48 Fun Facts About Wright Brothers

On what date did the Wright brothers make the first controlled, sustained powered flight?

Wilbur had won a coin toss for a first attempt three days earlier, but stalled after takeoff.

Near which Outer Banks town did the first flights take place?

Kitty Hawk was the nearest settlement and telegraph office; the flights themselves took place four miles south, at Kill Devil Hills.

What business did the Wright brothers run in Dayton to fund their flight experiments?

They opened the Wright Cycle Exchange in December 1892 and began making their own bicycles in 1896.

What breakthrough invention did the Wright brothers patent, rather than the airplane itself?

A three-axis control system: wing-warping for roll, a forward elevator for pitch and a rudder for yaw. Their 1906 patent, applied for in 1903, claimed this control system rather than a flying machine.

What was the profession of the Wrights' father, Milton?

Milton Wright was a clergyman and bishop of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ; Dayton neighbours called Wilbur and Orville 'the bishop's boys'.

What 1878 toy from their father did the brothers credit with sparking their interest in flight?

The rubber-band helicopter, made of paper, bamboo and cork, was based on a design by Frenchman Alphonse Penaud; when it broke, the boys built their own copies.

Which brother was born first?

Wilbur was born first, on April 16, 1867, near Millville, Indiana; Orville arrived four years later in Dayton, on August 19, 1871.

What injury derailed Wilbur's plans to attend Yale?

Wilbur lost his front teeth when a hockey stick struck his face in a winter 1885-86 game; the boy who hit him, Oliver Crook Haugh, was later executed for murder.

Which famous poet, Orville's classmate, was a client of the brothers' printing business?

They printed the Tattler, a weekly paper Dunbar edited.

Whose 1896 glider death did the Wrights cite as the start of their serious interest in flight?

Otto Lilienthal died in August 1896 after a glider crash; Wilbur later called him 'without question the greatest of the precursors'.

To whom did Wilbur write in May 1899 asking for information about aeronautics?

Wilbur wrote to the Smithsonian Institution on May 30, 1899; it sent pamphlets and a reading list, and decades later Orville would feud bitterly with the same institution.

Who suggested the mid-Atlantic coast to the Wrights for its regular breezes and soft sand?

Chanute visited their camp each season from 1901 to 1903, but never saw a powered flight.

What did the dejected Wilbur tell Orville on the trip home from the disappointing 1901 glider season?

Wilbur told Orville that man would not fly in a thousand years; the 1901 glider had produced only about a third of the lift they calculated, which led them to doubt Lilienthal's data.

What device did the Wrights build in their shop in 1901 to test dozens of miniature wings?

Their six-foot wind tunnel, built in late 1901, tested some 200 miniature wings; biographer Fred Howard called the tests 'the most crucial and fruitful aeronautical experiments ever conducted in so short a time'.

On what date did the Wrights apply for their famous 'Flying Machine' patent, based on the 1902 glider?

They filed on March 23, 1903, drafting the application themselves; it was rejected, and with attorney Henry Toulmin they were granted US Patent 821,393 on May 22, 1906.

Who built the engine for the 1903 Wright Flyer in just six weeks?

Charlie Taylor, the brothers' bicycle-shop mechanic, built the 12-horsepower engine in six weeks after no manufacturer could meet their weight requirement; its block was cast in aluminium.

What wood did the Wrights use to build the 1903 Flyer?

Spruce, light and strong, formed the spars and struts; the frame was covered in Pride of the West muslin and the propellers were three laminations of glued spruce.

Roughly what did the Wright Flyer cost to build?

The 1903 Flyer cost less than $1,000 in materials, while Samuel Langley had spent some $70,000, including $50,000 from the War Department, on his Aerodrome, which twice plunged into the Potomac.

How long did the first flight, by Orville, last on that historic December morning?

Orville's first flight lasted 12 seconds and covered 120 feet, at a ground speed of only 6.8 mph into a freezing 27 mph headwind.

How far did Wilbur fly on the fourth and longest flight of the first day?

Wilbur's fourth flight covered 852 feet in 59 seconds and ended with the frame of the front elevator badly broken.

Who snapped the famous photograph of the first flight?

Orville had pre-positioned the camera; Daniels died the day after Orville in 1948.

What happened to the 1903 Flyer after its fourth flight?

A gust of wind flipped the Flyer over while the men stood discussing the flights, wrecking it; it never flew again, and Orville later restored it for display.

Why did the hometown Dayton Journal refuse to publish the story of what happened on the Outer Banks?

A telegraph operator leaked the message and a Virginia paper printed a wildly inaccurate account instead.

Where near Dayton did the Wrights fly in 1904 and 1905?

Huffman Prairie, a cow pasture eight miles from Dayton, was lent rent-free by bank president Torrence Huffman; the field is within Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park.

What did Wilbur achieve on September 20, 1904, that no powered aircraft had done before?

Wilbur flew the first complete circle by a powered aircraft, covering 4,080 feet in about a minute and a half over Huffman Prairie.

Roughly how long was Wilbur's longest flight of 1905, on October 5?

Wilbur stayed aloft some 38 to 39 minutes on October 5, 1905, circling about 24 miles over Huffman Prairie until the fuel ran out.

What two-word headline did the Paris Herald run about the Wrights in 1906?

'Flyers or liars?' asked the Paris edition of the New York Herald in February 1906; French sceptics called them 'bluffeurs' until Wilbur flew in France in August 1908.

Who became the first fixed-wing aircraft passenger, on May 14, 1908?

Charlie Furnas, a Dayton mechanic, rode as passenger at Kill Devil Hills on May 14, 1908; their contracts required flying with a passenger, so the 1905 Flyer was fitted with two upright seats.

Near which French town did Wilbur begin his public flight demonstrations in August 1908?

Wilbur's first public flight, on August 8, 1908, was at the Hunaudieres racecourse near Le Mans; his effortless banking turns amazed onlookers including Louis Bleriot, and former doubters apologised.

Who became the first airplane crash fatality, in September 1908?

Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge, Orville's passenger, died when a propeller split during the Army demonstration at Fort Myer on September 17, 1908; Orville broke a leg and several ribs.

Which sibling nursed Orville for seven weeks after the Fort Myer crash and helped negotiate the Army contract?

Katharine Wright took leave from teaching to nurse Orville at Fort Myer for seven weeks; when she married Henry Haskell in 1926 Orville cut her off, relenting only just before her death in 1929.

Which president presented awards to the Wrights at the White House in June 1909?

President William Howard Taft presented the Aero Club of America's gold medals at the White House on June 10, 1909; Dayton followed with a lavish two-day homecoming celebration.

What unusual accessory was fitted to Wilbur's plane for his 1909 flight up the Hudson River?

Wilbur lashed a canoe beneath the plane as a flotation device in case he ditched; about a million New Yorkers watched him fly during the Hudson-Fulton Celebration of 1909.

How many times did the Wright brothers fly together?

They had promised their father never to fly together; on May 25, 1910, with his permission, they flew together once, and that same day Orville took the bishop himself up, who called 'Higher, Orville, higher!'

Which rival aviator did the Wrights sue over the use of ailerons, starting a years-long 'patent war'?

Glenn Curtiss's use of ailerons prompted the Wrights' 1909 lawsuit and a patent war that ran until World War I; the two firms merged in 1929 to form Curtiss-Wright.

Which pilot made the first US coast-to-coast flight in 1911 in a plane named after a grape soda?

Calbraith Perry Rodgers flew the Wright Model EX 'Vin Fiz', sponsored by the grape soda, from New York to Pasadena between September 17 and November 5, 1911, with dozens of stops and many crashes.

What was the first known commercial air cargo, flown by the Wright Company in 1910?

Philip Parmalee flew two bolts of dress silk from Dayton to Columbus on November 7, 1910 for the Morehouse-Martens department store, which paid $5,000 and sold the silk cut up as souvenirs.

Of what did Wilbur Wright die in May 1912, aged 45?

Wilbur died of typhoid fever on May 30, 1912, at the family home in Dayton; his father Milton wrote of 'a short life, full of consequences'.

Wilbur once quipped that he did not have time for both an airplane and what?

Wilbur said he had no time for both a wife and a flying machine; both brothers were lifelong bachelors who lived with their father and sister Katharine.

Where abroad did Orville send the 1903 Flyer in 1928 in protest at the Smithsonian?

Orville lent the Flyer to the Science Museum in London in 1928 because the Smithsonian had credited Langley's Aerodrome as the first machine 'capable' of manned flight; it came home only after his death in 1948.

For how much did the Smithsonian buy the 1903 Flyer from Orville's estate in 1948?

The Flyer was sold for one dollar under a 1948 agreement that forbids the Smithsonian from ever claiming an earlier aircraft was capable of controlled manned flight, on pain of the heirs reclaiming it.

Which anniversary did President Franklin D. Roosevelt designate as National Aviation Day in 1939?

National Aviation Day falls on August 19, Orville's birthday, under Roosevelt's 1939 proclamation; Orville served on the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics from 1920 to 1948.

On what aircraft did Orville take his last flight, in 1944?

On April 26, 1944 Orville briefly took the controls of a Lockheed Constellation piloted by Howard Hughes, remarking that its 123-foot wingspan was longer than his first flight of 120 feet.

Which state's licence plates carry the slogan 'First in Flight'?

North Carolina's plates carry 'First in Flight' for the Kill Devil Hills flights; Ohio counters with 'Birthplace of Aviation', since the Wrights designed and built the Flyer in Dayton.

Where were the Wrights' last workshop and home moved to in 1937?

Henry Ford moved the Wright Cycle Shop and the family's Hawthorn Street home to Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan, his open-air museum of historic buildings.

What did NASA name the first Martian airfield, used by the Ingenuity helicopter in 2021?

NASA named Ingenuity's takeoff site Wright Brothers Field in April 2021; a scrap of the 1903 Flyer's wing fabric rode beneath the helicopter's solar panel, as Neil Armstrong had carried a piece to the Moon.

Where are both Wright brothers buried?

Both lie in the family plot at Woodland Cemetery in Dayton; Orville died in January 1948, more than 35 years after Wilbur, having lived to see supersonic flight.

What was the name of the weekly newspaper the brothers launched from their Dayton print shop in 1889?

The West Side News first appeared in March 1889, with Orville as publisher and Wilbur as editor; Orville had left high school to start the printing business.