Wright brothers

The Wright brothers, Orville Wright (August 19, 1871 - January 30, 1948) and Wilbur Wright (April 16, 1867 - May 30, 1912), are generally credited with making the first controlled, powered, heavier-than-air flight on December 17, 1903. In the two years afterward, they developed their flying machine into the world's first practical airplane, along with many other aviation milestones.

Currently, their feat is officially recognized by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) as being the first controlled, powered, sustained (from takeoff to landing) flight involving a heavier-than-air vehicle, using mechanically unassisted takeoff (thrust/lift created chiefly by onboard propulsion).

Nevertheless, the Wright brothers' claim to this aviation "first" has been subject to counter-claims by various parties. Much controversy persists around the many competing claims of early aviators. See first flying machine for more discussion.

Childhood and youth

The Wright brothers were the children of Milton Wright (1828-1917); and Susan Catherine Koerner (1831-1889). Wilbur Wright was born in Millville, Indiana in 1867, Orville Wright was born in Dayton, Ohio in 1871. The brothers never married. The Wright siblings were Reuchlin (1861-1920), Lorin (1862-1939), Katharine (1874-1929), and twins Otis and Ida (born 1870, died in infancy). Orville was expelled from one of his elementary schools for mischievous behavior.David Wallechinsky & Amy Wallace: The New Book of Lists, p.12. Canongate, 2005. ISBN 1841957194. In 1878 their father, who traveled often as bishop of a regional church, brought home a toy "helicopter" for his two younger sons. The device was based on an invention of French aeronautical pioneer Alphonse Penaud. Made of paper, bamboo and cork with a rubber band to twirl its twin blades, it was about a foot long. Wilbur and Orville played with it until it broke, then built their own. In later years, they pointed to their experience with the toy as the initial spark of their interest in flying.

In 1885 or '86 Wilbur was accidentally struck in the head by a "bat" while playing an ice-skating game with friends. He had been vigorous and athletic until then, and although his injuries did not appear especially severe, he became withdrawn, and did not attend Yale as planned. He spent the next few years largely housebound, caring for his terminally-ill mother and reading extensively in his father's library. He drifted into the printing business his brother Orville started, but seemed to have no particular ambitions.

Early career and research

Both brothers received their high school educations, but did not receive diplomas. They grew up in Dayton (but also lived in Iowa and Indiana for a few years), where they ran a printing business and, for a brief time, weekly and daily newspapers, then opened a bicycle repair, design, and manufacturing company (the Wright Cycle Company) in 1892. They used this endeavor to fund their growing interest in flight. In the early or mid-1890s they saw newspaper or magazine articles and probably photographs of the dramatic glides by Otto Lilienthal in Germany. The year 1896 brought three important aeronautical events. In May, Smithsonian Institution Secretary Samuel Langley successfully flew an unmanned steam-powered model aircraft. In the summer, Chicago engineer Octave Chanute brought together several young aviation enthusiasts who tested various types of gliders over the sand dunes along the shore of Lake Michigan. In August, Lilienthal was killed in the plunge of his glider. These events lodged in the consciousness of the brothers. In May 1899 Wilbur wrote a letter to the Smithsonian requesting information and publications about aeronautics. Drawing on the work of Sir George Cayley, Chanute, Lilienthal, Leonardo da Vinci, and Langley, they began their mechanical aeronautical experimentation that year. The brothers extended the technology of flight by emphasizing control of the aircraft instead of increased power. They developed three-axis control, a fundamental principle of aviation which is still used.

The Wrights had researched and initially relied upon the aeronautical literature of the day, including Lilienthal's tables; but finding that the Smeaton Coefficient (a variable in the formula for lift and the formula for drag) was wrong, they built a wind tunnel and tested over two hundred different wing shapes in it, eventually devising their own tables relating air pressure to wing shape. Their work and projects with bicycles, gears, shop motors, and balance (while riding a bicycle), were critical to their success in creating the mechanical aeroplane.

During their research, the Wrights always worked together, and their contributions to the aeroplane's development are inseparable. Their assistant Charlie Taylor helped with some of the day to day work, especially with the wind tunnel and the engine, which he built based on talks with the brothers. The Wrights themselves did all of the theoretical work and most of the other hands-on construction.

Ideas about control

Despite Lilienthal's fate, the brothers favored his strategy: to practice gliding in order to master the art of control prior to attempting flight with a motor. The death of British aeronaut Percy Pilcher in another hang gliding crash in 1898 only reinforced their opinion that a reliable method of pilot control, not elusive built-in stability, was the key to successful—and safe—flight. At the outset of their experiments they regarded control as the unsolved third part of "the flying problem". They believed sufficiently promising knowledge of the other two issues--wings and engines--already existed. The Wright brothers thus differed sharply from famous practitioners of the day, notably Ader, Maxim and Langley who built powerful engines, attached them to airframes equipped with untested control devices, and expected to take to the air with no previous piloting experience. Though agreeing with Lilienthal's idea of practice, the Wrights saw that his method of balance and control--shifting his body weight--was fatally inadequate. They determined to find something better.

Observation of birds led Wilbur to conclude they changed the angle of the ends of their wings to make their bodies roll right or left. The brothers decided this would also be a good way for a flying machine to turn--to "bank" or "lean" into the turn just like a bird—and just like a person riding a bicycle, an experience with which they were thoroughly familiar. Equally important, they hoped this method would enable recovery when the wind tilted the machine to one side (lateral balance). They puzzled over how to achieve the same effect with man-made wings and eventually discovered wing-warping when Wilbur idly twisted a long inner tube box at the bicycle shop.

Other aeronautical investigators regarded flight as if it were not so different from surface locomotion, except the surface would be elevated. They thought in terms of a ship's rudder for steering, while the flying machine remained essentially level in the air, as did a train or an automobile or a ship at the surface. The idea of deliberately leaning, or rolling, to one side either seemed undesirable or did not enter their thinking. Some of these other investigators, including Langley and Chanute, sought the ideal of "inherent stability," believing the pilot of a flying machine would not be able to react quickly enough to wind disturbances to effectively use mechanical controls. The Wright brothers, on the other hand, wanted the pilot to have absolute control. For that reason, their early designs made no concessions to built-in stability (such as dihedral wings). They deliberately designed their 1903 first powered flyer with anhedral wings, which are inherently unstable. The design mimicked seagulls, however, whose drooping wings help the birds remain balanced in gusty winds.

Flights

Toward flight

In 1899 Wilbur put wing-warping to the test by building and flying a five-foot box kite in the approximate shape of a biplane. When the wings were warped, or twisted, one end would receive more lift and rise, which would start a turn in the direction of the lower end. To allow warping, the front and rear posts between the wings of the kite (and later, manned gliders) were unbraced. Warping was controlled by wires running through the structure, which led to sticks held by the kite flyer, who could pull one or the other to twist the wings and make the kite bank left or right. It worked.

In 1900 the brothers went to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina to continue their aeronautical work — choosing Kitty Hawk (specifically, a sand dune called Kill Devil Hill) on the advice of a Weather Bureau meteorologist because of its strong and steady winds, and because its remote location afforded the brothers privacy from prying eyes in the highly competitive race to invent a successful heavier-than-air flying machine.

The gliders

For more information, see Wright Glider

They based the design of their first full-size glider on the Chanute-Herring "double-decker," a hang glider which flew well in experiments in 1896 near Chicago. The uprights between the wings of the Chanute and Wright gliders were braced by wires in a modified "Pratt truss," which Chanute, an engineer, had adapted from his bridge-building experience. The general appearance of these gliders was similar to the biplanes that would usher in the era of flight in the next few decades.

The brothers flew the glider only a few days in the summer of 1900 at Kitty Hawk. In early tests Wilbur was aboard the glider while it flew as a kite not far above the ground with men below holding tether ropes. Many of the kite tests were unpiloted with sandbags or chains (and even a local boy) as onboard ballast. The glider was also tested unmanned while suspended from a small homemade tower. Wilbur (and possibly Orville) made free glides on only one day. Although lift was less than expected, the brothers were encouraged since the front elevator worked well and they had no accidents. Because they did so little untethered gliding, they were not able to give wing-warping a true test.

The pilot lay flat on the lower wing, as planned, to reduce aerodynamic drag. As a glide ended, the pilot was supposed to lower himself to a vertical position through an opening in the wing and land on his feet with his arms wrapped over the framework. Within a few glides, however, they discovered the pilot could remain prone on the wing, headfirst, without undue danger when landing. They made all their flights in that position for the next five years.

They built the 1901 glider with a much larger wing area, hoping to improve lift. This glider, however, delivered two major disappointments. It produced much less lift than calculated and sometimes failed to respond properly to wing-warping, turning opposite the direction intended. On the trip home after their second season, Wilbur, stung with disappointment, remarked to Orville that man would fly, but not in their lifetimes. In the fall of 1901 they renewed their efforts and conducted systematic wind tunnel experiments. In only a few weeks they re-defined fundamental knowledge of lift, drag, wing shapes and airfoil curves. With a greater "aspect ratio"--longer wingspan and shorter chord (front-to-back wing dimension)--the 1902 glider that emerged from this research looked much more like the modern idea of an aircraft than their previous machines, possessing a notably more graceful appearance. The airfoil also had a flatter camber--the ratio of the wing's maximum thickness to its chord. The 1901 wings had been significantly thicker, a feature copied from Lilienthal. With their own wind tunnel data in hand, they were no longer copying anyone else's designs.

With characteristic caution, the brothers first flew the 1902 glider as a large unmanned kite, as they had done with their two previous versions. Rewarding their wind tunnel work, the glider produced the expected lift. It also had a new structural feature: a fixed, rear vertical rudder, which the brothers hoped would eliminate the problem of turns that went contrary to warping control. They understood that warping to increase lift at one end of the wing in order to raise it and bank into a turn also increased drag on that end, slowing it, which sometimes made the aircraft turn in the wrong direction.

The improved wing design, generating greater lift, enabled consistently longer glides, but the problem of turns was only partly solved. The glider did not turn opposite its warping control anymore, but sometimes when the wind tilted the glider to one side, the craft failed to respond to wing-warping and continued to slide toward the lower wing, which hit the ground. Orville suggested to Wilbur that the rear rudder be moveable, under control of the pilot, to overcome the problem. Turning the rudder would reduce pressure on one side of it--pressure that could force the glider to continue an unwanted turn--and increase pressure on the other side, in the direction of a desired turn. Through logic and experiments in the air, the brothers disovered the rudder should be turned toward the wingtip that was warped to receive less lift (the lower wing when making a turn, the higher wing when leveling off from a turn or a wind disturbance).

To simplify matters, they connected the rudder to the warping controls so a single movement (of their hips in the warping "cradle") simultaneously controlled wing warping and rudder deflection. With this method they achieved true control in turns and made about a thousand glides, some lasting nearly 30 seconds and exceeding 600 feet distance--the best results anyone had ever achieved. Thus, did three axis-control evolve: wing-warping for roll (lateral motion), forward elevator for pitch (up and down) and rear rudder for yaw (side to side). On March 23 1903 they applied for a patent for their novel technique of flight control.

Adding power

In 1903, they built the Wright Flyer - later the Flyer I (today popularly known as the Kitty Hawk) - carved their own propellers, and had a purpose-built engine made by Charlie Taylor in their bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio. The propellers had an 80% efficiency rate. The engine was superior to manufactured ones, having a low enough weight-to-power ratio to use on an aeroplane. The chains used to drive the propellers, though resembling those of bicycles, were heavy-duty hardware from a manufacturer of automobile chain-drives. While the early engines used by the Wright brothers are thought to no longer exist, a later example, serial number 17 from circa 1910, is on display at the New England Air Museum in Connecticut.

By autumn 1903 the Wright brothers were skilled glider pilots. Before attempting their first powered flights of the year, they made many glides in their 1902 machine, surpassing their own records for duration and distance.

Then on December 17 1903, in a frigid wind gusting to 27 miles an hour, the Wrights took to the air in their powered Flyer, both of them twice. The first flight, by Orville, of 39 meters (120 feet) in 12 seconds, was recorded in a famous photograph. In the fourth flight of the day, the one most fully controlled, Wilbur flew 279 meters (852 ft) in 59 seconds. Their altitude on the four flights was about ten feet above the ground. ^*.

The flights were witnessed by 4 lifeguards and a boy from the village, making it arguably the first public flight. A local newspaper reported the event, inaccurately. Only one other newspaper, the Cincinnati Enquirer, printed the story the next day.

The Flyer I cost less than a thousand dollars to construct. It had a wingspan of 40 feet (12 m), weighed 750 pounds (340 kg), and sported a 12 hp (9 kW), 170 pound (77 kg) engine. After the fourth flight of December 17th, a strong wind overturned the parked Flyer and wrecked it; the aircraft never flew again. The brothers shipped the pieces home, and years later Orville restored the Flyer, lending it to several museums in the U.S., then to a British museum (see Smithsonian dispute below), before it was finally installed in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. in 1948.

Milestones of the flight

The Wright Flyer flight was notable in that 1) the aircraft moved under its own power, unassisted by gravity; 2) the flight was prolonged through direct, conscious, and active manipulation of control surfaces, instead of merely making an uncontrolled "hop"; 3) the flight has been reproduced experimentally using a painstakingly recreated replica of the original aircraft. Also notable is the fact that the Wright brothers accurately described several principles of flight (including aerodynamics and propeller design) that previous pioneers had either described inaccurately or not at all.

It is important to note that several replicas of the original Wright Flyer have been modified by using modern aerodynamic knowledge to improve their flight characteristics. However, at least one replica exists that has made flights without being so modified. The Wright Experience, through painstaking research of original documents, photographs, and artifacts from the original Flyer (conducted much like an archaeological expedition), managed to accurately and precisely recreate it. Their stated purpose was to build an exact replica of the original aircraft, whether or not it would actually fly. As it turned out, the aircraft did indeed make several successful flights.

Trouble establishing legitimacy

The Wrights established a flying field at Huffman Prairie near Dayton and continued work in 1904, building the Flyer II. In May they invited reporters to their first flight attempt of the year, but engine troubles prevented any flying, and they could manage only a very short hop a few days later with fewer reporters present. After that, local newspapers virtually ignored them.

Lighter winds and lower air density than in Kitty Hawk (due to Ohio's higher altitude and higher temperatures) made takeoffs very difficult, and they had to use a much longer starting rail, stretching to hundreds of feet. During the spring and summer they suffered many hard landings, real crackups, repeated Flyer damage, and bodily bumps and bruises to show for it. In August, making an unassisted takeoff, they finally flew farther than their longest powered flight at Kitty Hawk. Then they decided to use a catapult to make takeoffs easier and tried it for the first time on September 7th. On September 20th, 1904 Wilbur flew a complete circle in about a minute and a half—the first in history by a heavier-than-air flying machine. By the end of the year, the brothers had made 105 flights over the rather soggy 85 acre pasture, which, remarkably, is virtually unchanged today from its original condition and is now part of Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park, adjacent to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

In 1905, they built an improved aeroplane, the Flyer III, and by October 5, Wilbur set a record of over 39 minutes in the air and 24 1/2 miles (39 km) circling Huffman Prairie, landing only when his fuel ran out. The flight was seen by a number of people, including several invited friends and their father. Reporters showed up the next day (their first appearance at the field since May the previous year), but the brothers declined to fly. The only photos of the flights of 1904-05 were taken by the brothers.

In 1904 Ohio beekeeping businessman Amos Root, a technology enthusiast, saw a few flights including the first circle. Articles he wrote for his beekeeping magazine were the only published eyewitness reports of the Huffman Prairie flights, except for the unimpressive early hop local newsmen saw. Root offered a report to Scientific American magazine, but the editor turned it down. As a result, the news was not widely known outside of Ohio, and was often met with skepticism. The Paris edition of the Herald Tribune headlined a 1906 article on the Wrights "FLYERS OR LIARS?"

In years to come, Dayton newspapers would proudly celebrate the hometown Wright brothers as national heroes, but the local newsmen's ability to overlook one of the biggest stories in human history as it was happening a few miles from their doorstep stands as a unique chapter in the annals of American journalism.

The Wright brothers were, in fact, complicit in the lack of attention they received. Wary of the competition stealing their plans, after 1905 they refused to make public demonstrations or take part in air shows before signing firm contracts with the military. They attempted to sign contracts with the United States Army, the French Army, the British Army, and the German Army, but all refused because the Wrights insisted on a signed contract before giving a flight demonstration. Thus, doubted or scorned by the press, the Wright brothers continued their work in semi-obscurity, while other aviation pioneers like Brazilian Alberto Santos-Dumont and American Glenn Curtiss were occupying the limelight.

The Wright brothers made no flights at all in 1906 and 1907. After finally signing contracts with a French company and the U.S. government, they went back to Kitty Hawk in May 1908 with the 1905 Flyer, modified with seats for pilot and passenger, and began practicing for their all-important demonstration flights. Their contracts required them to be able to carry a passenger. After tests with sandbags in the passenger seat, Charlie Furnas, a helper from Dayton, became the first airplane passenger on a few short flights May 14. For safety and as a promise to their father, Wilbur and Orville did not fly together.

The patent

Their 1903 patent application, which they wrote themselves, was rejected. In early 1904 they hired Ohio patent attorney Henry Toulmin, and on May 22 1906 they were granted patent #821,393 for a "Flying Machine". Significantly, this patent illustrated a non-powered flying machine. The patent's importance lies in its claim of a new and useful method of controlling a flying machine, powered or not. The technique of wing-warping is described, but the patent explicitly states that wing-warping need not be the only method that could be employed to vary the angle presented to the air by the outer portions of a machine's wings. The concept of varying the angle near the wingtips, by whatever means, is central to the patent. The broad protection intended by this language was important in the patent infringement lawsuits the Wrights brought and won against Glenn Curtiss and other early aviators who adopted ailerons while the Wrights continued to use wing-warping (see Patent War section below). The patent also describes the innovative steerable rear vertical rudder and its vitally important use in combination with wing-warping to overcome the problem of "skidding" (adverse yaw) when turning the aeroplane. Finally, the patent describes the forward elevator, used for ascending and descending.

Public showing

The brothers' contracts with the U.S. Army and a French syndicate depended on successful public flight demonstrations that met certain conditions. The brothers had to divide their efforts. Wilbur sailed for Europe; Orville would fly near Washington, D.C.

Wilbur made their first official public demonstration on August 8, 1908, at the race track of Le Mans, France. His first flight lasted only one minute 45 seconds, but his ability to effortlessly make banking turns and fly a circle amazed and stunned onlookers, including several pioneer French aviators. In the following days he made a series of technically challenging flights including figure-eights, demonstrating to the world his skills as a pilot and the capability of his flying machine, which far surpassed those of all other pilot pioneers. The French public was thrilled by Wilbur's feats, and the Wright brothers became world famous overnight. In late 1908, Mrs. Hart O. Berg, the wife of the brothers' European business agent, became the first woman airplane passenger when she flew with Wilbur in Le Mans.

Orville followed his brother's success by demonstrating another nearly identical flyer to the United States Army at Fort Myer, Virginia, starting on September 3, 1908. On September 9 he made the first hour-long flight. On September 17 Army lieutenant Thomas Selfridge rode along as his passenger, serving as an official observer. A few minutes into the flight at an altitude of about 100 feet, a propeller split, sending the aircraft out of control. Selfridge was killed in the crash, the first person to die in powered airplane. Orville was badly injured, suffering broken ribs and a leg. The brothers' sister Katharine, a school teacher, rushed from Dayton to Washington and stayed by Orville's side for the many weeks of his hospitalization. She helped negotiate a one-year extension of the Army contract.

Deeply shocked by the news, Wilbur determined to make even more impressive flight demonstrations; in the ensuing days and weeks he set new records for altitude and duration. In January 1909 Orville and Katharine joined him in France, and for a time they were the three most famous people in the world, sought after by kings, princes, prime ministers, reporters and the public. In February Katharine flew as Wilbur's passenger. The trio traveled to Pau, in the south of France, where Wilbur made many more public flights, giving rides to a procession of officers, journalists and statesmen. In April Wilbur gave demonstrations in Italy where a cameraman climbed aboard and made the first motion picture from an airplane.

After their return to the U.S., the brothers and Katharine were invited to the White House where President Taft bestowed awards upon them. Dayton followed up with a lavish two-day homecoming celebration. In July 1909 Orville, with Wilbur assisting, completed the proving flights for the U.S. Army, meeting the requirements of a two-seater able to fly with a passenger for an hour at an average of speed of 40 miles an hour (64 km/h) and land undamaged. They sold the airplane to the Army's Aeronautical Division, U.S. Signal Corps for $30,000 (which included a $5,000 bonus for exceeding the speed specification). Wilbur climaxed an extraordinary year in early October when he flew at New York City's Hudson-Fulton celebrations, circling the Statute of Liberty and making a 33-minute flight up and down the Hudson River alongside Manhattan in view of up to one million New Yorkers. These flights solidly established the fame of the Wright brothers in America.

Family flights

On May 25,1910 back at Huffman Prairie, Orville piloted two unique flights. First, he took his 82-year old father on a flight, the first and only one of Milton Wright's life. The airplane climbed to about 350 feet while the elderly Wright called to his son, "Higher, Orville, higher!" Next, Orville took off on a six-minute flight with Wilbur as his passenger, the only time the Wright brothers ever flew together. They asked and received permission from their father to make the flight. They had always promised Milton they would never fly together--to avoid the chance of a double tragedy and to ensure one brother would remain to continue their experiments.

The patent war

In 1908 the brothers warned Glenn Curtiss not to infringe their patent by profiting from flying or selling airplanes that used ailerons. Curtiss refused to pay license fees to the Wrights and sold an airplane to the Aeronautic Society of New York in 1909. The Wrights filed a lawsuit, beginning a years-long legal conflict. They also sued foreign aviators who flew at U.S. exhibitions. The brothers' licensed European companies, which owned foreign patents the Wrights had received, sued manufacturers in their countries. The European lawuits were only partly successful. Despite a pro-Wright ruling in France, legal maneuvering dragged on until the patent expired in 1917. A German court ruled the patent invalid due to prior disclosure in speeches by Wilbur Wright in 1901 and Octave Chanute in 1903. The Wrights did make agreements with some U.S. groups that sponsored airshows and collected license fees from them. The Wrights won their initial case against Curtiss in February 1913, but the decision was appealed.

From 1910 until his death from typhoid fever in 1912, Wilbur took the leading role in the patent struggle, traveling incessantly to consult with lawyers and testify in what he felt was a moral cause, particularly against Curtiss, who was creating a large company to manufacture airplanes. The Wrights' preoccupation with the legal issue hindered their development of new aircraft designs, and by 1911 Wright airplanes were considered inferior to those made by other firms in Europe. Orville and Katharine Wright believed Curtiss was partly responsible for Wilbur's premature death, which occurred in the wake of his exhausting travels and the stress of the legal battle.

In January 1914 a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the verdict in favor of the Wrights against Curtiss, whose company continued to avoid penalties through legal tactics and because Orville was planning to sell the Wright company and did not follow up the legal victory. In 1917, with World War I underway, the U.S. government stepped in to supervise a cross-licensing organization in which member companies paid a blanket fee for the use of aviation patents, including the original and subsequent Wright patents. The Wright-Martin company (successor to the Wright company) and the Curtiss company (which held a number of its own patents) each received a $2 million payment. The "patent war" ended, although side issues lingered in the courts until the 1920s. In a twist of irony, the Wright Aeronautical company (another successor) and the Curtiss Aeroplane company merged in 1929 to form the Curtiss-Wright corporation, which remains in business today producing high-tech components for the aerospace industry.

The lawsuits also changed many opinions about the Wright brothers, who were generally regarded as heroes. Their critics said they were greedy and unfair. Their supporters said the brothers were protecting their interests and were justified in expecting fair compensation for secrets of their invention.

In business

In 1910, the Wrights hired a 5-man exhibition team to fly airshows. The team's debut was at the Indianapolis Speedway on June 13, 1910. The short tenure of this program was punctuated by several crashes, including one in which the mayor of Richmond, Virginia was riding along. The program was discontinued in November 1911, at which time five of nine aviators on the Wright payroll had died in crashes. ^*

On October 25, 1910, the Wright brothers were engaged by Max Moorehouse of Columbus, Ohio to undertake the first commercial air cargo shipment. Moorehouse, owner of Moorehouse-Marten's Department store in Columbus, asked if the Wright brothers could carry a shipment of silk ribbon from a wholesaler in Dayton to Columbus. The Wright brothers agreed to the proposal, adding that their pilot and airplane would put on an exhibition once the cargo was delivered to the Driving Park landing area on the east side of Columbus. Moorehouse, in turn, agreed to pay the Wrights $5,000 for the service, which was more an exercise in advertising than a simple delivery. The actual flight occurred on November 7 1910, with the Model "B" Wright Flyer piloted by Phil Parmalee. The 62 mile (100 km) flight took 62 minutes, with Parmalee overtaking the Big Four express train in London, Ohio. In addition to carrying the first air-freight, Parmalee's speed of 60 miles an hour (97 km/h) set a world record for in-flight speed. For the return trip, however, the Wright Flyer was loaded on a train the night of the world record flight, and Parmalee returned to Dayton on the same Big Four Express train that he overtook in the air the day before.

Orville sold his interests in the airplane company in 1915. He, Katharine and their father Milton moved to a mansion, Hawthorn Hill, Oakwood, Ohio, which the newly wealthy family built. There, they lived quietly. Milton died in his sleep in 1917. Katharine married in 1926, which upset Orville. He cut her off, refusing to meet with or write to her. He finally agreed to see her just before she died of pneumonia in 1929. Orville died in 1948, from a heart attack. Both brothers are buried at a family plot at Woodland Cemetery, Dayton, Ohio. Neither brother married nor had children.

The Flyer I is now on display in the National Air and Space Museum, a division of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. (See The Smithsonian Issue).

The Flyer III, the only airplane designated a National Historic Landmark, was dismantled after the 1905 flights, but rebuilt and flown in 1908 at Kitty Hawk, and was restored in the late 1940s with the help of Orville. It is on display at Dayton, Ohio in the John W. Berry Sr., Wright Brothers Aviation Center at Carillon Historical Park. The display space for the aircraft was designed by Orville Wright.

Orville instructed that, upon his death, The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia should receive his collection of airfoils and devices. The Franklin Institute was the first scientific organization to give the Wright brothers credit and ranking for achieving sustained powered flight. Today, The Franklin Institute Science Museum holds the largest collection of artifacts from the Wright brothers' workshop.

The Smithsonian issue

Samuel P. Langley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution from 1887 to 1906, experimented for many years with model gliders and built successful powered unmanned aircraft models. Two tests of his full-sized manned Aerodrome in October and December 1903, however, were complete failures. Nevertheless, the Smithsonian later displayed the Aerodrome as the first heavier-than-air craft "capable" of manned powered flight, relegating the Wright brothers' achievement to secondary status. Orville Wright objected, but the Smithsonian was unyielding. Orville responded by loaning the Flyer I to the London Science Museum. He stated the Flyer would not be donated to the Smithsonian until he and his brother (Wilbur died in 1912) were acknowledged as the "Fathers of Powered Flight". Charles Lindbergh attempted to mediate the dispute, to no avail. In 1942, under different leadership, the Smithsonian finally agreed, but the Flyer remained in Britain until 1948. On November 23 1948 the executors of the estate of Orville Wright wrote a contract with the Smithsonian Institution regarding the display of the aircraft, stating that "Neither the Smithsonian Institution or its successors, nor any museum or other agency, bureau or facilities administered for the United States of America by the Smithsonian Institution or its successors shall publish or permit to be displayed a statement or label in connection with or in respect of any aircraft model or design of earlier date than the Wright Aeroplane of 1903, claiming in effect that such aircraft was capable of carrying a man under its own power in controlled flight." If this agreement was not fulfilled, the Flyer would be returned to the heir of the Wright brothers.

Competing claims

Numerous claims before the Wrights aspire to the title of first powered, manned, controlled, and self-sustaining heavier than air flight (or minor variations of this classification). See First flying machine. Several claims actually were made after the Wrights' first successful flights, and attempt to discount the Wrights' achievements on some technical basis, such as their use of a launching rail and catapult and the Flyer's lack of wheels.

Controversy regarding credit for the invention of the airplane was also fueled by the Wrights' secrecy while their patent was prepared, and by the pride of nations.

There has also been much debate whether the Wright brothers' early flights (as well as those of earlier claims) flew high enough to be out of ground effect. Competing claimants also note that the Wrights' early flights were usually flown only into the wind, helping lift. Taking off into the wind, in fact, became standard practice in aviation, for the same reason: takeoff is easier because the airplane receives more lift.

Another source of attack is that some of the recreations of the Wright Flyer do not fly. The reasons usually stem from an inability to know the exact details of the Wrights' design and construction and to duplicate the conditions of the flight. Specific features of the Flyer that even the Wrights did not know were important in rendering it capable of flight are lost to history, such the octane of the fuels used, and the small details of aerodynamics that can have disproportionate effect on the ability to fly.

After their Kitty Hawk flights in windy conditions, the Wrights developed a weight-powered catapult in Ohio to aid initial acceleration. This method of launching has been the source of controversy for some attacks on the Wrights' claim. Some consider that a plane incapable of taking off using its own power could not be a true aircraft.

In fact, the Flyer II took off without a catapult and made short flights dozens of times in the spring and summer of 1904. The locations available to the Wrights were unfavorable for wheels and a long takeoff roll, so they used a rail and eventually a catapult to give themselves a better opportunity to get into the air and learn to fly. Their use of these devices materially shortened the time it took them to develop reliable aircraft control and make true flights which included turns, circles, and figure-eights.

A few manned heavier-than-air aircraft probably became airborne before the Wrights, but lacked effective control. The Wright Flyer stands as the first practical flying machine with a combination of features not used before, but included in all that came later: efficient wings, three-axis control, an effective system to generate power and turn it into thrust, and a takeoff system.

Ohio/North Carolina dispute

The states of Ohio and North Carolina both take credit for the Wright brothers and their world-changing invention - Ohio because the brothers developed and built their design in Dayton, and North Carolina because Kitty Hawk was the site of the first flight. With a spirit of friendly rivalry, Ohio has adopted the informal slogan "Birthplace of Aviation" (later "Birthplace of Aviation Pioneers", with a tip of the hat to not only the Wrights, but also John Glenn and Neil Armstrong, both Ohio natives.) North Carolina has adopted the slogan "First In Flight" and includes the theme on state license plates. As the positions of both states can be factually defended, and both states play a significant role in the history of flight, neither state truly has a complete claim to the Wrights' accomplishment. Iowa claims to be "The Cradle of Flight," because this is where the brothers resided when they got the toy "helicopter" from their father.

The site of the first flights in North Carolina is preserved as Wright Brothers National Memorial, while their Ohio facilities are part of Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park.

Trivia

Places in the Outer Banks are named after the Brother's flight such as the "Wright Place", "First Flight Inn", "The Orville and Wilbur Wright" Hotel.
The brothers flight celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2004 and the town of Kitty Hawk received high acclaim.
The bridge to the Outer Banks is named the Wright Memorial Bridge after the duo's memorial in Kill Devil Hills, NC.

Media

References

Wright, Orville How We Invented the Airplane. A very readable account of their adventures, first hand. (And should be long out of copyright!)
Combs, Harry, with Martin Caidin, Kill Devil Hill: Discovering the Secret of the Wright Brothers, 1979
Crouch, Tom D., The Bishop's Boys: A Life of Wilbur and Orville Wright, 1989
Howard, Fred, Wilbur And Orville: A Biography of the Wright Brothers, 1987, 1998
Jakab, Peter L., Visions of a Flying Machine: The Wright Brothers and the Process of Invention, 1990
Kelly, Fred C., The Wright Brothers: A Biography Authorized by Orville Wright, 1943
McFarland, Marvin W., ed., The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, 1953
Tobin, James, To Conquer The Air: The Wright Brothers and the Great Race for Flight, 2003

External links

Wilbur Wright Birthplace Museum
Wright Brothers Aeroplane Company
Some Aeronautical Experimentsby Wilbur Wright, to Western Society of Engineers Sept 18, 1901
Wright Aeronautical Engineering Collection
FirstFlight - flight simulation, videos and experiments
Kitty Hawk - Kill Devil Hills Wright Brothers Photographs 1900-1911 - Library of Congress
Plane truth: list of greatest technical breakthroughs in manned flight
Video clips about the invention of the airplane
About Santos Dumont first flight in Paris, with the "14-bis"
The Pioneer Aviation Group web site contains many pictures of early flying machines and a comprehensive chronology of flight attempts
HTML version of the Wright brothers' original patent
Analysis of Wright Brother work
U.S. Centennial of Flight 2003 celebration of the 100th anniversary of the first flight
AeroSpace Show - RTP-TV 2003 Video Tour of Wright Brothers Monument at Kill Devil Hills
New Scientist Magazine Scientific Firsts: Print of Wright Flyer in France 1907
PBS Nova: The Wright Brothers' Flying Machines
1905 Wright Flyer III
National Park Service, Wright Brothers' Memorial
"Get Your Wings" - Failure Magazine (Apr. 03) - On the Centennial of First Flight, Rediscover the Remarkable Achievements of the Wright Brothers
http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/educators/lesson_plans/wright/index.html Smithsonian Stories of the Wright flights]
Photographic Record of the Wright Brothers
Scientific American Magazine (December 2003 Issue) The Equivocal Success of the Wright Brothers

Patents

US821393 — Flying machine — O. & W. Wright

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