyer."

Interest in Flight - In 1899, Wilbur rekindled a boyhood interest in the possibility of flight. He sent a letter to the Smithsonian Institution requesting any information they might have on flight. The pamphlets they sent started the boys on their fated path. The more they studied, the more interested they became in building and flying their own aircraft. The Wrights decided the best course was to design a glider that could at first be flown as a kite. They designed a biplane, or "double-decker." The brothers knew that a big problem would be in maintaining control once the glider was airborne. They calculated that movable surfaces were the answer to the problem of control and proceeded to work out their design.

Kitty Hawk - They felt that Dayton was not well-suited to testing their glider. So they embarked on a methodical process to find the best place to fly. After corresponding with the Smithsonian, the National Weather Bureau, and a weather station in North Carolina, they chose the wind-wept beaches and dunes of Kitty Hawk, NC as their testing ground. From 1900 to December of 1903, Wilbur and Orville traveled between Dayton and Kitty Hawk to refine and test their machines. Then on December 17th, 1903, the boys launched their first powered machine into the sky. Powered by an engine and propellers they designed and built in Dayton, and relying on all they had learned about lift and control, first Orville then Wilbur became the first to fly a heavier-than-air powered flying machine.

Fame and Fortune - Immediately after December 17, 1903, the boys returned to Dayton, Ohio. There they spent the next two years refining their airplane at Huffman Prairie, a cow pasture that became their experimental flying field. By 1905 they had created the first practical airplane capable of taking off, turning in the air, and landing safely. Between 1905 and 1908, Wilbur and Orville attempted to interest the United States military and a French company in purchasing their invention. Finally, in 1908, Wilbur went to France and Orville to Virginia near Washington, DC to demonstrate their plane to the French and the U.S. Army. While both demonstrations were successful, on the last day of flying, Orville's plane developed propeller troubles and crashed killing his passenger Lieutenant T. E. Selfridge and seriously injuring Orville. However, this accident did not deter the Army's interest in the plane. Once out of the hospital, Orville and his sister, Katharine, traveled to Europe to join Wilbur. In France, Wilbur flew longer and higher than ever before. Then in 1909, the three Wrights returned to Dayton and to a grand hometown celebration in their honor.