History of the Airplane

He was born to Milton and Susan Wright near Millville, IN. He is their third child and son.

The Wright Brothers Information

During a church business trip, Milton Wright brought home a toy for Wilbur and Orville. It was a Penaud helicopter. This was their where they first became interested with the idea of flight.

Later in September 1885, Wilbur takes "postgraduate" classes at Dayton Central Highschool and studies Greek and Trigonometry.

However, he leaves school before graduation.

They named it the Wright Cycle Company. They stay in this business until 1907. However, this business funds their early experiments at creating an airplane.

He was a German engineer and aeronautical pioneer. He died from injuries sustained from a crash while he tested his newest invention, it was the single-surface glider. This adds fuel to the Wright Brothers interest and the problem with human flight.

The Wright Brothers observe bird flight and Otto Lilienthal's work. They were convinced that human flight was possible and began to conduct their own experiments on flight.

They created this to test the "wing-warping" method of controlling a plane. This was crcuical because it encouraged them to create a flying machine that had a pilot

They create a flying glider to carry a man. They tried a dozen times but their total time in the air is only about two minutes.

The brothers wish to experiment with a larger glider than the previous one. They did around 50-100 flights and the distances were from 20-400 feet. They leave on OCtober 28 1902.

This is the larger version of the glider.

They experiment with propellors and begin building their 1903 four cylinder engine.

They want a patent for their future airplane. Their patent is issued on May 22 1906.

Wilbur makes the longest flight in the fourth trial. He is in the air for fifty-nine seconds and flew 852 feet.

He flew 24 1/5 miles in 39 minutes, 23 4/5 seconds, more than twenty-nine times around a field.

They are rejected again on October 27th in the same year.

The Wright Brothers continue demonstration flights around Europe and America.