Wright, Wilbur(1867–1912) and Orville(1871–1948), inventors of the airplane.The Wright brothers operated a bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio, in the 1890s. As expert mechanics, they became avidly interested in the problem of human flight. They designed and flew three gliders in the years 1900–1902. In the course of these gliding experiments, they perfected (and in 1906 patented) the most efficient method of controlling an aircraft in the air. In 1903, using data derived from a series of model airfoil tests in their bicycle‐shop wind tunnel, they constructed a propeller‐driven flying machine, powered by a homemade motor.
In this machine, the Wright brothers made the world's first man‐carrying airplane flights on 17 December 1903, above the sands of the Outer Banks near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
They continued experimenting in relative secrecy until October 1905, when their long circling flights over a pasture near Dayton attracted attention. Afraid that others might copy their invention, they dismantled their flying machine and spent two years trying to interest the governments of the United States, England, France, and Germany in purchasing a Wright airplane.
In February 1908, the U.S. War Department finally agreed to consider a purchase. In March the Wrights signed a contract with the French. By that summer, French aviators were making flights of up to twenty minutes. Europe seemed poised to take the lead in aviation development, but when Wilbur made his first flights in France in August 1908, they created a sensation. Wilbur's smooth banked turns convinced the world that the Wrights were far ahead of their competitors. In September, Orville astounded Americans with flights of more than an hour near
Washington, D.C.
In November 1909, the brothers established the Wright Company and went into business. They could now afford to sue infringers of their basic 1906 patent, which was not for the airplane itself, but for the means of controlling an airplane—any airplane—in flight. They therefore felt justified in suing anyone who manufactured or flew airplanes for profit and refused to pay royalties to the Wright Company. Warned that the patent suits were hampering the development of aviation, they protested that they merely sought a fair return for having spent their own money and risked their lives while inventing the airplane and learning to fly it.
Wilbur died in 1912. In 1914, Orville locked horns with the
Smithsonian Institution over former Smithsonian Secretary Samuel Langley's unflyable airplane, the
Aerodrome, which had crashed into the Potomac River on 8 December 1903. The new Secretary authorized the rebuilding of the
Aerodrome with many modifications. After the plane made a few brief hops, the Smithsonian claimed that had it been properly launched in 1903, it would have flown, nine days before the Wrights' airplane, the
Kitty Hawk. The
Aerodrome was later displayed in the Smithsonian's National Museum, as the first airplane “capable of sustained free flight.” Orville retaliated by exiling the
Kitty Hawk to England for display in London's Science Museum. The feud was settled in 1942, but not until December 1948—eleven months after Orville's death—was the
Kitty Hawk installed as the National Museum's prized centerpiece.
See also
Airplanes and Air Transport;
Aviation Industry.
Bibliography
Fred Howard , Wilbur and Orville, 1987.
Tom D. Crouch , The Bishop's Boys, 1989.
Fred Howard