60 Facts About Wright brothers

The Wright brothers were the first to invent aircraft controls that made fixed-wing powered flight possible.

The Wright brothers' breakthrough was their creation of a three-axis control system, which enabled the pilot to steer the aircraft effectively and to maintain its equilibrium.

The Wright brothers gained the mechanical skills essential to their success by working for years in their Dayton, Ohio-based shop with printing presses, bicycles, motors, and other machinery.

From 1900 until their first powered flights in late 1903, the Wright brothers conducted extensive glider tests that developed their skills as pilots.

Wilbur and Orville Wright brothers were two of seven children born to Milton Wright brothers, a clergyman of English and Dutch ancestry, and Susan Catherine Koerner, of German and Swiss ancestry.

Wright brothers had been vigorous and athletic until then, and although his injuries did not appear especially severe, he became withdrawn.

The Wright brothers later cited his death as the point when their serious interest in flight research began.

The Wright brothers always presented a unified image to the public, sharing equally in the credit for their invention.

Wright brothers was the leader, from the beginning to the end.

On July 27,1899, the Wright brothers put wing warping to the test by building and flying a biplane kite with a 5-foot wingspan, and a curved wing with a 1 foot chord.

In 1900 the Wright brothers went to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, to begin their manned gliding experiments.

The Wright brothers did not discover this principle, but took advantage of it.

The wooden uprights between the wings of the Wright brothers glider were braced by wires in their own version of Chanute's modified Pratt truss, a bridge-building design he used for his biplane glider.

The Wright brothers flew the glider for only a few days in the early autumn of 1900 at Kitty Hawk.

For those tests the Wright brothers trekked four miles south to the Kill Devil Hills, a group of sand dunes up to 100 feet high.

The Wright brothers brought all of the material they thought was needed to be self-sufficient at Kitty Hawk.

The Wright brothers decided to find out if Lilienthal's data for lift coefficients were correct.

The Wright brothers took turns pedaling the bicycle vigorously, creating air flow over the horizontal wheel.

However, when the Wright brothers tested the device, the wheel did turn.

Such shapes offered much better lift-to-drag ratio than the stubbier wings the Wright brothers had tried so far.

The glider had a new structural feature: A fixed, rear vertical rudder, which the Wright brothers hoped would eliminate turning problems.

The Wright brothers then decided to make the rear rudder movable to solve the problem.

In 1903 the brothers built the powered Wright Flyer, using their preferred material for construction, spruce, a strong and lightweight wood, and Pride of the West muslin for surface coverings.

Wright brothers gave details about their 1902 experiments and glider flights, but avoided any mention of their plans for powered flight.

The Wright brothers shipped the airplane home, and years later Orville restored it, lending it to several US locations for display, then to the Science Museum in London, before it was finally installed in 1948 in the Smithsonian Institution, its current residence.

In Paris Aero Club of France members, already stimulated by Chanute's reports of Wright gliding successes, took the news more seriously and increased their efforts to catch up to the brothers.

Culick and Henry R Jex demonstrated that the 1903 Wright Flyer was so unstable as to be almost unmanageable by anyone but the Wrights, who had trained themselves in the 1902 glider.

The Wright brothers did not have the luxury of being able to give away their invention: It had to be their livelihood.

Reporters showed up the next day, but the Wright brothers declined to fly.

The Wright brothers were certainly complicit in the lack of attention they received.

The Wright brothers turned their attention to Europe, especially France, where enthusiasm for aviation ran high, and journeyed there for the first time in 1907 for face-to-face talks with government officials and businessmen.

The Wright brothers' contracts required them to fly with a passenger, so they modified the 1905 Flyer by installing two upright seats with dual control levers.

Wright brothers emerged with bruises and hurt ribs, but the accident ended the practice flights.

The French public was thrilled by Wilbur's feats and flocked to the field by the thousands, and the Wright brothers instantly became world-famous.

Wright brothers was fluent in Greek, French and English and translated the technical discussions between Wright and her husband.

Wright brothers helped negotiate a one-year extension of the Army contract.

The Wright brothers wrote their 1903 patent application themselves, but it was rejected.

Orville and Katharine Wright brothers 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.

The lawsuits damaged the public image of the Wright brothers, who were generally regarded before this as heroes.

Critics said the Wright brothers were greedy and unfair, and compared their actions unfavorably to European inventors, who worked more openly.

Supporters said the Wright brothers were protecting their interests and were justified in expecting fair compensation for the years of work leading to their successful invention.

The Wright brothers Company transported the first known commercial air cargo on November 7,1910, by flying two bolts of dress silk 65 miles from Dayton to Columbus, Ohio, for the Morehouse-Martens Department Store, which paid a $5,000 fee.

Between 1910 and 1916 the Wright Brothers Flying School at Huffman Prairie trained 115 pilots who were instructed by Orville and his assistants.

Wright brothers cooperated with the Army to equip the airplanes with a rudimentary flight indicator to help the pilot avoid climbing too steeply.

The Institution did not reveal the extensive Curtiss modifications, but Orville Wright brothers learned of them from his brother Lorin and a close friend of his and Wilbur's, Griffith Brewer, who both witnessed and photographed some of the tests.

The Wright brothers' nephew Milton, who had seen gliders and the Flyer under construction in the bicycle shop when he was a boy, gave a brief speech and formally transferred the airplane to the Smithsonian, which displayed it with the accompanying label:.

The world's first power-driven heavier-than-air machine in which man made free, controlled, and sustained flight Invented and built by Wilbur and Orville Wright Flown by them at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina December 17,1903 By original scientific research the Wright brothers discovered the principles of human flight As inventors, builders, and flyers they further developed the aeroplane, taught man to fly, and opened the era of aviation.

Wright brothers gradually became occupied with business matters for the Wright Company and dealing with different lawsuits.

Wright brothers was constantly back and forth between New York, Washington, and Dayton.

The Wright brothers hired Schenck and Williams, an architectural firm, to design the house, along with input from both Wilbur and Orville.

Wright brothers became ill on a business trip to Boston in April 1912.

Wright brothers lingered on, his symptoms relapsing and remitting for many days.

Wright brothers won the prestigious Collier Trophy in 1914 for development of his automatic stabilizer on the brothers' Wright Model E Sharing Wilbur's distaste for business but not his brother's executive skills, Orville sold the company in 1915.

Wright brothers retired from business and became an elder statesman of aviation, serving on various official boards and committees, including the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, and Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce.

Wright brothers refused to attend the wedding or even communicate with her.

Wright brothers finally agreed to see her, apparently at Lorin's insistence, just before she died of pneumonia on March 3,1929.

Wright brothers commented that the wingspan of the Constellation was longer than the distance of his first flight.

Supporters of the Wright brothers argue that proven, repeated, controlled, and sustained flights by the brothers entitle them to credit as inventors of the airplane, regardless of those techniques.

Wright brothers wrote that a barn door can be made to "fly" for a short distance if enough energy is applied to it; he determined that the very limited flight experiments of Ader, Vuia, and others were "powered hops" instead of fully controlled flights.

The helicopter carries a small piece of wing fabric from the 1903 Wright brothers Flyer attached to a cable underneath its solar panel.