Wilbur and Orville Wright were American inventors and pioneers of aviation. In 1903 the Wright brothers achieved the first powered, sustained and controlled aeroplane flight; they surpassed their milestone two years later when they built and flew the first fully practical aeroplane.
Early life
Wilbur Wright was born on April 16, 1867, near Millville, Indiana. He was the middle child in a family of five children. His father, Milton Wright, was a bishop in the Church of the United Brethren in Christ. His mother was Susan Catherine Koerner. As a child, Wilbur’s playmate was his younger brother, Orville Wright, born in 1871.
DO YOU KNOW? Neither Wilbur nor Orville attended college, but their younger sister Katherine did.
Milton Wright’s father often brought back small toys for his children. In 1878 he brought back a small model helicopter for his boys. Made of cork, bamboo and paper, and powered by a rubber band to twirl its blades, the model was based on a design by the French aeronautical pioneer Alphonse Pénaud. Fascinated by the toy and its mechanics, Wilbur and Orville would develop a lifelong love of aeronautics and flying.
Wilbur was a bright and studious child and excelled in school. His personality was outgoing and robust, and he made plans to attend Yale University after high school. In the winter of 1885-86, an accident changed the course of Wilbur’s life. He was badly injured in an ice hockey game when another player’s stick hit him in the face.
Though most of his injuries healed, the incident plunged Wilbur into a depression. He did not receive his high school diploma, cancelled college plans, and retreated to his family’s home. Wilbur spent much of this period at home, reading books in his family’s library, and caring for his ailing mother. Susan Koerner died in 1889 of tuberculosis.
In 1889 the brothers started their newspaper, the West Side News. Wilbur edited the paper, and Orville was the publisher. The brothers also shared a passion for bicycles- a new craze that was sweeping the country. In 1892 Wilbur and Orville opened a bike shop, fixing bicycles and selling their design.
Developing the Airplane
Always working on different mechanical projects and keeping up with scientific research, the Wright brothers closely followed the research of German aviator Otto Lilienthal. When Lilienthal died in a glider crash, the brothers decided to start their experiments with flight. Determined to develop their successful design, Wilbur and Orville headed to Kitty Hawk, North Korea, known for its strong winds.
Wilbur and Orville set to work trying to figure out how to design wings for flight. They observed that birds angled their wings for balance and control, and tried to emulate this, developing a concept called “wing warping.” When they added a moveable rudder, the Wright brothers found they had the magic formula-on December 17, 1903, they succeeded in flying the first free, controlled flight of a power-driven, heavier than an aeroplane. Wilbur flew their plane for 59 seconds, over a distance of 852 feet, an extraordinary achievement.
The Wright brothers soon found that their success was not appreciated by all. Many in the press, as well as fellow flight experts, were reluctant to believe the brothers’ claims at all. As a result, Wilbur set out for Europe in 1908, where he hoped he would have more success convincing the public and selling aeroplanes.
Death and Legacy
Wilbur fell ill on a trip to Boston in April 1912. He was diagnosed with typhoid fever and died on May 30 at his family home in Dayton, Ohio. Milton Wright wrote in his diary, “A short life, full of consequences. An unfailing intellect, imperturbable temper, great self-reliance and as great modesty, seeing the right clearly, pursuing it steadily, he lived and died.”
Where did the idea of the aeroplane come from?
It wasn't until the turn of the nineteenth century that an English baronet from the gloomy moors of Yorkshire conceived a flying machine with fixed wings, a propulsion system, and movable control surfaces. This was the fundamental concept of the aeroplane.
Additional information
Other names for them; Will and Orv; The Bishop's boys
Relatives: Katherine wright (sister)
Awards: collier trophy
aircraft designed: wright flyer, wright flyer 2, wright flyer 3, wright glider.
Orville was the first brother airborne.
A toy launched their flying obsession
Neither brother received a high school diploma.
The Wright brothers once printed a daily newspaper.
The brothers never married.
The Wright brothers flew together just one time.
Orville and Wilbur had promised their father, who feared losing both sons in an aeroplane accident, that they would never fly together. The father made a single exception, however, on May 25, 1910, and allowed the brothers to share a six-minute flight near Dayton with Orville piloting and Wilbur the passenger. After landing, Orville took his 82-year-old father on his first and only flight. As Orville gained elevation, his excited father cried out, “Higher, Orville, higher!”
11. After the first-day airborne, the 1903 Wright Flyer never flew again.
The brothers made four flights in the Wright Flyer on December 17, 1903, and as Orville and Wilbur stood discussing the final flight, a sudden strong gust of wind caught hold of the aircraft and flipped it several times. The aircraft sustained such heavy damage to its ribs, motor and chain guides that it was beyond repair. The Wright Flyer was created back to Dayton and never flew again.
12. Orville was involved in the first fatal aviation accident.
After their success in 1903, the Wright brothers continued their aircraft development. They marketed their two-passenger Wright Military Flyer to the U.S. Army, which required a demonstration. On September 17, 1908, Orville took to the air for a demonstration flight at Fort Myer, Virginia, with Army Signal Corps Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge as a passenger. Just a few minutes into the flight, the propeller suddenly disintegrated, the aircraft spiralled out of control and it smashed into the ground at full speed. Rescuers pulled an unconscious Selfridge from the wreckage, and the lieutenant died hours later. Orville was hospitalized for six weeks after suffering a broken leg, four broken ribs and a back injury that impaired him for the rest of his life.
13. For decades, Orville refused to donate the Wright Flyer to the Smithsonian Institution.
14. Neil Armstrong carried a piece of the Wright Flyer with him to the moon.
When another aeronautical pioneer from Ohio, Neil Armstrong, became the first man to step foot on the moon in 1969, inside his spacesuit pocket was a piece of muslin fabric from the left-wing of the original 1903 Wright Flyer along with a piece of wood from the aeroplane’s left propeller.
