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{{Short description|American aviation pioneers, inventors of the airplane}}
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{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2021}}
{{Use American English|date=November 2020}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Wright brothers
| image              = {{multiple image
  | align = center
  | total_width = 300
  | image_style = border:none;
  | image1 = Orville Wright 1905-crop.jpg
  | alt1 = Orville Wright in 1905
  | image2 = Wilbur Wright-crop.jpg
  | alt2 = Wilbur Wright in 1905
  | border = none
}}
| caption            = Orville (left) and Wilbur Wright in 1905
| other_names        = {{ubl|Will and Orv|The Bishop's boys}}
| occupation         = 
| years_active       = 
| known_for          = Inventing, building, and flying the world's first successful airplane with the ''[[Wright Flyer]]'', which pioneered the use of an effective [[flight control system]]
| parents            = {{ubl|[[Milton Wright (bishop)|Milton Wright]]|[[Susan Catherine Koerner Wright]]}}
| relatives          = [[Katharine Wright]] (sister)
| education          = High school (did not graduate, both)
| notable_works      = 
| module             = '''Orville Wright'''<br>{{Infobox person | child = yes
   | name = Orville Wright
   | birth_date   = {{birth date|1871|8|19}}
   | birth_place  = [[Dayton, Ohio]], U.S.
   | death_date   = {{Death date and age|1948|1|30|1871|8|19}}
   | death_place  = Dayton, Ohio, U.S.
   | occupation = Newspaper printer / publisher, bicycle retailer / manufacturer, airplane inventor / manufacturer, pilot trainer
   | signature = [[File:Orville Wright Signature.svg|frameless|class=skin-invert-image|x41px|Signature of Orville Wright]]
  }}
| module2            = '''Wilbur Wright''' <br> {{Infobox person | child = yes
   | name = Wilbur Wright
   | birth_date = {{birth date|1867|4|16}}
   | birth_place = [[Millville, Henry County, Indiana|Millville, Indiana]], U.S.
   | death_date = {{death date and age|1912|5|30|1867|4|16}}
   | death_place = Dayton, Ohio, U.S.
   | occupation  = Newspaper editor, bicycle retailer / manufacturer, airplane inventor / manufacturer, pilot trainer
   | signature =  [[File:Wilbur Wright Signature.svg|frameless|class=skin-invert-image|x41px|Signature of Wilbur Wright]]
 }}
}}

The '''Wright brothers''', '''Orville Wright''' (August 19, 1871 – January 30, 1948) and '''Wilbur Wright''' (April 16, 1867 – May 30, 1912), were American [[aviation]] [[List of aviation pioneers|pioneers]] generally credited with inventing, building, and flying the world's first successful [[airplane]].<ref name="wb-smithson-edu">{{cite web |title=The Wright Brothers and the invention of the aerial age |publisher=[[Smithsonian Institution]] |department=National Air and Space Museum |url=http://www.nasm.si.edu/wrightbrothers/ |access-date=September 21, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150813220152/http://airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/wright-brothers/online/ |archive-date=August 13, 2015}}</ref><ref name="wb-wstate-univ">{{cite conference |first=Mary Ann |last=Johnson |date=September 28, 2001 |title=Program&nbsp;3 |book-title=Following the footsteps of the Wright Brothers: Their sites and stories symposium papers |conference =Following in the Footsteps of the Wright Brothers: Their Sites and Stories |url=http://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/following/symposium/program/3/ |access-date=August 16, 2015 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150619100928/http://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/following/symposium/program/3/ |archive-date=June 19, 2015}}</ref><ref name="BBC News">{{cite news |title=Flying through the ages |work=BBC News |date=March 19, 1999 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/special_report/1998/11/98/great_balloon_challenge/299568.stm |access-date=July 17, 2009 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141021044458/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/special_report/1998/11/98/great_balloon_challenge/299568.stm |archive-date=October 21, 2014}}</ref> They made the first controlled, sustained flight of an engine-powered, [[Aircraft#Heavier-than-air – aerodynes|heavier-than-air aircraft]] with the ''[[Wright Flyer]]'' on December 17, 1903, four miles (6&nbsp;km) south of [[Kitty Hawk, North Carolina]], at what is now known as [[Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina|Kill Devil Hills]]. In 1904 the Wright brothers developed the ''[[Wright Flyer II]]'', which made longer-duration flights including the first circle, followed in 1905 by the first truly practical [[fixed-wing aircraft]], the ''[[Wright Flyer III]]''.

The brothers' breakthrough invention was their creation of a [[Flight dynamics (aircraft)|three-axis control system]], which enabled the pilot to steer the aircraft effectively and to maintain its equilibrium. Their system of [[Aircraft flight control system|aircraft controls]] made fixed-wing [[powered flight]] possible and remains standard on airplanes of all kinds.<ref name="wb-smithson-inventing">{{cite web |title=Inventing a flying machine – the breakthrough concept |series=The Wright Brothers and the invention of the aerial age |publisher=[[The Smithsonian Institution]] |url=http://airandspace.si.edu/wrightbrothers/fly/1899/breakthrough.cfm |access-date=March 5, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150117154412/http://airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/wright-brothers/online/fly/1899/breakthrough.cfm |archive-date=January 17, 2015}}</ref><ref name="wb-wagg tail-org">{{cite web |title=Wagging Its Tail |publisher=The Wright Story&nbsp;– Inventing the Airplane, wright-brothers.org |url=http://www.wright-brothers.org/History_Wing/Wright_Story/Inventing_the_Airplane/Wagging_Its_Tail/Wagging_Its_Tail.htm |access-date=March 5, 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141021232240/http://www.wright-brothers.org/History_Wing/Wright_Story/Inventing_the_Airplane/Wagging_Its_Tail/Wagging_Its_Tail.htm|archive-date=October 21, 2014}}</ref><ref name="wb-aviation-nps">{{cite web |title=Aviation: From sand dunes to sonic booms |publisher=[[U.S. National Park Service]] |url=http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/aviation/wrightbrothers.htm |access-date=March 5, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150610073832/http://www.nps.gov/nr//travel/aviation/wrightbrothers.htm |archive-date=June 10, 2015}}</ref><ref name="wb-aero journal-2003">{{cite journal |first1=Gareth D. |last1=Padfield |first2=Ben |last2=Lawrence |date=December 2003 |title=The birth of flight control: An engineering analysis of the Wright brothers' 1902 glider |journal=The Aeronautical Journal |volume=107 |issue=1078 |pages=697–718 |department=Department of Engineering |publisher=[[The University of Liverpool]] |doi=10.1017/S0001924000013464 |s2cid=17689037 |url=http://pcwww.liv.ac.uk/eweb/fst/publications/2854.pdf |url-status=live |access-date=January 23, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150523192549/http://pcwww.liv.ac.uk/eweb/fst/publications/2854.pdf |archive-date=May 23, 2015}}</ref><ref>Howard 1988, p. 89.</ref><ref name=Jakab-1997/>{{rp|page=183}} Their first U.S. patent did not claim invention of a flying machine, but rather a system of [[Aerodynamics|aerodynamic]] control that manipulated a flying machine's surfaces.<ref name="Flying Machine patent">{{cite web |title=Flying machine |id=US&nbsp;Patent 821393 |date=May 22, 1906 |url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US821393A/en?oq=821393 |access-date=July 17, 2022 }}</ref> From the beginning of their aeronautical work, Wilbur and Orville focused on developing a reliable method of pilot control as the key to solving "the flying problem". This approach differed significantly from other experimenters of the time who put more emphasis on developing powerful engines.<ref>Mortimer 2009, p. 2.</ref> Using a small home-built [[wind tunnel]], the Wrights also collected more accurate data than any before, enabling them to design more efficient wings and propellers.<ref name=Jakab-1997/>{{rp|page=156}}<ref name=Crouch-2003/>{{rp|page=228}}

The 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. Their work with bicycles, in particular, influenced their belief that an unstable vehicle such as a flying machine could be controlled and balanced with practice.<ref name=Crouch-2003/>{{rp|page=169}} This was a trend, as many other aviation pioneers were also dedicated cyclists and involved in the bicycle business in various ways.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Guroff |first=Margaret |date=2016-07-08 |title=The Untold Story Of How Bicycle Design Led To The Invention Of The Airplane |url=https://www.fastcompany.com/3061592/the-untold-story-of-how-bicycle-design-led-to-the-invention-of-the-airplane |access-date=2022-03-09 |website=Fast Company |language=en-US}}</ref> From 1900 until their first powered flights in late 1903, the brothers conducted extensive [[Glider (aircraft)#19th century|glider tests]] that also developed their skills as pilots. Their shop mechanic [[Charlie Taylor (mechanic)|Charles Taylor]] became an important part of the team, building their first airplane engine in close collaboration with the brothers.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Taylor, Charles "Charley" : National Aviation Hall of Fame|url=https://www.nationalaviation.org/our-enshrinees/taylor-charles-charley/|access-date=2021-12-17|website=nationalaviation.org|archive-date=April 25, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180425183803/https://www.nationalaviation.org/our-enshrinees/taylor-charles-charley/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The Wright brothers' status as inventors of the airplane has been subject to numerous counter-claims. Much controversy persists over the many [[Claims to the first powered flight|competing claims of early aviators]]. Edward Roach, historian for the [[Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park]], argues that the Wrights were excellent self-taught engineers who could run a small company well, but did not have the business skills or temperament necessary to dominate the rapidly growing aviation industry at the time.<ref>Roach, Edward J. The Wright Company: From Invention to Industry. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 2014. {{ISBN|978-0-8214-2051-5}}, page 2.</ref>

==Childhood==
{{multiple image
| align             = right
| direction         = horizontal
| width             = 160px
| image1            = Young Orville Wright.jpg
| width1            = 
| alt1              = Orville
| caption1          = 
| image2            = Wilbur Wright child.jpg
| width2            = 
| alt2              = Wilbur
| caption2          = 
| footer_align      = center
| footer            = Orville (left) and Wilbur Wright as children in 1876
}}

Wilbur and Orville Wright were two of seven children born to [[Milton Wright (bishop)|Milton Wright]], a clergyman, and [[Susan Catherine Koerner Wright|Susan Catherine Koerner]].<ref name="wb-dayton-online">{{cite web|url=http://www.daytonhistorybooks.com/the_wright_brothers_2.html|title=The Wright Brothers, Chapter Two|publisher=Dayton History Books Online|access-date=May 26, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150123025900/http://www.daytonhistorybooks.com/the_wright_brothers_2.html|archive-date=January 23, 2015|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="wb-loc-papers">{{cite web|url=https://www.loc.gov/collection/wilbur-and-orville-wright-papers/about-this-collection/|title=Wilbur and Orville Wright Papers at the Library of Congress |publisher=Library of Congress|access-date=May 26, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150407222923/http://www.loc.gov/collection/wilbur-and-orville-wright-papers/about-this-collection/|archive-date=April 7, 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> Milton Wright's mother, Catherine Reeder, was descended from the progenitor of the [[Vanderbilt family]]&nbsp;– one of America's richest families&nbsp;– and the [[Huguenot]] Gano family of [[New Rochelle, New York]].<ref>Wright, Milton. The Reeder Family. The Making Of A Township: Being an Account of the Early Settlement and Subsequent Development of Fairmount Township Grant County, Indiana 1829–1917, pages 223–227.</ref> Wilbur was born near [[Millville, Henry County, Indiana|Millville, Indiana]], in 1867; Orville in [[Dayton, Ohio]], in 1871.<ref name="The Wright Brothers">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NzVl2tA6rpUC&q=wright+brothers+Samuel+Wright&pg=PA4|title=The Wright Brothers|isbn=9781900747448|last1=Gibbs-Smith|first1=Charles Harvard|year=2002|publisher=NMSI Trading }}</ref> The brothers never married. The other Wright siblings were Reuchlin, Lorin, [[Katharine Wright|Katharine]], and twins Otis and Ida (died in infancy).<ref name="The Wright Brothers"/>

None of the Wright children had middle names. Instead, their father tried hard to give them distinctive first names. Wilbur was named for [[Willbur Fisk]] and Orville for [[Orville Dewey]], both [[clergymen]] that Milton Wright admired.<ref>McCullough, 2015, "The Wright Brothers", p. 11.</ref> They were "Will" and "Orv" to their friends and in Dayton, and their neighbors knew them simply as "the bishop's kids", or "the bishop's boys".

Because of their father's position as a [[bishop]] in the [[Church of the United Brethren in Christ]], he traveled often and the Wrights frequently moved – twelve times before finally returning permanently to Dayton in 1884. In elementary school, Orville was given to mischief and was once expelled.<ref>Wallechinsky and Wallace 2005, p. 12.</ref> In 1878, when the family lived in [[Cedar Rapids, Iowa]], their father brought home a toy helicopter for his two younger sons. The device was based on an invention of French aeronautical pioneer [[Alphonse Pénaud]]. Made of paper, bamboo and cork with a rubber band to twirl its rotor, it was about {{cvt|1|ft|cm}} long. Wilbur and Orville played with it until it broke, and then built their own.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Wright Family|url=https://www.centennialofflight.net/essay/Wright_Bros/wright_family/WR1.htm|access-date=2023-02-12|website=US Centennial of Flight Commission| date=2003}}</ref> In later years, they pointed to their experience with the toy as the spark of their interest in flying.<ref name=Crouch-2003/>{{rp|pages=56–57}}

==Early career and research==
[[File:WrightBrothersHome.jpg|thumb|Wright brothers' home at 7 Hawthorn Street, Dayton, {{Circa|1900}}. Wilbur and Orville built the covered wrap-around porch in the 1890s.]]
Both brothers attended high school, but did not receive diplomas. The family's abrupt move in 1884 from [[Richmond, Indiana]], to [[Dayton]], Ohio, where the family had lived during the 1870s, prevented Wilbur from receiving his diploma after finishing four years of high school. The diploma was awarded posthumously to Wilbur on April 16, 1994, which would have been his 127th birthday.<ref>{{cite web |title=Facts and Fun Information |url=http://www.waynet.org/facts/default.htm |website=Waynet |access-date=10 January 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240416073757/http://www.waynet.org/facts/default.htm |archive-date=April 16, 2024}}</ref> In late 1885 or early 1886, while playing an ice-skating game with friends Wilbur was struck in the face with a hockey stick by Oliver Crook Haugh, who later became a serial killer.<ref>{{cite book |last1=McCullough |first1=David |title=The Wright Brothers |date=2015 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=9781476728766 |page=14 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bLudBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA14 |access-date=6 February 2024}}</ref> Wilbur lost his front teeth. He had been vigorous and athletic until then, and although his injuries did not appear especially severe, he became withdrawn. He had planned to attend Yale. Instead, he spent the next few years largely housebound. During this time he cared for his mother, who was terminally ill with tuberculosis, read extensively in his father's library and ably assisted his father during [[Church of the United Brethren in Christ (New Constitution)|times of controversy]] within the Brethren Church,<ref name=Jakab-1997/>{{rp|page=164}} but also expressed unease over his own lack of ambition.<ref name=Crouch-2003/>{{rp|page=130}}

Orville dropped out of high school after his junior year to start a printing business in 1889, having designed and built his own printing press with Wilbur's help. Wilbur joined the print shop, and in March the brothers launched a weekly newspaper, the ''West Side News''. Subsequent issues listed Orville as publisher and Wilbur as editor on the masthead. In April 1890 they converted the paper to a daily, ''The Evening Item'', but it lasted only four months. They then focused on commercial printing. One of their clients was Orville's friend and classmate, [[Paul Laurence Dunbar]], who rose to international acclaim as a ground-breaking African-American poet and writer. For a brief period the Wrights printed the ''Dayton Tattler'', a weekly newspaper that Dunbar edited.<ref name="wb-nps-chapter4">{{cite web|url=http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/daav/chap4.htm|title=What Dreams We Have – Chapter 4|author=Paul Laurence Dunbar|publisher=National Park Service, nps.gov|date=2003|access-date=September 21, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070815192635/http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/daav/chap4.htm|archive-date=August 15, 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[File:Wright_St_Clair_bicycle.jpg|thumb|The Wright brothers' bicycle at the [[National Air and Space Museum]]]]
Capitalizing on the national [[Bike boom#1890s|bicycle craze]] (spurred by the invention of the [[safety bicycle]] and its substantial advantages over the [[penny-farthing]] design), in December 1892 the brothers opened a repair and sales shop (the Wright Cycle Exchange, later the [[Wright Cycle Company]]) and in 1896 began manufacturing their own brand.<ref name="wb-centennial-bicycle">"The Van Cleve bicycle that the Wrights built and sold." ''U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission'', 2003.</ref> 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.

1896 brought three important aeronautical events. In May, [[Smithsonian Institution]] Secretary [[Samuel Langley]] successfully flew an unmanned steam-powered fixed-wing model aircraft. In mid-year, Chicago engineer and aviation authority [[Octave Chanute]] brought together several men 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.{{refn|Crouch (2003)<ref name=Crouch-2003/> Chapter&nbsp;10: "The year of the flying machine" and Chapter&nbsp;11: "Octave chanute".}} These events lodged in the minds of the brothers, especially Lilienthal's death. The Wright brothers later cited his death as the point when their serious interest in flight research began.<ref name="airandspace.si.edu">{{cite web |url=https://airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/wright-brothers/online/fly/1899/forefathers.cfm |title=The Wright brothers – fore-fathers of flight |department=[[National Air & Space Museum]] |publisher=[[The Smithsonian Institution]] |access-date=March 22, 2017 |archive-date=October 24, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211024171118/https://airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/wright-brothers/online/fly/1899/forefathers.cfm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Wilbur said, "Lilienthal was without question the greatest of the precursors, and the world owes to him a great debt."<ref name="airandspace.si.edu"/> In May&nbsp;1899 Wilbur wrote a letter<ref>[http://siarchives.si.edu/history/exhibits/documents/wrightmay301899.htm "Wilbur Wright May 30, 1899 Letter to Smithsonian."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090626145921/http://siarchives.si.edu/history/exhibits/documents/wrightmay301899.htm |date=June 26, 2009 }} ''Smithsonian Scrapbook: Letters from the Archives''. Retrieved: September 21, 2010.</ref> to [[the Smithsonian Institution]] requesting information and publications about aeronautics.<ref>Howard 1988, p. 30.</ref> Drawing on the work of [[Sir George Cayley]], Chanute, Lilienthal, [[Leonardo da Vinci]], and Langley, they began their mechanical aeronautical experimentation that year.

The Wright brothers always presented a unified image to the public, sharing equally in the credit for their invention. Biographers note that Wilbur took the initiative in 1899 and 1900, writing of "my" machine and "my" plans before Orville became deeply involved when the first person singular became the plural "we" and "our". Author [[James Tobin (author)|James Tobin]] asserts, "it is impossible to imagine Orville, bright as he was, supplying the driving force that started their work and kept it going from the back room of a store in Ohio to conferences with capitalists, presidents, and kings. Will did that. He was the leader, from the beginning to the end."<ref>Tobin 2004, p. 92.</ref>

===Ideas about control===
[[File:WrightBrothers1899Kite.jpg|right|thumb|Wright 1899 kite: front and side views, with control sticks. Wing-warping is shown in lower view. (Wright brothers' drawing in Library of Congress.)]]

Despite Lilienthal's fate, the brothers favored his strategy: to practice gliding in order to master the art of control before attempting motor-driven flight. The death of British aeronaut [[Percy Pilcher]] in another hang gliding crash in October 1899 only reinforced their opinion that a reliable method of pilot control 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". The other two parts&nbsp;– wings and engines&nbsp;– they believed were already sufficiently promising.<ref name=Crouch-2003/>{{rp|page=166}}

The Wright brothers' plan thus differed sharply from more experienced practitioners of the day, notably [[Clément Ader|Ader]], [[Hiram Maxim|Maxim]], and [[Samuel Pierpont Langley|Langley]], who all built powerful engines, attached them to airframes equipped with untested control devices, and expected to take to the air with no previous flying experience. Although agreeing with Lilienthal's idea of practice, the Wrights saw that his method of balance and control by shifting his body weight was inadequate.<ref>Tobin 2004, p. 53.</ref> They were determined to find something better.

On the basis of observation, Wilbur concluded that birds changed the angle of the ends of their wings to make their bodies roll right or left.<ref>Tobin 2004, p. 70.</ref> 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. What is 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.<ref>Tobin 2004, pp. 53–55.</ref>

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.<ref name=Crouch-2003/>{{rp|pages=167–168}} Some of these other investigators, including Langley and Chanute, sought the elusive ideal of "inherent stability", believing the pilot of a flying machine would not be able to react quickly enough to wind disturbances to use mechanical controls effectively. The Wright brothers, in contrast, wanted the pilot to have absolute control.<ref name=Crouch-2003/>{{rp|page=168–169}} For that reason, their early designs made no concessions toward built-in stability (such as [[Dihedral (aircraft)|dihedral]] wings). They deliberately designed their 1903 first powered flyer with [[Dihedral (aircraft)#Anhedral|anhedral]] (drooping) wings, which are inherently unstable, but less susceptible to upset by gusty cross winds.

==Flights==
===Toward flight===
[[File:Park Ranker Wright Brothers Memorial.JPG|thumb|Park Ranger Tom White demonstrates a replica of the Wright brothers' 1899 box kite at the [[Wright Brothers National Memorial]].]]
On July 27, 1899, the brothers put [[wing warping]] to the test by building and flying a biplane kite with a {{convert|5|ft|m|adj=on}} wingspan, and a curved wing with a {{convert|1|ft|m|adj=on}} [[chord (aeronautics)|chord]]. When the wings were warped, or twisted, the trailing edge that was warped down produced more lift than the opposite wing, causing a rolling motion. The warping was controlled by four lines between kite and crossed sticks held by the kite flyer.  In return, the kite was under lateral control.<ref name="hc">{{cite book |last1=Combs |first1=Harry |title=Kill Devil Hill: Discovering the Secret of the Wright Brothers |date=1979 |publisher=TernStyle Press, Ltd. |location=Englewood |isbn=0940053020 |pages=68–71}}</ref>

In 1900 the brothers went to [[Kitty Hawk, North Carolina|Kitty Hawk]], North Carolina, to begin their manned gliding experiments. In his reply to Wilbur's first letter, Octave Chanute had suggested the mid-Atlantic coast for its regular breezes and soft sandy landing surface. Wilbur also requested and examined U.S. [[National Weather Service|Weather Bureau]] data, and decided on Kitty Hawk<ref>{{cite web|url= https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/ssd?id=mdp.39015003322461;seq=87;num=23 |title=The papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, including the Chanute-Wright letters and other papers of Octave Chanute. Marvin W. McFarland, editor., v.1. – Text-only – Full View |date=September 13, 1900|publisher=McGraw-Hill / HathiTrust Digital Library|access-date= March 19, 2017|quote=I chose Kitty Hawk because it seemed the place which most closely met the re-quired conditions. In order to obtain sup-port from the air it is necessary, with wings of reasonable size, to move through it at the rate of fifteen or twenty miles per hour. ... If the wind blows with proper speed, support can be obtained without movement with reference to the ground. It is safer to practice in a wind, provided this is not too much broken up into eddies and sudden gusts by hills, trees, &c.}}</ref><ref>{{citation |title=The papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, including the Chanute-Wright letters and other papers of Octave Chanute. (Book view) |page=23 |date=September 13, 1900|publisher=McGraw-Hill |hdl = 2027/mdp.39015003322461}}</ref> after receiving information from the government meteorologist stationed there.<ref name="WDL"/><ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.loc.gov/collections/wilbur-and-orville-wright-papers/articles-and-essays/collection-highlights/kitty-hawk/ |title=Letter from J. J. Dosher, Weather Bureau, to Wilbur Wright, August 16, 1900 Kitty Hawk |publisher=[[Library of Congress]] – Wilbur and Orville Wright Papers|access-date=March 19, 2017}}</ref>

Kitty Hawk, although remote, was closer to Dayton than other places Chanute had suggested, including California and Florida. The spot also gave them privacy from reporters, who had turned the 1896 Chanute experiments at Lake Michigan into something of a circus. Chanute visited them in camp each season from 1901 to 1903 and saw gliding experiments, but not the powered flights.

===Gliders===
{{Main|Wright Glider}}
[[File:Chanute-Herring 1896 hang glider.jpg|thumb|Chanute's hang glider of 1896. The pilot may be [[Augustus Moore Herring|Augustus Herring.]]]]
The {{Not a typo|Wrights based}} the design of their kite and full-size gliders on work done in the 1890s by other aviation pioneers. They adopted the basic design of the Chanute-Herring biplane hang glider ("double-decker" as the Wrights called it), which flew well in the 1896 experiments near Chicago, and used aeronautical data on [[lift (force)|lift]] that [[Otto Lilienthal]] had published. The Wrights designed the wings with [[camber (aerodynamics)|camber]], a curvature of the top surface.

The brothers did not discover this principle, but took advantage of it. The better lift of a cambered surface compared to a flat one was first discussed scientifically by [[George Cayley|Sir George Cayley]]. Lilienthal, whose work the Wrights carefully studied, used cambered wings in his gliders, proving in flight the advantage over flat surfaces.
The wooden uprights between the wings of the Wright 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 (initially built as a triplane). The Wrights mounted the horizontal [[elevator (aircraft)|elevator]] in front of the wings rather than behind, apparently believing this feature would help to avoid, or protect them from, a nosedive and crash like the one that killed Lilienthal.<ref name=Jakab-1997/>{{rp|page=73}} Wilbur incorrectly believed a tail was not necessary,<ref>{{cite web |last=Wright |first=Wilbur |date=September 18, 1901 |title=Some aeronautical experiments |publisher=Western Society of Engineers |via=MS State U. Libraries |url=http://invention.psychology.msstate.edu/inventors/i/Wrights/library/Aeronautical.html |access-date=July 14, 2010}}</ref> and their first two gliders did not have one.

According to some Wright biographers, Wilbur probably did all the gliding until 1902, perhaps to exercise his authority as older brother and to protect Orville from harm as he did not want to have to explain to their father, Bishop Wright, if Orville got injured.<ref>Howard 1988, p. 52.</ref><ref name=Crouch-2003/>{{rp|page=198}}
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Glider vital statistics<ref>{{Cite web|title=Just the Facts|url=https://www.wright-brothers.org/Information_Desk/Just_the_Facts/Just_the_Facts_Intro/Just_the_Facts_Intro.htm|access-date=2023-02-12|website=Wright Brothers Aeroplane Company|author1= Joe McDaniel| display-authors=etal }}</ref>
! !! Wingspan!!Wing area!! Chord !! Camber !!Aspect ratio!!Length  !!Weight
|-
| '''1900''' ||{{convert|17|ft|6|in|m|abbr=on}}|| {{convert|165|sqft|m2|0|abbr=on}}  || {{convert|5|ft|m|0|abbr=on}} ||1/20|| 3.5:1
 ||{{convert|11|ft|6|in|m|abbr=on}}||{{convert|52|lb|kg|abbr=on}}
|-
|'''1901'''|| {{convert|22|ft|m|0|abbr=on}} ||{{convert|290|sqft|m2|0|abbr=on}} ||{{convert|7|ft|m|abbr=on}}||1/12*,1/19||3:1||{{convert|14|ft|m|abbr=on}} ||{{convert|98|lb|kg|abbr=on}}
|-
|'''1902'''||{{convert|32|ft|1|in|m|abbr=on}}||{{convert|305|sqft|m2|0|abbr=on}}||{{convert|5|ft|m|abbr=on}}||1/20–1/24||6.5:1||{{convert|17|ft|m|abbr=on}} ||{{convert|112|lb|kg|abbr=on}}
|}
<nowiki>* (This airfoil caused severe stability problems; the Wrights modified the camber on-site.)</nowiki>

====1900====
[[File:WrightBrothers1900Glider.jpg|thumb|The 1900 glider. No photo was taken with a pilot aboard.]]
The brothers flew the glider for only a few days in the early autumn of 1900 at Kitty Hawk. In the first tests, probably on October 3, Wilbur was aboard while the glider flew as a kite not far above the ground with men below holding tether ropes.<ref name=Crouch-2003/>{{rp|pages=188–189}} Most of the kite tests were unpiloted, with sandbags or chains and even a local boy as ballast.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wright-brothers.org/History_Wing/History_of_the_Airplane/Century_Before/Road_to_Kitty_Hawk/Road_to_Kitty_Hawk.htm |title=The road to Kitty Hawk |website=wright-brothers.org |access-date=January 12, 2016}}, "The Wrights send 10-year-old Tom Tate, William's nephew up on the glider as they fly it like a kite."</ref>

They tested wing-warping using control ropes from the ground. The glider was also tested unmanned while suspended from a small homemade tower. Wilbur, but not Orville, made about a dozen free glides on only a single day, October 20. For those tests the brothers trekked four miles (6{{nbsp}}km) south to the [[Kill Devil Hills]], a group of sand dunes up to {{convert|100|ft|m|-1}} high (where they made camp in each of the next three years). Although the glider's lift was less than expected, the brothers were encouraged because the craft's front elevator worked well and they had no accidents. However, the small number of free glides meant 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.

====1901====
{{multiple image
| align = right
| direction = vertical
| width =
| image1 = Wright1901GliderBottom.jpg
| width1 = 230
| caption1 = Orville with the [[1901 Wright Glider|1901 glider]], its nose pointed skyward; it had no tail.
| image2 = Wright 1901 glider landing.jpg
| width2 = 230
| caption2 = Wilbur just after landing the 1901 glider. Glider skid marks are visible behind it, and marks from a previous landing are seen in front; Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina.
}}
Before returning to Kitty Hawk in the summer of 1901, Wilbur published two articles, "The Angle of Incidence" in ''The Aeronautical Journal'', and "The Horizontal Position During Gliding Flight" in ''Illustrierte Aeronautische Mitteilungen''.  The brothers brought all of the material they thought was needed to be self-sufficient at Kitty Hawk.  Besides living in tents once again, they built a combination workshop and hangar.  Measuring {{convert|25|ft|m}} long by {{convert|16|ft|m}} wide, the ends opened upward for easy glider access.<ref name=hc/>{{rp|129–130}}

Hoping to improve lift, they built the 1901 glider with a much larger wing area and made dozens of flights in July and August for distances of {{convert|50|to|400|ft|m|abbr=on}}.<ref>{{Cite web|title=1901 Wright Glider|url=https://www.wright-brothers.org/Information_Desk/Just_the_Facts/Kites_&_Gliders/1901_Glider.htm|access-date=2023-02-12|website=Wright Brothers Aeroplane Company| author1 =Joe McDaniel }}</ref> The glider stalled a few times, but the parachute effect of the forward elevator allowed Wilbur to make a safe flat landing, instead of a nose-dive. These incidents wedded the Wrights even more strongly to the ''[[Canard (aeronautics)|canard]]'' design, which they did not give up until 1910. The glider, however, delivered two major disappointments. It produced only about one-third the lift calculated and sometimes pointed opposite the intended direction of a turn – a problem later known as [[adverse yaw]] – when Wilbur used the wing-warping control. On the trip home a deeply dejected Wilbur remarked to Orville that man would not fly in a thousand years.<ref>Kelly 2002, p. 42</ref>

The poor lift of the gliders led the Wrights to question the accuracy of Lilienthal's data, as well as the "[[John Smeaton|Smeaton]] coefficient" of air pressure, a value which had been in use for over 100 years and was part of the accepted equation for lift.
::{|  class="wikitable"
|+ The lift equation
|<math>L = k\;S\;V^2\;C_L</math>
L = lift in pounds<br />
k = coefficient of air pressure (Smeaton coefficient)<br />
S = total area of lifting surface in square feet<br />
V = velocity (headwind plus ground speed) in miles per hour<br />
C<sub>L</sub> = coefficient of lift (varies with wing shape)
|}
The Wrights used this equation to calculate the amount of lift that a wing would produce. Over the years a wide variety of values had been measured for the Smeaton coefficient; Chanute identified up to 50 of them. Wilbur knew that Langley, for example, had used a lower number than the traditional one. Intent on confirming the correct Smeaton value, Wilbur performed his own calculations using measurements collected during kite and free flights of the 1901 glider. His results correctly showed that the coefficient was very close to 0.0033 (similar to the number Langley used), not the traditional 0.0054, which would significantly exaggerate predicted lift.<ref name=Crouch-1989/>{{rp|pages=220–221}}
[[File:WB Wind Tunnel.jpg|thumb|Replica of the Wright brothers' [[wind tunnel]] at the Virginia Air and Space Center]]
The brothers decided to find out if Lilienthal's data for lift coefficients were correct. They devised an experimental apparatus which consisted of a freely rotating bicycle wheel mounted horizontally in front of the handlebars of a bicycle. The brothers took turns pedaling the bicycle vigorously, creating air flow over the horizontal wheel. Attached vertically to the wheel were an airfoil and a flat plate mounted 90° away. As air passed by the airfoil, the lift it generated, if unopposed, would cause the wheel to rotate.

The flat plate was oriented so its drag would push the wheel in the opposite direction of the airfoil. The airfoil and flat plate were made in specific sizes such that, according to Lilienthal's measurements, the lift generated by the airfoil would exactly counterbalance the drag generated by the flat plate and the wheel would not turn. However, when the brothers tested the device, the wheel ''did'' turn. The experiment confirmed their suspicion that either the standard Smeaton coefficient or Lilienthal's coefficients of lift and drag – or all of them – were in error.<ref name="KittyHawkBox">
{{cite web |url=http://www.wright-brothers.org/History_Wing/Wright_Story/Inventing_the_Airplane/Kitty_Hawk_in_a_Box/Kitty_Hawk_in_a_Box.htm |title=Kitty Hawk in a box |series=Wright Brothers Aeroplane Company |website=wright-brothers.org |access-date=April 11, 2014}}</ref><ref name=Crouch-1989/>{{rp|pages=221–222}}

They then built a six-foot (1.8&nbsp;m) wind tunnel in their shop, and between October and December&nbsp;1901 conducted systematic tests on dozens of miniature wings.<ref name=Dodson>{{Cite web
| publisher= US Naval Academy 
|title=An Historical and Applied Aerodynamic Study of the Wright Brothers' Wind Tunnel Test Program and Application to Successful Manned Flight
| last=Dodson| type = technical report
|first=M.G.|url=http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/3585|access-date=2023-02-12|archive-date=September 5, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110905162319/http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/3585|url-status=usurped
| year=2005}}</ref> The "balances" they devised and mounted inside the tunnel to hold the wings looked crude, made of bicycle spokes and scrap metal, but were "as critical to the ultimate success of the Wright brothers as were the gliders."<ref name=Crouch-1989/>{{rp|page=225}} The devices allowed the brothers to balance lift against drag and accurately calculate the performance of each wing. They could also see which wings worked well as they looked through the viewing window in the top of the tunnel. The tests yielded a trove of valuable data never before known and showed that the poor lift of the 1900 and 1901 gliders was entirely due to an incorrect Smeaton value, and that Lilienthal's published data were fairly accurate for the tests he had done.<ref name="KittyHawkBox"/><ref name=Crouch-1989/>{{rp|page=226}}

Before the detailed wind tunnel tests, Wilbur traveled to [[Chicago]] at Chanute's invitation to give a lecture to the [[Western Society of Engineers]] on September 18, 1901. He presented a thorough report about the 1900–1901 glider experiments and complemented his talk with a [[Magic lantern|lantern]] slide show of photographs. Wilbur's speech was the first public account of the brothers' experiments.<ref>{{cite web |last=Wright |first=Wilbur |title=Aeronautical Experiments |url=http://invention.psychology.msstate.edu/i/Wrights/library/Aeronautical.html}}</ref> A report was published in the ''Journal'' of the society, which was then separately published as an offprint titled ''Some Aeronautical Experiments'' in a 300&nbsp;copy printing.<ref>{{cite magazine |magazine=Journal of the Western Society of Engineers |title=Some Aeronautical Experiments |via=Book and Magazine Collector |date=February 2006 |number=265 |page=15}}</ref>

====1902====
[[File:WrightGlidersSideBySide.jpg|right|thumb|At left, 1901 glider flown by Wilbur (left) and Orville. At right, 1902 glider flown by Wilbur (right) and Dan Tate, their helper. Dramatic improvement in performance is apparent. The 1901 glider flies at a steep [[angle of attack]] due to poor lift and high drag. In contrast, the 1902 glider flies at a much flatter angle and holds up its tether lines almost vertically, clearly demonstrating a much better [[lift-to-drag ratio]].<ref>[http://airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/wright-brothers/online/fly/1902/perfecting.cfm "Perfecting the Control System"], Inventing a Flying Machine, The Wright Brothers and the Invention of the Aerial Age, [[The Smithsonian Institution]], [[National Air and Space Museum]]. Retrieved April 6, 2014.</ref>]]

Lilienthal had made "whirling arm" tests on only a few wing shapes, and the Wrights mistakenly assumed the data would apply to their wings, which had a different shape. The Wrights took a huge step forward and made basic wind tunnel tests on 200 [[scale-model]] wings of many shapes and [[airfoil]] curves, followed by detailed tests on 38 of them. An important discovery was the benefit of longer narrower wings: in aeronautical terms, wings with a larger [[aspect ratio]] (wingspan divided by [[Chord (aircraft)|chord]] – the wing's front-to-back dimension). Such shapes offered much better [[lift-to-drag ratio]] than the stubbier wings the brothers had tried so far. With this knowledge, and a more accurate Smeaton number, the Wrights designed their 1902 glider.

The wind tunnel tests, made from October to December 1901, were described by biographer Fred Howard as "the most crucial and fruitful aeronautical experiments ever conducted in so short a time with so few materials and at so little expense".<ref>Howard 1988, p. 72.</ref> In their September 1908 ''Century Magazine'' article, the Wrights explained, "The calculations on which all flying machines had been based were unreliable, and ... every experiment was simply groping in the dark ... We cast it all aside and decided to rely entirely upon our own investigations."<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Wright |first1=Orville |last2=Wright |first2=Wilbur |collaboration=Wright Brothers Aeroplane Company |date=September 1908 |title=The Wright Brothers aeroplane |magazine=Century Magazine |url=https://www.wright-brothers.org/History_Wing/Wright_Story/Showing_the_World/Tragedy_at_Fort_Myer/Wright_Brothers_Aeroplane.htm |via=Wright-Brothers.org |access-date=March 7, 2021}}</ref>

The 1902 glider wing had a flatter airfoil, with the [[camber (aerodynamics)|camber]] reduced to a ratio of 1-in-24, in contrast to the previous thicker wing. The larger aspect ratio was achieved by increasing the wingspan and shortening the chord. The glider also had a new structural feature: A fixed, rear vertical rudder, which the brothers hoped would eliminate turning problems. However, the 1902 glider encountered trouble in crosswinds and steep banked turns, when it sometimes spiraled into the ground – a phenomenon the brothers called "well digging".  According to [[Harry B. Combs|Combs]], "They knew that when the earlier 1901 glider banked, it would begin to slide sideways through the air, and if the side motion was left uncorrected, or took place too quickly, the glider would go into an uncontrolled pivoting motion. Now, with vertical fins added to correct this, the glider again went into a pivoting motion, but in the opposite direction, with the nose swinging downward."<ref name=hc/>{{rp|149,158–168}}

[[File:1902 WrightBrosGlider.jpg|left|thumb|upright|Wilbur Wright pilots the [[1902 Wright Glider|1902 glider]] over the Kill Devil Hills, October 10, 1902. The single rear rudder is steerable; it replaced the original fixed double rudder.]]

Orville apparently visualized that the fixed rudder resisted the effect of corrective wing-warping when attempting to level off from a turn. He wrote in his diary that on the night of October 2, "I studied out a new vertical rudder". The brothers then decided to make the rear rudder movable to solve the problem.<ref>Anderson 2004, p. 134.</ref> They hinged the rudder and connected it to the pilot's warping "cradle", so a single movement by the pilot simultaneously controlled wing-warping and rudder deflection. The apparatus made the trailing edge of the rudder turn away from whichever end of the wings had more drag (and lift) due to warping. The opposing pressure produced by turning the rudder enabled corrective wing-warping to reliably restore level flight after a turn or a wind disturbance. Furthermore, when the glider banked into a turn, rudder pressure overcame the effect of differential drag and pointed the nose of the aircraft in the direction of the turn, eliminating adverse yaw.

In short, the Wrights discovered the true purpose of the movable vertical rudder. Its role was not to change the direction of flight, as a rudder does in sailing, but rather, to aim or align the aircraft correctly during banking turns and when leveling off from turns and wind disturbances.<ref>Culick, Fred E.C. [http://www.wrightflyer.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Flight-Mechanics-In-Modern-Terms.pdf "What the Wright brothers did and did not understand about flight mechanics – in modern terms."] Pasadena, California: ''American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics: California Institute of Technology'', Paper AIAA-2001-3385, 37th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference and Exhibit, July 8–11, 2001. Retrieved: February 20, 2017.</ref> The actual turn – the change in direction – was done with roll control using wing-warping. The principles remained the same when [[ailerons]] superseded wing-warping.

[[File:1902 Wright glider turns.jpeg|right|thumb|Wilbur makes a turn using wing-warping and the movable rudder, October 24, 1902.]]
With their new method, the Wrights achieved true control in turns for the first time on October 9, a major milestone. From September 20 until the last weeks of October, they flew over a thousand flights.  The longest duration was up to 26 seconds, and the longest distance more than {{convert|600|ft|m}}.  Having demonstrated lift, control, and stability, the brothers now turned their focus to the problem of power.<ref name=hc/>{{rp|161,171–175}}

Thus did [[flight dynamics|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, the Wrights applied for their famous patent for a "Flying Machine", based on their successful 1902 glider. Some aviation historians believe that applying the system of three-axis flight control on the 1902 glider was equal to, or even more significant, than the addition of power to the 1903 Flyer. Peter Jakab of the Smithsonian asserts that perfection of the 1902 glider essentially represents invention of the airplane.<ref>Langewiesche 1972, p. 163.</ref><ref name=Jakab-1997/>{{rp|pages=183–184}}

===Adding power===
In addition to developing the lift equation, the brothers also developed the equation for drag. It is of the same form as the lift equation, except the [[coefficient of drag]] replaces the [[lift coefficient|coefficient of lift]], computing drag instead of lift. They used this equation to answer the question, "Is there enough power in the engine to produce a [[thrust]] adequate to overcome the drag of the total frame&nbsp;...," in the words of Combs. The Wrights then "...&nbsp;measured the pull in pounds on various parts of their aircraft, including the pull on each of the wings of the biplane in level position in known wind velocities ... They also devised a formula for [[power-to-weight ratio]] and propeller efficiency that would answer whether or not they could supply to the propellers the power necessary to deliver the thrust to maintain flight ... they even computed the thrust of their propellers to within 1&nbsp;percent of the thrust actually delivered&nbsp;..."<ref name=hc/>{{rp|181–186,367–375}}

[[File:Wright brothers engine 17.jpg|thumb|upright|A Wright engine, serial number&nbsp;17, {{circa|1910}}, on display at the [[New England Air Museum]]]]
In 1903 the brothers built the powered ''[[Wright Flyer]]'', using their preferred material for construction, [[spruce]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nasm.si.edu/exhibitions/gal100/wright1903.html|title=Exhibitions|date=April 28, 2016|access-date=November 7, 2011|archive-date=December 25, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181225123954/https://airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions|url-status=dead}}</ref> a strong and lightweight wood, and Pride of the West [[muslin]] for surface coverings. They also designed and carved their own wooden propellers, and had a purpose-built gasoline engine fabricated in their bicycle shop. They thought propeller design would be a simple matter and intended to adapt data from shipbuilding. However, their library research disclosed no established formulae for either marine or air propellers, and they found themselves with no sure starting point. They discussed and argued the question, sometimes heatedly, until they concluded that an aeronautical propeller is essentially a wing rotating in the vertical plane.<ref name=Crouch-1989/>{{rp|pages=242–243}} On that basis, they used data from more wind tunnel tests to design their propellers. The finished blades were just over eight feet long, made of three laminations of glued spruce. The Wrights decided on twin "[[Pusher configuration|pusher]]" propellers (counter-rotating to cancel torque), which would act on a greater quantity of air than a single relatively slow propeller and not disturb airflow over the leading edge of the wings.

Wilbur made a March 1903 entry in his notebook indicating the prototype propeller was 66% efficient. Modern wind tunnel tests on reproduction 1903 propellers show they were more than 75% efficient under the conditions of the first flights, "a remarkable feat", and actually had a peak efficiency of 82%.<ref>
{{cite magazine
 | last1 = Ash      | first1 = Robert L.
 | last2 = Britcher | first2 = Colin P.
 | last3 = Hyde     | first3 = Kenneth W.
 | date  = December 2003
 | title = 100&nbsp;years of flight
 | at = supplement, Prop-Wrights
 | magazine = Mechanical Engineering
 |url=http://www.memagazine.org/supparch/flight03/propwr/propwr.html
 |url-status=dead
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040705082042/http://www.memagazine.org/supparch/flight03/propwr/propwr.html
 |archive-date=July 5, 2004 }}
</ref> The Wrights wrote to several engine manufacturers, but none could meet their need for a sufficiently light-weight powerplant. They turned to their shop mechanic, [[Charlie Taylor (mechanic)|Charlie Taylor]], who built an engine in just six weeks in close consultation with the brothers.<ref name=Crouch-1989/>{{rp|page=245}}

[[File:Wright First Flight 1903Dec17 (full restore 115).jpg|thumb|left|250px|The first flight of the ''[[Wright Flyer]]'', December 17, 1903, Orville piloting, Wilbur running at wingtip]]
To keep the weight down the [[engine block]] was cast from aluminum, a rare practice at the time. The Wright/Taylor engine had a primitive version of a [[carburetor]], and had no [[fuel pump]]. Gasoline was [[gravitation|gravity]]-fed from the fuel tank mounted on a wing strut into a chamber next to the cylinders where it was mixed with air: The [[fuel-air ratio|fuel-air mixture]] was then vaporized by heat from the crankcase, forcing it into the cylinders.<ref>{{cite web |series=Inventing a Flying Machine |title=Engine |publisher=[[The Smithsonian Institution]] |url=https://airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/wright-brothers/online/fly/1903/engine.cfm |access-date=March 7, 2014 |archive-date=April 8, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140408224406/https://airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/wright-brothers/online/fly/1903/engine.cfm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The propeller [[roller chain|drive chains]], resembling those of bicycles, were supplied by a manufacturer of heavy-duty automobile chains.<ref>Howard 1988, pp. 108–109.</ref> The ''Flyer'' cost less than a thousand dollars, in contrast to more than $50,000 in government funds given to [[Samuel Pierpont Langley|Samuel Langley]] for his man-carrying [[Langley Aerodrome|Great Aerodrome]].<ref>Tobin 2004, p. 192.</ref> In 1903 $1,000 was {{Inflation|US|1000|1903|r=-3|fmt=eq}}. The ''Wright Flyer'' had a wingspan of {{convert|40.3|ft|m|abbr=on}}, weighed {{convert|605|lb|kg|abbr=on}},<ref>{{cite web |title=''Wright Flyer&nbsp;I'' |website=Wright-Brothers.org |url=http://www.wright-brothers.org/Information_Desk/Just_the_Facts/Airplanes/Flyer_I.htm |access-date=January 31, 2013}}</ref> and had a {{convert|12|hp|kW}}, {{convert|180|lb|kg|abbr=on}} engine.<ref>Tobin 2004, p. 159.</ref>

On June 24, 1903, Wilbur made a second presentation in Chicago to the Western Society of Engineers. He gave details about their 1902 experiments and glider flights, but avoided any mention of their plans for powered flight.<ref name=hc/>{{rp|186–187}}

===First powered flight===

{{multiple image
| align = right
| direction = vertical
| width =
| image1 = 19031228 Machine That Flies - The Newark Daily Advocate.jpg
| width1 = 350
| caption1 = Within weeks of the first powered flight, this Ohio newspaper described "what the Wright brothers' invention has accomplished" – after years of glider tests, four successful flights in a powered flier that has "no balloon attachments of any kind, but is supported in the air by a pair of aerocurves, or wings", placing "[[Alberto Santos-Dumont|Santos-Dumont]] and [[Patrie (airship)|Lebaudys]], with their dirigible balloons ... in eclipse".<ref name=NewarkDailyAdvocate_19031228>{{cite news |title=Machine that flies / What the Wright brothers' invention has accomplished |date=December 28, 1903 |newspaper=The Newark Daily Advocate |location=Newark, Ohio, U.S. |page=7 |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/newark-advocate-dec-28-1903-p-7/}}</ref>
| image2 = 19060107 Another attempt to solve aerial navigation problem - Wright Brothers - The New York Times.jpg
| width2 = 350
| caption2 = This 1906 article describes how the Wrights' experiments were conducted in "strict secrecy for several years", with "not more than a dozen persons" being in on the secret.<ref name=NYTimes_19060107/> One insider stated that the brothers had "not sought for spectacular success", and instead described their "progressive accumulation of experiences", including gradual progression from gliders to powered flight, and from straight flights to circuits requiring turning the aeroplane.<ref name=NYTimes_19060107/> The account reported "some slight success in flying through the air at the end of the Summer of 1903".<ref name=NYTimes_19060107/> The Wrights were said to have solved flight control issues to achieve controlled turns on a one&nbsp;mile circuit on September 20, 1904, followed by five minute flights in the ensuing weeks, and a 24&nbsp;mile, 38&nbsp;minute flight in summer 1905.<ref name=NYTimes_19060107>{{cite news |title=Another attempt to solve aerial navigation problem |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/new-york-times-jan-07-1906-p-12/ |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=January 7, 1906 |page=2 }} (page&nbsp;2 of the ''[[New York Times]]'' "Magazine" section)</ref>
}}
In camp at [[Kill Devil Hills]], the Wrights endured weeks of delays caused by broken propeller shafts during engine tests. After the shafts were replaced (requiring two trips back to Dayton), Wilbur won a [[coin flipping|coin toss]] and made a three-second flight attempt on December 14, 1903, stalling after takeoff and causing minor damage to the ''Flyer''. Because December 13, 1903, was a [[Sunday]], the brothers did not make any attempts that day, even though the weather was good, so their first powered test flight happened on the 121st&nbsp;anniversary of the first hot air balloon test flight that the [[Montgolfier brothers#Early experiments|Montgolfier brothers]] had made on December 14, 1782. In a message to their family, Wilbur referred to the trial as having "only partial success", stating "the power is ample, and but for a trifling error due to lack of experience with this machine and this method of starting, the machine would undoubtedly have flown beautifully."<ref>Kelly 2002, pp. 112–113.</ref>

Following repairs, the Wrights finally took to the air on December 17, 1903, making two flights each from level ground<ref>{{cite book |last1=Andrews |first1=Allen |title=The Flying Machine: Its Evolution Through the Ages |date=1977 |publisher=Putnam |isbn=9780399119675 |page=94}}</ref> into a freezing headwind gusting to {{convert|27|mph|km/h}}. The first flight, by Orville at 10:35&nbsp;am, of {{convert|120|ft|m}} in 12&nbsp;seconds, at a speed of only {{convert|6.8|mph|km/h}} over the ground, was recorded in a [[:File:First flight2.jpg|famous photograph]].<ref name="WDL">{{cite web |title = Telegram from Orville Wright in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, to his father announcing four successful flights, December 17, 1903 |website = [[World Digital Library]] |date = December 17, 1903 |url=http://www.wdl.org/en/item/11372/ |access-date = July 21, 2013}}</ref> The next two flights covered approximately {{convert|175|and|200|ft|m}}, by Wilbur and Orville respectively. Their altitude was about {{convert|10|ft|m}} above the ground.<ref name="wb-first-five-flights">{{cite journal |first=Carroll F. |last=Gray |date=August 2002 |title=The first five flights, the slope and winds of Big Kill Devil Hill – the first flight reconsidered |journal=WW1 AERO the Journal of the Early Aeroplane |issue=177 |url=http://www.thewrightbrothers.org/fivefirstflights.html |via=TheWrightBrothers.org |access-date=September 21, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150423162519/http://www.thewrightbrothers.org/fivefirstflights.html |archive-date=April 23, 2015}}</ref> The following is Orville Wright's account of the final flight of the day:<ref>Kelly 1943, pp. 101–102.</ref>
{{Blockquote|text=Wilbur started the fourth and last flight at just about 12&nbsp;o'clock. The first few hundred feet were up and down, as before, but by the time three hundred ft had been covered, the machine was under much better control. The course for the next four or five hundred feet had but little undulation. However, when out about eight hundred feet the machine began pitching again, and, in one of its darts downward, struck the ground. The distance over the ground was measured to be 852&nbsp;feet; the time of the flight was 59&nbsp;seconds. The frame supporting the front rudder was badly broken, but the main part of the machine was not injured at all. We estimated that the machine could be put in condition for flight again in about a day or two.}}

[[File:Wright diary1.jpg|left|thumb|Orville's notebook entry of December 17, 1903]]
Five people witnessed the flights: Adam Etheridge, [[John T. Daniels]] (who snapped the famous "first flight" photo using Orville's pre-positioned camera), and Will Dough, all of the U.S. government coastal lifesaving crew; area businessman W.C. Brinkley; and Johnny Moore, a teenaged boy who lived in the area.
After the men hauled the ''Flyer'' back from its fourth flight, a powerful gust of wind flipped it over several times, despite the crew's attempt to hold it down. Severely damaged, the ''Wright Flyer'' never flew again.<ref>Howard 1988, p. 139.</ref> The brothers shipped the airplane home, and years later Orville restored it, lending it to several U.S. locations for display, then to the [[Science Museum, London|Science Museum]] in London (see Smithsonian dispute below), before it was finally installed in 1948 in [[the Smithsonian Institution]], its current residence.

The Wrights sent a telegram about the flights to their father, requesting that he "inform press".<ref name="WDL"/> However, the ''Dayton Journal'' refused to publish the story, saying the flights were too short to be important. Meanwhile, against the brothers' wishes, a telegraph operator leaked their message to a Virginia newspaper, which concocted a highly inaccurate news article that was reprinted the next day in several newspapers elsewhere, including Dayton.<ref name=Crouch-1989/>{{rp|pages=271–272}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wright-brothers.org/History_Wing/Wright_Story/Inventing_the_Airplane/December_17_1903/Virginia_Pilot_Story.htm |title=''Virginian-Pilot'' story |series=In their own words |website=Wright-Brothers.org |access-date=January 29, 2013}}</ref>

The Wrights issued their own factual statement to the press in January.<ref name=Crouch-1989/>{{rp|page=274}} Nevertheless, the flights did not create public excitement – if people even knew about them – and the news soon faded.{{citation needed|date=April 2014}} In Paris, however, 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.<ref>{{cite book |first=C.H. |last=Gibbs-Smith |author-link=Charles Harvard Gibbs-Smith |title=The Rebirth of European Aviation |year=1974 |pages=64–9 |isbn=978-0112901808 |location=London, UK |publisher=HMSO}}</ref>

An analysis in 1985 by Professor Fred E.C. 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.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Abzug |first1=Malcolm J. |first2=E. Eugene |last2=Larrabee |title=Airplane Stability and Control: A history of the technologies that made aviation possible |date=September 23, 2002 |edition=2nd |publisher= (cambridge.org) |isbn=97805218-0992-4 |url=http://assets.cambridge.org/97805218/09924/sample/9780521809924ws.pdf |access-date=September 21, 2010}}{{full citation needed|date=April 2021}}</ref> In a recreation attempt on the event's 100th&nbsp;anniversary on December 17, 2003, Kevin Kochersberger, piloting an exact replica, failed in his effort to match the success that the Wright brothers had achieved with their piloting skill.<ref>{{cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3b1avsSw3g&t=136 | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211028/S3b1avsSw3g| archive-date=October 28, 2021|via=YouTube |title=Attempt to recreate Wright brothers flight fails |publisher=AP Archive |medium=video}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

===Establishing legitimacy===
[[File:1904WrightFlyer.jpg|thumb|Orville in flight over [[Huffman Prairie]] in [[Wright Flyer II]]. Flight&nbsp;85, approximately {{convert|1760|ft|m|0}} in {{frac|40|1|5}}&nbsp;seconds, November 16, 1904]]
In 1904 the Wrights built the [[Wright Flyer II]]. They decided to avoid the expense of travel and bringing supplies to the Outer Banks and set up an airfield at [[Huffman Prairie]], a cow pasture eight miles {{convert|8|mi|km|0}} northeast of Dayton. The Wrights referred to the airfield as Simms Station in their flying school brochure. They received permission to use the field rent-free from owner and bank president Torrance Huffman.

They invited reporters to their first flight attempt of the year on May&nbsp;23, on the condition that no photographs be taken. Engine troubles and slack winds prevented any flying, and they could manage only a very short hop a few days later with fewer reporters present. Library of Congress historian Fred Howard noted some speculation that the brothers had intentionally failed to fly in order to cause reporters to lose interest in their experiments. Whether that is true is not known, but after their poor showing local newspapers virtually ignored them for the next year and a half.<ref>Howard 1998, pp. 154–155.</ref>

The Wrights were glad to be free from the distraction of reporters. The absence of newsmen also reduced the chance of competitors learning their methods. After the Kitty Hawk powered flights, the Wrights made a decision to begin withdrawing from the bicycle business so they could concentrate on creating and marketing a practical airplane.<ref name=Crouch-2003/>{{rp|pages=273–274}} This was financially risky, since they were neither wealthy nor government-funded (unlike other experimenters such as [[Clément Ader|Ader]], [[Hiram Stevens Maxim|Maxim]], [[Samuel Pierpont Langley|Langley]], and [[Alberto Santos-Dumont|Santos-Dumont]]). The Wright brothers did not have the luxury of being able to give away their invention: It had to be their livelihood. Thus, their secrecy intensified, encouraged by advice from their patent attorney, [[Harry Aubrey Toulmin Sr.|Henry Toulmin]], not to reveal details of their machine.

[[File:WrightFlyer1904Circling.jpg|thumb|Wilbur flying almost four circles of Huffman Prairie, about {{frac|2|3|4}}&nbsp;miles in 5&nbsp;minutes 4&nbsp;seconds; flight&nbsp;82, November 9, 1904.]]
At Huffman Prairie, lighter winds made takeoffs harder, and they had to use a longer starting rail than the {{convert|60|ft|m|0|adj=on}} rail used at Kitty Hawk. The first flights in 1904 revealed problems with longitudinal stability, solved by adding ballast and lengthening the supports for the elevator.<ref name=Crouch-2003/>{{rp|page=286}} During the spring and summer they suffered many hard landings, often damaging the aircraft and causing minor injuries. On August&nbsp;13, making an unassisted takeoff, Wilbur finally exceeded their best Kitty Hawk effort with a flight of {{convert|1300|ft|m|-1}}.
They then decided to use a weight-powered catapult to make takeoffs easier and tried it for the first time on September&nbsp;7.<ref name="Howard 1998, p. 161">Howard 1998, p. 161</ref>

[[File:WrightBrothersFirstCircleFlightLogBook.gif|thumb|left|Wilbur's logbook showing diagram and data for first circle flight on September 20, 1904]]
On September 20, 1904, Wilbur flew the first complete circle in history by a manned heavier-than-air powered machine, covering {{convert|4080|ft|m|0}} in about a minute and a half.<ref name="Howard 1998, p. 161"/> Their two best flights were November&nbsp;9 by Wilbur and December&nbsp;1 by Orville, each exceeding five minutes and covering nearly three miles in almost four circles.<ref>Howard 1998, pp. 162–163</ref>
By the end of the year the brothers had accumulated about 50 minutes in the air in 105&nbsp;flights over the rather soggy {{convert|85|acre|ha}} 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]].

The Wrights scrapped the battered and much-repaired aircraft, but saved the engine, and in 1905 built a new airplane, the ''Flyer&nbsp;III''. However, at first this had the same marginal performance as the first two. Its maiden flight was on June&nbsp;23 and the first few flights were no longer than 10&nbsp;seconds.<ref name="Winchester">Winchester 2005, p. 311.</ref> After Orville suffered a bone-jarring and potentially fatal crash on July&nbsp;14, they rebuilt the ''Flyer'' with the forward elevator and rear rudder both enlarged and placed several feet farther away from the wings. They also installed a separate control for the rear rudder instead of linking it to the wing-warping "cradle" as before.<ref name="auto">A Wright brothers letter [[commons:File:WrightAeroClubLetterPg1.jpg|(page 1]], [[commons:File:WrightAeroClubLetterPg2.jpg|page 2)]] to the Aero Club of America describes the long flights and provides a list of witnesses. (Courtesy Dayton Metro Library.)</ref>

Each of the three axes (pitch, roll, and yaw) now had its own independent control. These modifications greatly improved stability and control, enabling a series of six long flights ranging from 17 to 38&nbsp;minutes and {{convert|11|to|24|mi|km|0}} around the {{convert|0.75|mi|km|1}} course over Huffman Prairie between September&nbsp;26 and October&nbsp;5. Wilbur made the last and longest flight, {{convert|24.5|mi|km|1}} in 38&nbsp;minutes and 3&nbsp;seconds, ending with a safe landing when the fuel ran out. The flight was seen by several invited friends, their father Milton, and neighboring farmers.<ref name="auto"/>

[[File:Wright Flyer III above.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[Wright Flyer III]]'' piloted by Orville over Huffman Prairie, October 4, 1905. Flight #46, covering {{frac|20|3|4}}&nbsp;miles in 33&nbsp;minutes 17&nbsp;seconds; the last photographed flight of the year.]]

Reporters showed up the next day (only their second appearance at the field since May the previous year), but the brothers declined to fly. The long flights convinced the Wrights they had achieved their goal of creating a flying machine of "practical utility" which they could offer to sell.

The only photos of the flights of 1904–1905 were taken by the brothers. (A few photos were damaged in the [[Great Dayton Flood]] of 1913, but most survived intact.) 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 Ohio, and was often met with skepticism. The Paris edition of the ''[[International Herald Tribune|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 reporters somehow missed one of the most important stories in history as it was happening a few miles from their doorstep. [[James M. Cox|J.M. Cox]],{{efn| ''[[Dayton Daily News]]'' publisher [[James M. Cox]] later became governor of Ohio, and a 1920 Democratic presidential nominee.}} who published the ''[[Dayton Daily News]]'' at that time, expressed the attitude of newspapermen – and the public – in those days when he admitted years later: "Frankly, none of us believed it."<ref>Tobin 2004, p. 211.</ref>

[[File:HeadlineWrightBros.gif|thumb|The ''Dayton Daily News'' reported the October&nbsp;5, 1905, flight on page&nbsp;9, with agriculture and business news.{{refn|Image courtesy Dayton Metro Library. The newspaper article can be read at the commons.<ref>[[commons:File:DaytonNewspaperArticleWrightBros.gif|"Wright Brothers"]]. Dayton Metro Library. Retrieved: September 21, 2010.</ref>}}]]
A few newspapers published articles about the long flights, but no reporters or photographers had been there. The lack of splashy eyewitness press coverage was a major reason for disbelief in Washington, DC, and Europe, and in journals like ''Scientific American'', whose editors doubted the "alleged experiments" and asked how U.S. newspapers, "alert as they are, allowed these sensational performances to escape their notice."<ref>{{Citation|title=The Wright Aeroplane and its Fabled Performance|url=https://invention.psychology.msstate.edu/i/Wrights/library/WrightSiAm1.html|access-date=2023-02-12|work= Scientific American | volume= 94 | number= 2 | page = 40 | date=January 13, 1905
}}</ref>

In October&nbsp;1904, the brothers were visited by the first of many important Europeans they would befriend in coming years, [[John Capper|Colonel J.E. Capper]], later superintendent of the [[Royal Aircraft Establishment|Royal Balloon Factory]]. Capper and his wife were visiting the United States to investigate the aeronautical exhibits at the [[Louisiana Purchase Exposition|St.&nbsp;Louis World Fair]], but had been given a letter of introduction to both Chanute and the Wrights by [[Patrick Young Alexander|Patrick Alexander]]. Capper was very favorably impressed by the Wrights, who showed him photographs of their aircraft in flight.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Gollin|first=Alfred M.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xT2rAAAAIAAJ|title=No Longer an Island: Britain and the Wright Brothers, 1902–1909|date=1984|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=978-0-8047-1265-1|pages= 66–68}}</ref>

The Wright brothers were certainly complicit in the lack of attention they received. Fearful of competitors stealing their ideas, and still without a patent, they flew on only one more day after October 5. From then on, they refused to fly anywhere unless they had a firm contract to sell their aircraft. They wrote to the U.S. government, then to Britain, France and Germany with an offer to sell a flying machine, but were rebuffed because they insisted on a signed contract before giving a demonstration. They were unwilling even to show their photographs of the airborne Flyer.

The American military, having recently spent $50,000 on the [[Langley Aerodrome]] – a product of the nation's foremost scientist – only to see it plunge twice into the Potomac River "like a handful of mortar", was particularly unreceptive to the claims of two unknown bicycle makers from Ohio.<ref name="wb-smithson-langley">{{cite web |url=http://airandspace.si.edu/research/aero/aircraft/langleyA.htm |title=Langley Aerodrome A |publisher=[[The Smithsonian Institution]] |department=[[National Air and Space Museum]] |access-date=November 21, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071109075536/http://airandspace.si.edu/research/aero/aircraft/langleyA.htm |archive-date=November 9, 2007 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Thus, doubted or scorned, the Wright brothers continued their work in semi-obscurity, while other aviation pioneers like Santos-Dumont, [[Henri Farman]], [[Léon Delagrange]], and American [[Glenn Curtiss]] entered the limelight.

==European skepticism==
In 1906, skeptics in the European aviation community had converted the press to an anti-Wright brothers stance. European newspapers, especially those in France, were openly derisive, calling them ''bluffeurs'' (bluffers).<ref name="EuroDoubt">[http://wrightbros.org/History_Wing/Wright_Story/Showing_the_World/Prize_Patrol/Prize_Patrol.htm The Prize Patrol] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211128203331/https://wrightbros.org/History_Wing/Wright_Story/Showing_the_World/Prize_Patrol/Prize_Patrol.htm |date=November 28, 2021 }} ''Wright Brothers.org''. Retrieved October 1, 2012.</ref> [[Ernest Archdeacon]], founder of the [[Aéro-Club de France]], was publicly scornful of the brothers' claims despite published reports; specifically, he wrote several articles and, in 1906, stated that "the French would make the first public demonstration of powered flight."<ref name="US Cent">{{Cite web|date=2003| author1= ((US Centennial of Flight Commission))|title=Ernest Archdeacon|url=http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Dictionary/Archdeacon/DI49.htm|access-date=2023-02-12|archive-date=October 8, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121008023307/http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Dictionary/Archdeacon/DI49.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>
The Paris edition of the ''[[New York Herald]]'' summed up Europe's opinion of the Wright brothers in an editorial on February 10, 1906: "The Wrights have flown or they have not flown. They possess a machine or they do not possess one. They are in fact either fliers or liars. It is difficult to fly. It's easy to say, 'We have flown'."<ref name="EuroDoubt"/>

In 1908, after the Wrights' first flights in France, Archdeacon publicly admitted he had done them an injustice.<ref name="US Cent"/>

==Contracts and return to Kitty Hawk==
[[File:1905 Wright Flyer Kill Devil Hills.jpg|thumb|The modified 1905 Flyer at the Kill Devil Hills in 1908, ready for practice flights. Note there is no catapult derrick; all takeoffs were used with the monorail alone.]]

The brothers contacted the [[United States Department of War]], the [[British War Office]] and a French syndicate on October&nbsp;19, 1905. The U.S. Board of Ordnance and Fortification replied on October&nbsp;24, 1905, specifying they would take no further action "until a machine is produced which by actual operation is shown to be able to produce horizontal flight and to carry an operator." In May&nbsp;1908, Orville wrote:<ref name=hc/>{{rp|253}}
{{Blockquote|text=A practical flyer having been finally realized, we spent the years 1906 and 1907 in constructing new machines and in business negotiations. It was not till May of this year that experiments were resumed at Kill Devil Hill, North Carolina&nbsp;..."}}

The 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. They also met with aviation representatives in Germany and Britain. Before traveling, Orville shipped a newly built [[Wright Model A|Model&nbsp;A]] Flyer to France in anticipation of demonstration flights. In France, Wilbur met [[Frank P. Lahm]], a lieutenant in the U.S. Army [[Aeronautical Division, U.S. Signal Corps|Aeronautical Division]]. Writing to his superiors, Lahm smoothed the way for Wilbur to give an in-person presentation to the U.S. Board of Ordnance and Fortification in Washington, D.C., when he returned to the U.S. This time, the Board was favorably impressed, in contrast to its previous indifference.

With further input from the Wrights, the [[Signal Corps (United States Army)|U.S. Army Signal Corps]] issued ''Specification 486'' in December 1907, inviting bids for construction of a flying machine under military contract.<ref>{{Citation|title=Signal Corps Specification No. 486|url=https://www.wright-brothers.org/History_Wing/Wright_Story/Showing_the_World/Back_in_Air/Signal_Corps_Spec.htm|access-date=2023-02-12|website=Wright Brothers Aeroplane Company
| author1= James Allen
| date= 23 December 1907
}}</ref> The Wrights submitted their bid in January,{{efn|The Board was surprised when it received 41&nbsp;bids, having expected only one. None of the other bids amounted to a serious proposal.}} and were awarded a contract on February 8, 1908. Then on March 23, 1908, the brothers had a contract to form the French company La Compagnie Générale de Navigation Aérienne. This French syndicate included [[Lazare Weiller]], [[Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe]], [[Hart O. Berg]], and [[Charles Ranlett Flint]].<ref name=hc/>{{rp|255–256}}

[[File:O.Wright Soaring 1911.jpg|thumb|right|Soaring flight, Kitty Hawk, Oct. 1911 "Arrows indicate [the] 50&nbsp;mile [per hour] wind, showing how [the] machine was sustained in a stationary position".<ref name="wb-popmechnic-1911">{{cite magazine |first=Victor |last=Lougheed |title=The secret experiments of the Wright brothers |date=December 1911 |magazine=Popular Mechanics |url=http://firstflightfoundation.org/bm~doc/1911-11-popmech-lougheed_-secret-flights2.pdf |url-status=dead |access-date=June 2, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110322053726/http://www.firstflightfoundation.org/bm~doc/1911-11-popmech-lougheed_-secret-flights2.pdf |archive-date=March 22, 2011}}</ref>]]

In May they went back to Kitty Hawk with their 1905 Flyer to practice for their contracted demonstration flights. Their privacy was lost when several correspondents arrived on the scene. Among them was [[John C. Burkhart]], an [[Aerospace engineering|aeronautical engineering]] student at [[Cornell University]] and a budding photographer.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Harris |first=Patrick |date=1981-11-25 |title=The Coming of the Birdman: the Aviator's Image in Oregon, 1905-1915 |url=https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/773/ |journal=Dissertations and Theses |doi=10.15760/etd.773|doi-access=free }}</ref> The brothers' contracts required them to fly with a passenger, so they modified the 1905 Flyer by installing two upright seats with dual control levers. [[Charles Furnas|Charlie Furnas]], a mechanic from Dayton, became the first fixed-wing aircraft passenger on separate flights with both brothers on May 14, 1908. Later, Wilbur over-controlled the front elevator and crashed into the sand at about {{convert|50|mph|km/h}}. He emerged with bruises and hurt ribs, but the accident ended the practice flights.<ref name=hc/>{{rp|258–263}}

===Return to glider flights===
In October 1911, Orville Wright returned to the Outer Banks again, to conduct safety and stabilization tests with [[Wright Glider|a new glider]]. On October 24, he soared for 9 minutes and 45 seconds, a record that held for almost 10 years, when [[gliding]] as a sport began in the 1920s.<ref name="wb-fff-2011">{{cite web |title=Soaring&nbsp;100 – October 21–24, 2011 |publisher=First Flight Foundation |url=http://firstflightfoundation.org/first-flight-foundation-events/first-flight-foundation-soaring-100/ |date=October 21, 2011 |access-date=June 2, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111121184715/http://firstflightfoundation.org/first-flight-foundation-events/first-flight-foundation-soaring-100/ |archive-date=November 21, 2011}}</ref>

==Public showing==
[[File:Wright-Fort Myer.jpg|thumb|Orville demonstrating the Flyer to the [[U.S. Army]], [[Fort Myer, Virginia|Fort Myer]], Virginia September 1908. ]]
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.

Facing much skepticism in the French aeronautical community and outright scorn by some newspapers that called him a ''"bluffeur"'', Wilbur began official public demonstrations on August 8, 1908, at the [[Mulsanne Straight|Hunaudières]] horse racing track near the town of [[Le Mans]], France. His first flight lasted only 1&nbsp;minute 45&nbsp;seconds, but his effortless banking turns amazed and stunned onlookers, including  [[Louis Blériot]] and several other pioneering French aviators. In the following days, Wilbur made a series of technically challenging flights, including figure-eights, demonstrating his skills as a pilot and the capability of his flying machine, which far surpassed those of contemporary aircraft and pilots.<ref>Howard, pp. 258–260</ref><ref name=Crouch-1989/>{{rp|pages=368–369}}

[[File:HartBerg with WilburWright.jpg|thumb|left|[[Hart O. Berg]] (left),{{efn|[[Hart O. Berg]], pictured left in this photograph, is often mis-identified as Léon Bollée, the owner of the car factory where Wilbur assembled the Model&nbsp;A; Bollée was a much larger man.}} the Wrights' European business agent, and Wilbur at the flying field near Le Mans]]
The French public was thrilled by Wilbur's feats and flocked to the field by the thousands, and the Wright brothers became world famous. Former doubters issued apologies and effusive praise. ''[[L'Aérophile]]'' editor Georges Besançon wrote that the flights "have completely dissipated all doubts. Not one of the former detractors of the Wrights dare question, today, the previous experiments of the men who were truly the first to fly&nbsp;..."{{refn|''L'Aerophile'', August 11, 1908, quoted in Crouch (2003).<ref name=Crouch-2003/>{{rp|page=368}} }} Leading French aviation promoter Ernest Archdeacon wrote, "For a long time, the Wright brothers have been accused in Europe of bluff ... They are today hallowed in France, and I feel an intense pleasure ... to make amends."{{refn|''L'Auto'', August 9, 1908, quoted in Crouch (2003).<ref name=Crouch-2003/>{{rp|page=368}} }}

On October 7, 1908, Edith Berg, the wife of the brothers' European business agent, became the first American woman passenger when she flew with Wilbur – one of many passengers who rode with him that autumn,<ref>[http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/aero/women_aviators/therese_peltier.htm "Thérèse Peltier."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120121051930/http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/aero/women_aviators/therese_peltier.htm |date=January 21, 2012 }} ''Smithsonian'', Retrieved: July 3, 2010.</ref>{{efn|The first woman passenger was Thérèse Peltier on July 8, 1908, when she made a flight of {{convert|656|ft|m|0}} with [[Léon Delagrange]] in Milan, Italy.}} including [[Griffith Brewer]] and [[Charles Rolls]].<ref name=hc/>{{rp|298,315}} Wilbur also became acquainted with [[Léon Bollée]] and his family. Bollée was the owner of an automobile factory where Wilbur would assemble the Flyer and where he would be provided with hired assistance. Bollée and his wife would fly that autumn with Wilbur. Madame Carlotta Bollée had been in the latter stages of pregnancy when Wilbur arrived in Le Mans in June 1908 to assemble the Flyer. She was fluent in Greek, French and English and translated the technical discussions between Wright and her husband.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=27: carlotta bollee |url=http://www.magnificentwomen.co.uk/1/post/2019/03/march-30th-2019.html |access-date=2022-08-20 |website=Magnificent Women |language=en}}</ref> Wilbur promised her that he would make his first European flight the day her baby was born which he did, August 8, 1908.<ref>Combs 1979, p. 282. [of material presented to Orville Wright in Dayton in 1920 by Madame Bollée and her daughter Elizabeth Bollée (the August&nbsp;1908 baby)]</ref> He became Elizabeth Bollée's godfather.<ref name=":0" />

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, lasting 62 minutes and 15 seconds. On the same day he took up [[Frank P. Lahm]] as a passenger, and then Major [[George Squier]] three days later.<ref name=hc/>{{rp|295}}

[[File:Fort Myer Wright Flyer crash.jpg|thumb|The Fort Myer crash. Photo by C.H. Claudy.]]{{wikisource|Fatal fall of Wright airship}} 
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 {{convert|100|ft|m|-1}}, a propeller split and shattered, sending the ''Flyer'' out of control. Selfridge suffered a fractured skull in the crash and died that evening in the nearby Army hospital, becoming the first airplane crash fatality. Orville was badly injured, suffering a broken left leg and four broken ribs. Twelve years later, after he suffered increasingly severe pains, X-rays revealed the accident had also caused three hip bone fractures and a dislocated hip.<ref>Kelly 1943, p. 230.</ref>

The brothers' sister Katharine, a school teacher, rushed from Dayton to Virginia and stayed by Orville's side for the seven weeks of his hospitalization. She helped negotiate a one-year extension of the Army contract. A friend visiting Orville in the hospital asked, "Has it got your nerve?" "Nerve?" repeated Orville, slightly puzzled. "Oh, do you mean will I be ''afraid'' to fly again? The only thing I'm afraid of is that I can't get well soon enough to finish those tests next year."<ref>Kelly 1943, pp. 231–232.</ref>

Deeply shocked and upset by the accident, Wilbur determined to make even more impressive flight demonstrations; in the ensuing days and weeks he set new records for altitude and duration. On September 28, Wilbur won the Commission of Aviation prize, and then on December 31, the [[Coupe Michelin]].<ref name=hc/>{{rp|314–316}} 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 royalty, the rich, reporters, and the public. The kings of Great Britain, Spain, and Italy came to see Wilbur fly.<ref>{{Cite web| title=The Dream of Flight |url=https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/dreamofflight/dream-achieve.html|access-date=2023-02-12|website=Library of Congress|date=November 4, 2003 }}</ref>

[[File:1909 Flyer and Derrick.jpg|thumb|The Wright Model A Flyer flown by Wilbur 1908–1909 and launching derrick, France, 1909]] 
All three Wrights relocated to [[Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques|Pau]], where Wilbur made many more public flights in nearby Pont Long. Wilbur gave rides to a procession of officers, journalists, and statesmen, including his sister Katharine on March&nbsp;17, 1909. The brothers established the world's first flying school to meet the French syndicate requirements to train three French pilots ([[Charles de Lambert (aviator)|Charles de Lambert]], [[Paul Tissandier]], and Paul-Nicolas Lucas-Girardville). In April the Wrights went to Rome where Wilbur assembled another ''Flyer''. At [[Centocelle Airport|Centocelle]], Wilbur made demonstration flights, and trained three Italian military pilots (Mario Calderara, Umbert Savoia, and Guido Castagneris). A [[Universal Pictures|Universal]] cameraman flew as a passenger, and filmed the first motion pictures from an airplane.<ref name=hc/>{{rp|317–320,328–330}}

After their return to the U.S. on May 13, 1909, the brothers and Katharine were invited to the White House where on June 10, [[William Howard Taft|President Taft]] bestowed awards upon them. Dayton followed up with a lavish two-day homecoming celebration on June 17 and 18. On July&nbsp;27, 1909 Orville, with Wilbur assisting on the ground, completed the proving flights for the U.S. Army. The flights met the requirements that the aircraft carry two persons while remaining aloft for an hour and achieve an average speed of at least {{convert|40|mph|kph}}.<ref name=hc/>{{rp|330–341}}

President Taft, his cabinet, and members of Congress were part of the viewing crowd of 10,000. Following the successful flights, the Army awarded the Wrights $25,000, plus $2500 for each mile per hour they exceeded 40 miles per hour. Orville and Katharine then traveled to Germany, where Orville made demonstration flights at [[Berlin Tempelhof Airport|Tempelhof]] in September 1909, including a flight with the [[Wilhelm, German Crown Prince|Crown Prince of Germany]] as a passenger.<ref name=hc/>{{rp|330–341}}

On October 4, 1909, Wilbur made a flight seen by about a million people in [[Manhattan]] during the [[Hudson-Fulton Celebration]] in [[New York City]]. He took off from [[Governors Island]], flew north over the [[Hudson River]] to [[Grant's Tomb]] and returned to Governors Island. The aircraft was equipped with an unusual accessory for the flight: a canoe attached to the underside framework as a flotation device in case of a [[ditching]]. On October 8 in [[College Park, Maryland]], Wilbur began pilot training for Army officers Frank P. Lahm and [[Frederick E. Humphreys]], joined later that month by [[Benjamin Foulois]].<ref name=hc/>{{rp|330–341}}

===Family flights===
On May 25, 1910, back at Huffman Prairie, Orville piloted two unique flights. First, he took off on a six-minute flight with Wilbur as his passenger, the only time the Wright brothers ever flew together. They 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. Next, Orville took his 82-year-old father on a nearly 7-minute flight, the only powered aerial excursion of Milton Wright's life. The aircraft rose to about {{convert|350|ft|m|0}} while the elderly Wright called to his son, "Higher, Orville, higher!".<ref name=Crouch-2003/>{{rp|page=12}}

==Patent war==
{{See also|Wright brothers patent war}}
[[File:821393 - Flying Machine - Wright Brothers - NARA - 2524937 (page 1).jpg|thumb|The Wright Brothers' U.S. Patent 821,393 issued 1906]]
The Wright brothers wrote their 1903 [[patent application]] themselves, but it was rejected. In January 1904, they hired Ohio patent attorney Henry Toulmin, and on May 22, 1906, they were granted U.S. Patent 821393<ref name="Flying Machine patent"/> for "new and useful Improvements in Flying Machines".

The patent illustrates a non-powered flying machine – namely, the 1902 glider. 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 other methods instead of wing-warping could be used for adjusting the outer portions of a machine's wings to different angles on the right and left sides to achieve lateral (roll) control.

The concept of varying the angle presented to the air near the wingtips, by any suitable method, is central to the patent. The patent also describes the steerable rear vertical rudder and its innovative use in combination with wing-warping, enabling the airplane to make a ''coordinated turn'', a technique that prevents hazardous ''[[adverse yaw]]'', the problem Wilbur had when trying to turn the 1901 glider. Finally, the patent describes the forward elevator, used for ascending and descending.

In March 1904, the Wright Brothers applied for French and German patents. The French patent was granted on July 1, 1904. According to Combs, regarding the U.S. patent, "... by 1906 the drawings in the Wright patents were available to anyone who wanted badly enough to get them. And they gave proof – in vivid, technical detail – of how to get into the air."<ref name=hc/>{{rp|244,257–258}}

===Lawsuits begin===
[[Glenn Curtiss]] and other early aviators devised [[aileron]]s to emulate lateral control described in the patent and demonstrated by the Wrights in their public flights.
Soon after the historic July 4, 1908, one-kilometer flight by Curtiss in the [[AEA June Bug]], the Wrights warned him not to infringe their patent by profiting from flying or selling aircraft that used ailerons.

Orville wrote Curtiss, "Claim 14 of our patent no. 821,393, specifically covers the combination which we are informed you are using. If it is your desire to enter the exhibition business, we would be glad to take up the matter of a license to operate under our patent for that purpose."<ref name=hc/>{{rp|269–270}}

Curtiss was at the time a member of the [[Aerial Experiment Association]] (AEA), headed by [[Alexander Graham Bell]], where in 1908 he had helped reinvent wingtip ailerons for their Aerodrome No. 2, known as the [[AEA White Wing]]<ref name="Aerospaceweb">{{cite web |last=Yoon |first=Joe |date=November 17, 2002 |title=Origins of control surfaces |website=Aerospaceweb.org |url=http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/history/q0103.shtml}}</ref><ref name="Casey">{{cite book |last=Casey |first=Louis S. |year=1981 |title=Curtiss: The Hammondsport era, 1907–1915 |pages=12–15 |place=New York, NY |publisher=Crown Publishers |isbn=9780517543269 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PXtGAAAAYAAJ}}</ref>{{efn|The AEA's other members became dismayed when Curtiss unexpectedly dropped out of their organization; they later came to believe he had sold the rights to their joint innovation to the United States Government.{{citation needed|date=November 2012}} }}

Curtiss refused to pay license fees to the Wrights and sold an airplane equipped with ailerons 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, including the leading French aviator [[Louis Paulhan]]. The Curtiss people derisively suggested that if someone jumped in the air and waved his arms, the Wrights would sue.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Wicks |first=Frank |year=2003 |title=Trial by Flyer |series=100&nbsp;Years of Flight |magazine=Mechanical Engineering |url=http://www.memagazine.org/supparch/flight03/trialby/trialby.html |access-date=November 7, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629103435/http://www.memagazine.org/supparch/flight03/trialby/trialby.html |archive-date=June 29, 2011}} Retrieved from Web Archive July 29, 2012.</ref>

European companies which bought foreign patents the Wrights had received sued other manufacturers in their countries. Those lawsuits 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 because of prior disclosure in speeches by Wilbur Wright in 1901, and Chanute in 1903. In the U.S. the Wrights made an agreement with the [[Aero Club of America]] to license airshows which the Club approved, freeing participating pilots from a legal threat. Promoters of approved shows paid fees to the Wrights.<ref>{{cite book
 |last1=Jackman  |first1=W.J.
 |last2=Russell  |first2=Thomas H.
 |last3=Chanute  |first3=Octave
 |year=1912
 |chapter=Chapter&nbsp;23: Amateurs may use Wright patents
 |title=Flying Machines: Construction and operation  |pages=211–212
 |publisher=Charles C. Thompson Co.
 |location=Chicago, IL
 |chapter-url=http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=JacFlym.sgm&images=images%2Fmodeng&data=%2Ftexts%2Fenglish%2Fmodeng%2Fparsed&tag=public&part=all
 |access-date=January 28, 2016 |url-status=dead
 |via=Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110221081718/http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=JacFlym.sgm&images=images%2Fmodeng&data=%2Ftexts%2Fenglish%2Fmodeng%2Fparsed&tag=public&part=all
 |archive-date=February 21, 2011
}}
</ref> The Wright brothers won their initial case against Curtiss in February 1913 when a judge ruled that ailerons were covered under the patent. The Curtiss company appealed the decision.

From 1910 until his death from [[typhoid fever]] in 1912, Wilbur took the leading role in the patent struggle, travelling 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 aircraft. The Wrights' preoccupation with the legal issue stifled their work on new designs, and by 1911 Wright airplanes were considered inferior to those of European makers. Indeed, aviation development in the U.S. was suppressed to such an extent that, when [[American entry into World War I|the U.S. entered World War I]] in April 1917, no acceptable American-designed airplanes were available, and American forces were compelled to use French machines. 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.

===Victory and cooperation===
In January 1914, a [[United States courts of appeals|U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals]] upheld the verdict against the Curtiss company, which continued to avoid penalties through legal tactics. Orville apparently felt vindicated by the decision, and much to the frustration of company executives, he did not push vigorously for further legal action to ensure a manufacturing monopoly. In fact, he was planning to sell the company and departed in 1915. In 1917, with World War I underway, the U.S. government pressured the industry to form a [[cross-licensing]] organization, the Manufacturers Aircraft Association, to which member companies paid a blanket fee for the use of aviation patents, including the original and subsequent Wright patents.<ref name="wb-centflight">{{cite web |title=Glenn Curtiss and the Wright patent battles |year=2003 |website=Centennial of Flight |url=http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Wright_Bros/Patent_Battles/WR12.htm |access-date=March 7, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121022185447/http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Wright_Bros/Patent_Battles/WR12.htm |archive-date=October 22, 2012 |quote=The suit finally ended with the advent of World War&nbsp;I when the aircraft manufacturers established the Manufacturers' Aircraft Association to coordinate wartime aircraft manufacturing in the United States and formed a [[patent pool]] with the approval of the U.S. government. All patent litigation ceased automatically. Royalties were reduced to one percent and free exchange of inventions and ideas took place among all the airframe builders. 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&nbsp;million payment.}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=End patent wars of aircraft makers |date=August 7, 1917 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1917/08/07/archives/end-patent-wars-of-aircraft-makers-new-organization-is-formed-under.html |access-date=March 7, 2009 |quote=New organization is formed, under war pressure, to interchange patents.}}</ref><ref>"Big Royalties to be Paid: Wright and Curtiss interests each to receive ultimately $2,000,000 – increased production predicted. Payment of royalties." ''[[The New York Times]]''. August 7, 1917. Retrieved March 7, 2009.</ref> The "[[patent war]]" ended, although side issues lingered in the courts until the 1920s. The [[Wright Aeronautical Corporation]] (successor to the Wright-Martin Company), 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.

Aviation historian [[Charles Harvard Gibbs-Smith|C.H. Gibbs-Smith]] stated a number of times<ref>{{cite magazine |first=C.H. |last=Gibbs-Smith |author-link=Charles Harvard Gibbs-Smith |url=http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1956/1956%20-%200598.html |series=Correspondence |title=The first aileron |place=UK |magazine=Flight Magazine |year=1956 |page=598 |access-date=January 1, 2011}}</ref><ref name="Flight-1960.09.16">{{cite magazine |url=http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1960/1960%20-%201994.html |title=A complete new historical assessment |place=UK |magazine=[[Flight International|Flight Magazine]] |date=September 16, 1960 |page=478 |access-date=April 15, 2013}} Retrieved from FlightGlobal.com, January&nbsp;2011.</ref> that the Wrights' legal victory would have been "doubtful" if an 1868 patent of "a prior but lost invention" by [[Matthew Piers Watt Boulton|M.P.W. Boulton]] of the U.K. had been known in the period 1903–1906.<ref name="Aerospaceweb"/><ref name="Gibbs-Smith">{{cite book |first=C.H. |last=Gibbs-Smith |author-link=Charles Harvard Gibbs-Smith |year=2000 |title=Aviation: An historical survey from its origins to the end of the Second World War |page=54 |publisher=Science Museum |isbn=978-1-900747-52-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u4dTAAAAMAAJ |via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first1=F. Alexander |last1=Magoun |first2=Eric |last2=Hodgins |year=1931 |title=A History of Aircraft |page=308 |publisher=Whittlesey House |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UnLVAAAAMAAJ |via=Google Books}}</ref> The patent, titled ''Aërial Locomotion &c,'' described several engine improvements and conceptual designs and included a technical description and drawings of an [[Aircraft flight control system#Primary controls|aileron control system]] and an optional feature intended to function as an [[Autopilot#Modern autopilots|autopilot]].<ref name="Boulton Patent, No. 392, 1868">[[Matthew Piers Watt Boulton|Boulton, M.P.W.]] (1868) "Specification of Matthew Piers Watt Boulton: 5th&nbsp;February a.d&nbsp;1868, no.&nbsp;392: Aärial Locomotion &c.". London, UK: [[Great Seal of the Realm|Great Seal / Patent Office]] (printed by George E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode).</ref><ref name="Bridgements">''Patents for Inventions: Bridgements of Specifications: Class&nbsp;4, Aeronautics: Period – A.D.&nbsp;1867–1876''. (1903). London, UK: [[His Majesty's Stationery Office]] (Darling & Sons Ltd. Printers), pp.&nbsp;7–8.</ref> In fact, this patent was well known to participants in the Wright-Curtiss lawsuit. A U.S. federal judge who reviewed previous inventions and patents and upheld the Wright patent against the Curtiss company reached the opposite conclusion of Gibbs-Smith, saying the Boulton patent "is not anticipatory".<ref>{{cite court|litigants=Wright Co. v. Herring-Curtiss Co.|vol=|reporter=Case Law Access Project, Harvard Law School|opinion=|court=W.D.N.Y.|date=February 21, 1913|url=https://cite.case.law/f/204/597/|access-date=November 7, 2022}}{{Dead link|date=September 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot }}</ref>

===Public reactions===
The lawsuits damaged the public image of the Wright brothers, who were generally regarded before this as heroes. Critics said the brothers were greedy and unfair, and compared their actions unfavorably to European inventors, who worked more openly. Supporters said the brothers were protecting their interests and were justified in expecting fair compensation for the years of work leading to their successful invention. Their 10-year friendship with Octave Chanute, already strained by tension over how much credit, if any, he might deserve for their success, collapsed after he publicly criticized their actions.<ref>Howard, 1998, chapter 39, "End of a Friendship"</ref>

==In business==
[[File:Wright Brothers at home, 1909.jpg|thumb|Wright brothers at their Dayton, Ohio home in 1909]] 
The [[Wright Company]] was incorporated on November 22, 1909. The brothers sold their patents to the company for $100,000 and also received one-third of the shares in a million dollar stock issue and a 10 percent royalty on every airplane sold.<ref name=Crouch-2003/>{{rp|page=410}} With Wilbur as president and Orville as vice president, the company set up a factory in Dayton and a [[Wright Flying School|flying school]] / test flight field at Huffman Prairie; the headquarters office was in New York City.

In mid-1910, the Wrights changed the design of the ''Wright Flyer'', moving the horizontal elevator from the front to the back and adding wheels although keeping the skids as part of the undercarriage unit. It had become apparent by then that a rear elevator would make an airplane easier to control, especially as higher speeds grew more common. The new version was designated the "Model B", although the original canard design was never referred to as the "Model A" by the Wrights. However, the U.S. Army Signal Corps which bought the airplane did call it "Wright type A".<ref>Cragg 1973, p. 272. The author obtained information at the Fort Sam Houston Museum that also records the place of the flights as the Arthur MacArthur Field, then used for cavalry drill.</ref>

There were not many customers for airplanes, so in the spring of 1910 the Wrights hired and trained a [[Wright Exhibition Team|team]] of salaried exhibition pilots to show off their machines and win prize money for the company – despite Wilbur's disdain for what he called "the [[Charlatan|mountebank]] business". The team debuted at the [[Indianapolis Speedway]] on June 13. Before the year was over, pilots [[Ralph Johnstone]] and [[Arch Hoxsey]] died in air show crashes, and in November 1911 the brothers disbanded the team on which nine men had served (four other former team members died in crashes afterward).<ref name=Crouch-2003/>{{rp|at=Chapter 31, "The Mountebank Game"}}

[[File:Wright Brothers in 1910.jpg|thumb|left|Wright brothers at the [[Belmont Park]] Aviation Meet in 1910 near New York]]
The Wright Company transported the first known commercial air cargo on November 7, 1910, by flying two bolts of dress silk {{convert|65|mi|km|0}} from Dayton to Columbus, Ohio, for the Morehouse-Martens Department Store, which paid a $5,000 fee. Company pilot [[Philip Orin Parmelee|Phil Parmelee]] made the flight – which was more an exercise in advertising than a simple delivery – in an hour and six minutes with the cargo strapped in the passenger's seat. The silk was cut into small pieces and sold as souvenirs.

In 1910 the Wrights advertised for a person to undertake "plane sewing", which was corrected by the Dayton newspaper that published it to "plain sewing". Ida Holdgreve, a dress maker, applied for the role and became head seamstress at the Wright Company Factory, sewing the fabric "for the wings, stabilizers, rudders, fins and I don't know what all" of the planes produced there. She was trained in how to cut and sew the fabric to stretch it tight over the frame so it wouldn't rip by Duval La Chapelle, who was Wilbur's mechanic in France.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Levins |first=Sandy |date=2021-05-19 |title=Ida Holdgreve: Wright Brothers' Plane Seamstress |url=https://wednesdayswomen.com/ida-holdgreve-wright-brothers-plane-seamstress/ |access-date=2023-08-01 |website=WednesdaysWomen |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Plane Sewing |url=https://delphoscanalcommission.com/banks-yesteryear/plane-sewing/?unapproved=57707&moderation-hash=4deb0fa0891a020fd744f34f9b346b76#comment-57707 |access-date=2023-08-01 |website=delphoscanalcommission.com}}</ref>

Between 1910 and 1916 the [[Wright Brothers Flying School]] at Huffman Prairie trained 115 pilots who were instructed by Orville and his assistants. Several trainees became famous, including [[Henry H. Arnold|Henry "Hap" Arnold]], who rose to Five-Star General, commanded U.S. Army Air Forces in World War II, and became the first head of the U.S. Air Force; [[Calbraith Perry Rodgers]], who made the first coast-to-coast flight in 1911 (with many stops and crashes) in a Wright Model EX named the "[[Vin Fiz Flyer|Vin Fiz]]" (after [[Armour and Company|the sponsor's]] grape soft drink); and [[Edward Stinson|Eddie Stinson]], founder of the [[Stinson Aircraft Company]].

===Army accidents===
In 1912–1913 a series of fatal crashes of Wright airplanes bought by the U.S. Army called into question their safety and design. The death toll reached 11 by 1913, half of them in the Wright model&nbsp;C. All six model&nbsp;C Army airplanes crashed. They had a tendency to nose dive,<ref name="MIL">[http://www.history.army.mil/books/30-17/S_4.htm "The Signal Corps takes to the air"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101231111303/http://www.history.army.mil/books/30-17/S_4.htm |date=December 31, 2010 }}. history.army.mil. Retrieved: January 8, 2012.</ref> but Orville insisted that stalls were caused by pilot error.<ref name=Crouch-2003/>{{rp|at=459}} He cooperated with the Army to equip the airplanes with a rudimentary flight indicator to help the pilot avoid climbing too steeply. A government investigation said the Wright model&nbsp;C was "dynamically unsuited for flying",<ref name="MIL"/> and the American military ended its use of airplanes with "pusher" type propellers, including models made by both the Wright and Curtiss companies, in which the engine was located behind the pilot and likely to crush him in a crash. Orville resisted the switch to manufacturing "[[Tractor configuration|tractor-type]]" propeller aircraft, worried that a design change could threaten the Wright patent infringement case against Curtiss.<ref name=Crouch-2003/>{{rp|at=457}}

==Smithsonian feud==
[[File:LangleyAerodromeFlown.jpg|thumb|300px|Elwood Doherty, a Curtiss pilot,<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Airplane Business|url=https://wright-brothers.org/History_Wing/Wright_Story/Airplane_Business/Airplane_Business_Intro.htm|access-date=2023-02-12|website=Wright Brothers Aeroplane Company}}</ref> coaxes the structurally modified [[Langley Aerodrome]] into the air above the surface of [[Keuka Lake]] near [[Hammondsport, New York]], September 17, 1914.]]
[[File:430-L1-S1 640.jpg|thumb|300px|Pieces of fabric and wood from the 1903 ''[[Wright Flyer]]'' traveled to the Moon in the [[Apollo 11]] [[Lunar Module Eagle|Lunar Module ''Eagle'']], and are exhibited at the [[Wright Brothers National Memorial]].]]
[[Samuel Pierpont Langley|S.P. Langley]], secretary of [[the Smithsonian Institution]] from 1887 until his death in 1906, experimented for years with model flying machines and successfully flew unmanned powered fixed-wing model aircraft in 1896 and 1903. Two tests of his manned full-size motor-driven Aerodrome in October and December&nbsp;1903, however, were complete failures. Nevertheless, the Smithsonian later proudly displayed the Aerodrome in its museum as the first heavier-than-air craft "capable" of manned powered flight, relegating the Wright brothers' invention to secondary status and triggering a decades-long feud with Orville Wright, whose brother had received help from the Smithsonian when beginning his own quest for flight.{{efn|Ironically, the Wright brothers were the initial recipients of the [[Langley Gold Medal|Samuel P. Langley Medal for Aerodromics]] from the Smithsonian in 1910.{{citation needed|date=April 2021}} }}

The Smithsonian based its claim for the Aerodrome on short test flights Glenn Curtiss and his team made with it in 1914. The Smithsonian had allowed Curtiss to make major modifications to the craft before attempting to fly it.<ref>{{cite web |title=Twin Pushers |url=http://home.att.net/~dannysoar2/Langley.htm |access-date=May 21, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100202023250/http://home.att.net/~dannysoar2/Langley.htm |archive-date=February 2, 2010}}<br />"The Langley Aerodrome". Retrieved: December 29, 2011.<br />The archived website includes details of the modifications.</ref>

The Smithsonian hoped to salvage Langley's aeronautical reputation by proving the Aerodrome could fly; Curtiss wanted to prove the same thing to defeat the Wrights' patent lawsuits against him. The tests had no effect on the patent battle, but the Smithsonian made the most of them, honoring the Aerodrome in its museum and publications. The Institution did not reveal the extensive Curtiss modifications, but Orville Wright 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.<ref>Howard 1988, Chapter 46: "The Aerodrome Affair".</ref>

[[File:Wright flyer - full.jpg|thumb|300px|The original 1903 ''Wright Flyer'' in the [[National Air and Space Museum]] in Washington, D.C.]]

Orville repeatedly objected to misrepresentation of the Aerodrome, but the Smithsonian was unyielding. Orville responded by lending the restored 1903 Kitty Hawk Flyer to the [[London Science Museum]] in 1928, refusing to donate it to the Smithsonian while the Institution "perverted" the history of the flying machine.<ref name=Crouch-2003/>{{rp|at=491}} Orville would never see his invention again, as he died before its return to the United States.<ref name="wb-nps-abbot"/>

[[Charles Lindbergh]] attempted to mediate the dispute, to no avail. In 1942, after years of bad publicity, and encouraged by Wright biographer [[Fred C. Kelly|F.C. Kelly]], the [[The Smithsonian Institution|Smithsonian]] finally relented by publishing, for the first time, a list of the Aerodrome modifications and recanting the misleading statements it had published about the 1914 tests.<ref name="wb-nps-abbot">{{cite web |first=C.G. |last=Abbot |author-link=Charles Greeley Abbot |title=Appendix&nbsp;C – Tests of the Langley Aerodrome |series=What Dreams We Have |publisher=[[U.S. National Park Service]] |website=nps.gov |url=https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/daav/appendix-c.htm |url-status=live |access-date=September 21, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150603022206/http://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/daav/appendix-c.htm |archive-date=June 3, 2015}}</ref> Orville then privately requested the British museum to return the ''Flyer'', but the airplane remained in protective storage for the duration of World War&nbsp;II; it finally came home after Orville's death.

On November 23, 1948, the executors of Orville's estate signed an agreement for the Smithsonian to purchase the Flyer for one dollar. At the insistence of the executors, the agreement also included strict conditions for display of the airplane.

The agreement reads, in part:<ref>{{cite news |title=Contract between Wrights, Smithsonian decrees Flyer was first plane |date=April 1, 2013 |website=Fox News |url=http://www.foxnews.com/science/interactive/2013/04/01/contract-between-wrights-smithsonian-decrees-flyer-was-first-plane/}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Image of the Smithsonian-Wright Agreement |url=http://glennhcurtiss.com/d93f42b0.jpg |access-date=March 26, 2017 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020817151648/http://glennhcurtiss.com/d93f42b0.jpg |archive-date=August 17, 2002 }} on {{cite web |title=glennhcurtiss.com website |url=http://glennhcurtiss.com/id50.htm |access-date=December 4, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030228050514/http://glennhcurtiss.com/id50.htm |archive-date=February 28, 2003 }}<br />The agreement is also available upon request from the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution.</ref>
{{Blockquote|text=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 1903 Wright Aeroplane, claiming in effect that such aircraft was capable of carrying a man under its own power in controlled flight.}}
If this agreement is not fulfilled, the ''Flyer'' can be reclaimed by the heir of the Wright brothers. Some aviation enthusiasts, particularly those who promote the legacy of [[Gustave Whitehead]], have accused the Smithsonian of refusing to investigate claims of earlier flights.<ref>{{cite book|last=O'Dwyer |first=William J. |year=1978 |title=History by Contract: The beginning of motorized aviation, August 14, 1901: Gustave Whitehead, Fairfield, Conn. |place=Leutershausen, Germany |publisher=Fritz Majer & Sohn |isbn=3-922175-00-7}}</ref> After a ceremony in the Smithsonian museum, the ''Flyer'' went on public display on December 17, 1948, the 45th anniversary of the only day it was flown successfully. The Wright brothers' nephew Milton (Lorin's son), 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:

:{| class="wikitable"  style="margin:auto; text-align:center; width:85%;"
|-
|The original Wright brothers aeroplane
The world's first power-driven heavier-than-air machine in which man made free, controlled, and sustained flight<br />
Invented and built by Wilbur and Orville Wright<br />
Flown by them at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina December 17, 1903<br />
By original scientific research the Wright brothers discovered the principles of human flight<br />
As inventors, builders, and flyers they further developed the aeroplane, taught man to fly, and opened the era of aviation
|}

==Later years==
===Wilbur===
[[File:Wilbur Wright, souriant.jpg|thumb|upright|Wilbur Wright, 1912]]

Both Wilbur and Orville were lifelong bachelors.<ref>{{cite web |last=[[Reeve Lindbergh]] |date=May 8, 2015 |title=David McCollough turns his attention to the Wright brothers |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-two-ohio-boys-taught-the-world-to-fly/2015/05/06/ef150572-d711-11e4-8103-fa84725dbf9d_story.html |access-date=January 2, 2021}}</ref> Wilbur once quipped that he "did not have time for both a wife and an airplane".<ref name=Crouch-2003/>{{rp|at=118}} The 1909 short silent film ''[[Wilbur Wright und seine Flugmaschine]]'' (which translates to ''Wilbur Wright and his Flying Machine'') is considered to be the first use of motion picture [[aerial photography]] as filmed from a heavier-than-air aircraft. Following a brief training flight he gave to a German pilot in Berlin in June&nbsp;1911, Wilbur never flew again. He gradually became occupied with business matters for the Wright Company and dealing with different lawsuits. Upon dealing with the patent lawsuits, which had put great strain on both brothers, Wilbur had written in a letter to a French friend:<ref>McCullough, 2015, "The Wright Brothers", p. 255.</ref>
{{Blockquote|text=When we think what we might have accomplished if we had been able to devote this time to experiments, we feel very sad, but it is always easier to deal with things than with men, and no one can direct his life entirely as he would choose.}}

Wilbur spent the next year before his death traveling, where he spent a full six months in Europe attending to various business and legal matters. Wilbur urged American cities to emulate the European – particularly Parisian – philosophy of apportioning generous public space near every important public building.<ref>{{cite AV media | last=McCullough | first=David | author-link=David McCullough | date=July 9, 2016 | time=41:53 | title=Bastille Day in France; The Only Street in Paris; Americans in Paris | number=450 | medium=Radio broadcast | publisher=[[Rick Steves]]' Europe | quote= ...&nbsp;Wilbur Wright ... was looking at how they laid out their spaces [in Paris], and he said:  Every important public building has open space in front of it, so you could enjoy it. Why haven't we done that in New York? Why don't we do that in our city? | url=https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/audio/radio/programs/program-450}}</ref> He was also constantly back and forth between New York, Washington, and Dayton. All of the stresses were taking a toll on Wilbur physically. Orville would remark that he would "come home white".<ref name="McCollough 2015, p. 256">McCollough, 2015, "The Wright Brothers", p. 256.</ref>

It was decided by the family that a new and far grander house would be built, using the money that the Wrights had earned through their inventions and business. Called affectionately [[Hawthorn Hill]], building had begun in the Dayton suburb of [[Oakwood, Montgomery County, Ohio|Oakwood, Ohio]], while Wilbur was in Europe. Katharine and Orville oversaw the project in his absence. Wilbur's one known expression upon the design of the house was that he have a room and bathroom of his own.<ref name="McCollough 2015, p. 256"/> The brothers hired [[Schenck and Williams]], an architectural firm, to design the house, along with input from both Wilbur and Orville. Wilbur did not live to see its completion in 1914.

He became ill on a business trip to Boston in April 1912.<ref>{{cite book | last = Maurer | first = Richard | year = 2003 | title = The Wright Sister: Katharine Wright and her famous brothers | pages = 88–89 | publisher = Macmillan | isbn = 978-0761315469 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eSCpF3fIHesC | access-date = January 3, 2013}}</ref> The illness is sometimes attributed to eating bad shellfish at a banquet. After returning to Dayton in early May&nbsp;1912, worn down in mind and body, he fell ill again and was diagnosed with typhoid fever.<ref>McCollough, 2015, "The Wright Brothers", p. 256</ref> He lingered on, his symptoms relapsing and remitting for many days. Wilbur died, at age&nbsp;45, at the Wright family home on May&nbsp;30.<ref name=NYTWilbur>{{cite news |title=Wilbur Wright dies of typhoid fever. Ill more than three weeks, the end came at 3:15&nbsp;o'clock Thursday morning |date=May 30, 1912 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1912/05/31/104897247.pdf |access-date=February 25, 2015 |quote=[[Dayton, Ohio|Dayton]], Ohio. Following a sinking spell that developed soon after midnight, Wilbur Wright, aviator and aeroplane builder, died of typhoid fever at 3:15&nbsp;am to-day. Wright had been lingering for many days and though his condition from time to time gave some hopes to members of his family, the attending physicians, Drs. D.B. Conklin and Levi Spitler, maintained throughout the latter part of his sickness that he could not recover.}}</ref> His father wrote about Wilbur in his diary: "A short life, full of consequences. An unfailing intellect, imperturbable temper, great self-reliance and as great modesty, seeing the right clearly, pursuing it steadfastly, he lived and died."<ref name=Crouch-2003/>{{rp|page=449}}

===Orville===
[[File:Orville Wright-1928.jpg|right|thumb|upright|Orville Wright, 1928]]
Orville succeeded to the presidency of the Wright Company upon Wilbur's death. He won the prestigious [[Collier Trophy]] in 1914 for development of his automatic stabilizer on the brothers' [[Wright Model E]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Orville Wright receives the Collier trophy for stabilizer |newspaper=The Dayton Herald |location=Dayton, Ohio |date=February 6, 1914 |page=14 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/36620294/the_dayton_herald/ |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> Sharing Wilbur's distaste for business but not his brother's executive skills, Orville sold the company in 1915. The Wright Company then became part of [[Wright-Martin]] in 1916.

After 42&nbsp;years living at their residence on 7&nbsp;Hawthorn Street, Orville, Katharine, and their father, Milton, moved to Hawthorn Hill in spring&nbsp;1914. Milton died in his sleep on April 3, 1917, at age&nbsp;88. Up until his death, Milton had been very active, preoccupied with reading, writing articles for religious publications and enjoying his morning walks. He had also marched in a Dayton Woman's Suffrage Parade, along with Orville and Katharine.<ref>McCullough, 2015, "The Wright Brothers", p. 257.</ref>

Orville made his last flight as a pilot on May 13, 1918, in a 1911 Model&nbsp;B. This event was filmed with the motion picture camera and Orville was accompanied in the air by Wright Company instructor Howard Rinehart flying the first US built DH-4.<ref>[http://earlyaviators.com/erinehar.htm EarlyAviators.com] Howard Max Rinehart]</ref><ref>[http://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/de-havilland-dh-4/nasm_A19190051000  Original first production DH-4 in the National Air & Space Museum] This machine was flown by Howard Rinehart on May 13, 1918 at Orville's final flight as a pilot</ref>  He retired from business and became an elder statesman of aviation, serving on various official boards and committees, including the [[National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics]] (NACA),{{efn|The [[National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics]] (NACA) was the predecessor agency to the [[National Aeronautics and Space Administration]] (NASA).}} and Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce (ACCA).{{efn|The Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce (ACCA) was the predecessor to the [[Aerospace Industries Association]] (AIA).}}

Katharine married Henry Haskell of Kansas City, a former Oberlin classmate, in 1926. Orville was furious and inconsolable, feeling he had been betrayed by his sister Katharine.<ref>McCullough, 2015, "The Wright Brothers", Epilogue p. 258</ref> He refused to attend the wedding or even communicate with her. He finally agreed to see her, apparently at Lorin's insistence, just before she died of pneumonia on March 3, 1929.

Orville Wright served in the [[National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics|NACA]] for 28&nbsp;years. In 1930, he received the first Daniel Guggenheim Medal established in 1928 by the Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics. In 1936, he was elected a member of the [[National Academy of Sciences]]. In 1939, President [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt]] issued a presidential proclamation which designated the anniversary of Orville's birthday as [[National Aviation Day]], a [[Holidays of the United States|national observation]] that celebrates the development of aviation.

On April 19, 1944, the second production [[Lockheed Constellation]], piloted by [[Howard Hughes]] and [[Trans World Airlines|TWA]] president [[Jack Frye]], flew from [[Burbank, California]], to Washington, D.C., in 6&nbsp;hours and 57&nbsp;minutes (2,300&nbsp;mi, 330.9&nbsp;mph). On the return trip, the airliner stopped at [[Wright-Patterson Air Force Base|Wright Field]] to give Orville Wright his last airplane flight, more than 40&nbsp;years after his historic first flight.<ref>{{cite book |last=Parker |first=Dana T. |year=2013 |title=Building Victory: Aircraft manufacturing in the Los Angeles area in World War&nbsp;II |page=66 |place=Cypress, California |isbn=978-0-9897906-0-4}}</ref> He even briefly handled the controls.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Renneisen|first=Bob|title=Orville Wright's Last Flight|journal=Aerospace Historian|volume=15|issue=1|pages=29–31|date=Spring 1968|publisher=Air Force Historical Foundation|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44524544|jstor=44524544|url-access=registration}}</ref> Wright commented that the wingspan of the Constellation was longer than the distance of his first flight.<ref name=yenne>Yenne 1987, pp. 44–46.</ref>

[[File:Grave of the Wright brothers, Woodland Cemetery chapel, Dayton, Ohio.jpg|thumb|upright|200px|The Wright family plot at [[Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum]]]]
Orville's last major project was supervising the reclamation and preservation of the 1905 ''[[Wright Flyer III]]'', which historians describe as the first practical airplane.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Wright Flyer III|url=https://www.asme.org/About-ASME/Engineering-History/Landmarks/224-Wright-Flyer-III|access-date=2021-12-17|website=www.asme.org|language=en}}</ref>

Orville expressed sadness in an interview years later about the death and destruction brought about by the bombers of World War&nbsp;II:<ref>McCullough, 2015, "The Wright Brothers", Epilogue pp. 260–261</ref>
{{Blockquote|text=We dared to hope we had invented something that would bring lasting peace to the earth. But we were wrong ... No, I don't have any regrets about my part in the invention of the airplane, though no one could deplore more than I do the destruction it has caused. I feel about the airplane much the same as I do in regard to fire. That is, I regret all the terrible damage caused by fire, but I think it is good for the human race that someone discovered how to start fires and that we have learned how to put fire to thousands of important uses.}}

Orville died at age&nbsp;76 on January 30, 1948, over 35&nbsp;years after his brother, following his second heart attack, having lived from the horse-and-buggy age to the dawn of [[supersonic]] flight.<ref>[http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iIXmigN2LQw/VaMrGhxy2EI/AAAAAAAABIg/bEoVV9sTTwo/s1600/NCR%2BOrville0001.jpg "NCR Loses a Close Friend"] ''NCR Factory News''. February–March 1948, p. 3 (tribute by National Cash Register Company) Retrieved March 23, 2016</ref> Both brothers are buried in the family plot at [[Woodland Cemetery, Dayton, Ohio]].<ref name=NYTOrville>"Orville Wright, 76, is dead in Dayton; co-inventor with his brother, Wilbur, of the airplane was pilot in first flight"&nbsp;– ''[[The New York Times]]'' obituary. January 31, 1948. Retrieved July 21, 2007. "[[Dayton, Ohio]], October 30, 1948, Orville Wright, who with his brother, the late Wilbur Wright, invented the airplane, died here tonight at 10:40 in [[Miami Valley Hospital]]. He was 76&nbsp;years old."</ref> [[John T. Daniels]], the Coast Guardsman who took their famous first flight photo, died the day after Orville.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Hodgins |first=Eric |date=December 6, 1931 |title=Heavier than air |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1930/12/13/heavier-than-air |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |access-date=December 17, 2018}}</ref>

==Competing claims==
{{Main|Claims to the first powered flight}}
{{Further|Early flying machines|Aviation in the pioneer era}}
[[File:US pilots certificate back.jpg|thumb|Back of the [[Pilot certification in the United States|US Airman Certificate]] with a picture of the Wright brothers]]
First powered flight claims are made for [[Clément Ader]], [[Gustave Whitehead]], [[Richard Pearse]], and [[Karl Jatho]] for their variously documented tests in years prior to and including 1903. Claims that the first true flight occurred after 1903 are made for [[Traian Vuia]] and [[Alberto Santos-Dumont]]. Supporters of the post-Wright pioneers argue that techniques used by the Wright brothers disqualify them as first to make successful airplane flights. Those techniques were: A launch rail; skids instead of wheels; a headwind at takeoff; and a catapult after 1903. 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.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Who was first?|url=https://www.wright-brothers.org/History_Wing/History_of_the_Airplane/Who_Was_First/Who_Was_First_Intro/Who_Was_First_Intro.htm|access-date=2023-02-12|website=Wright Brothers Aeroplane Company }}</ref>

The aviation historian [[Charles Harvard Gibbs-Smith|C.H. Gibbs-Smith]] was a supporter of the Wrights' claim to primacy in flight. He 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.<ref name="Gibbs-Smith"/>

==State rivalry{{anchor|Rivalry}}==
{{multiple image
| align             = right
| direction         = horizontal
| width             = 
| image1            = Ohio_quarter,_reverse_side,_2002.png
| width1            = 180
| caption1          = [[Ohio]]'s [[50 State Quarters|50 State Quarter]] depicts the 1905 [[Wright Flyer III]], built and flown in [[Dayton, Ohio|Dayton]], and Ohio native [[Neil Armstrong]], the first person to walk on the Moon.
| image2            = 2001 NC Proof.png
| width2            = 184
| caption2          = [[North Carolina]]'s [[50 State Quarters|50 State Quarter]] features the famous first flight photo of the 1903 ''[[Wright Flyer]]'' in [[Kitty Hawk, North Carolina|Kitty Hawk]], at what is now [[Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina|Kill Devil Hills]].
}}

The U.S. states of [[Ohio]] and [[North Carolina]] both take credit for the Wright brothers and their world-changing inventions—Ohio because the brothers developed and designed their plane in [[Dayton, Ohio|Dayton]], and North Carolina because [[Kitty Hawk, North Carolina|Kitty Hawk]] was the site of the Wrights' first powered flight. With a spirit of friendly rivalry, Ohio adopted the slogan "Birthplace of Aviation" (later "Birthplace of Aviation Pioneers", honoring not only the Wrights, but also astronauts [[John Glenn]] and [[Neil Armstrong]], both Ohio natives). The slogan appears on [[Vehicle registration plates of Ohio|Ohio license plates]]. North Carolina uses the slogan "First in Flight" on its license plates, with a depiction of the Wrights' plane.

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]]. As the positions of both states can be factually defended, and each played a significant role in the history of flight, neither state has an exclusive claim to the Wrights' accomplishment.
Notwithstanding the competition between those two states, in 1937 the Wrights' last bicycle shop and home were moved from [[Dayton, Ohio]] to [[Greenfield Village]] in [[Dearborn, Michigan]], where they remain.

==Commemorations==
In addition to appearing on both the front and back of the official [[Pilot certification in the United States|United States pilot certification]], the Wright brothers and their airplane have been commemorated on several U. S. postage stamps, including:

{{multiple image
| align             = center
| direction         = horizontal
| width             = 
| image1            = Wright Brothers Airplane, 2c, 1928 issue.jpg
| width1            = 250
| caption1          = Wright Flyer, 2c, 1928 issue, International Civil Aeronautics Conference
| image2            = Wilbur and Orville Wright, 6c airmail, 1949 issue.jpg
| width2            = 250
| caption2          = Wilbur and Orville Wright first flight, 6c [[United States airmail service|airmail]], 1949 issue
}}

==Wright Brothers Field==
[[File:Aircraft certification of Ingenuity to fly on mars.jpg|thumb|Aircraft certification for the [[Ingenuity (helicopter)|''Ingenuity'']] helicopter on Mars, April 2021]]
[[NASA]] named the first Martian airfield for the ''[[Ingenuity (helicopter)|Ingenuity]]'' helicopter "Wright Brothers Field". The miniature helicopter arrived on Mars on February 18, 2021, attached to the [[Perseverance (rover)|''Perseverance'']] rover. A small piece of wing fabric from the 1903 ''[[Wright Flyer]]'' was attached to a cable underneath ''Ingenuity's'' solar panel.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Potter|first1=Sean|date=March 23, 2021|title=NASA Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Prepares for First Flight|publisher=NASA|url=https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-ingenuity-mars-helicopter-prepares-for-first-flight}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Strickland |first1=Ashley |title=NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity successfully completed its historic first flight |url=https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/19/world/mars-helicopter-ingenuity-first-flight-scn-trnd/index.html |website=CNN |date=April 19, 2021 |access-date=April 20, 2021}}</ref><ref name="NASA-20210419">{{cite news |last1=Johnson |first1=Alana |last2=Hautaluoma |first2=Grey |last3=Agle |first3=DC |last4=Northon |first4=Karen |title=Release 21-039 – NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Succeeds in Historic First Flight |url=https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-ingenuity-mars-helicopter-succeeds-in-historic-first-flight |date=April 19, 2021 |work=[[NASA]] |access-date=April 20, 2021 }}</ref> In 1969, [[Neil Armstrong]] carried a similar ''Wright Flyer'' artifact to the Moon in the [[Lunar Module Eagle|Lunar Module ''Eagle'']] during [[Apollo 11]]. ''Ingenuity'' flew five times from Wright Brothers Field between April 19 and May 7, 2021, then departed for other areas, making a total of [[List of Ingenuity flights|72 flights]].<ref name="NASA_20240125">{{cite web | url=https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/after-three-years-on-mars-nasas-ingenuity-helicopter-mission-ends | title=After Three Years on Mars, NASA's Ingenuity Helicopter Mission Ends | website=[[Jet Propulsion Laboratory]] }}</ref>

==See also==
{{Colbegin|colwidth=20em}}
* ''[[History by Contract]]'' (1978 book)
* [[History of aviation]]
* [[John Joseph Montgomery]]
* [[List of covers of Time magazine (1920s)|List of covers of ''Time'' magazine (1920s)]]
* [[List of firsts in aviation]]
* [[National Aviation Heritage Area]]
* ''[[The Winds of Kitty Hawk]]'' (1978 film)
* [[The Wright Brothers (film)|''The Wright Brothers'']] (1971 film)
* ''[[The Wright Brothers (book)|The Wright Brothers]]'' (2015 book)
* [[WRGT-TV]] ([[MyNetworkTV]] affiliate)
* [[Wright Brothers Day]]
* [[Wright Brothers flights of 1909]]
* [[Wright Brothers Medal]]
* [[Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy]]
* [[Wright Field]]
{{Colend}}

==Notes==
{{Notelist}}

== References ==
{{Reflist|refs=

<ref name=Crouch-1989>
{{ cite book  | title=The Bishop's boys: A life of Wilber and Orville Wright | year=1989 | isbn=0393026604 | last=Crouch. | first=Tom D. | publisher=W.W. Norton | ol=23259790M }}

</ref>

<ref name=Crouch-2003>
{{cite book
 |last=Crouch |first=Tom D.
 |year=2003
 |title=The Bishop's Boys: A life of Wilbur and Orville Wright
 |place=New York, NY
 |publisher=W.W. Norton & Company
 |isbn=0-393-30695-X
}}
</ref>

<ref name=Jakab-1997>{{cite book
 |last=Jakab |first=Peter L. 
 |title=Visions of a Flying Machine: The Wright brothers and the process of invention
 |series=Smithsonian History of Aviation and Spaceflight
 |place=Washington, DC
 |publisher=[[The Smithsonian Institution|Smithsonian]]
 |year=1997
 |isbn=1-56098-748-0
}}
</ref>

}}

==Further reading==
{{Refbegin}}
* Anderson, John D. ''Inventing Flight: The Wright Brothers and Their Predecessors''. Baltimore, Maryland: [[Johns Hopkins University Press]], 2004. {{ISBN|0-8018-6875-0}}.
* [[Russell Ash|Ash, Russell]]. ''The Wright Brothers''. London: Wayland, 1974. {{ISBN|978-0-85340-342-5}}.
*Chmiel, Louis. ''Ohio, Home of the Wright Brothers: Birthplace of Aviation'', 2013. {{ISBN|9780615800714}}
* Ciampaglia, Giuseppe. "Il soggiorno romano dei Fratelli Wright". ''La Strenna dei Romanisti'', 1992.
* Ciampaglia, Giuseppe. ''I Fratelli Wright e le loro macchine volanti''. Roma: IBN Editore, 1993.
* Combs, Harry with Martin Caidin. ''Kill Devil Hill: Discovering the Secret of the Wright Brothers''. Denver, Colorado: Ternstyle Press Ltd, 1979. {{ISBN|0-940053-01-2}}.
* Cragg, Dan, Sgt.Maj, USA (Ret.), ed. ''The Guide to Military Installations''. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books, 1983. {{ISBN|978-0-8117-2781-5}}.
* Howard, Fred, ''Wilbur And Orville: A biography of the Wright brothers''. New York: Ballantine Books, 1988. {{ISBN|0-345-35393-5}}.
* Howard, Fred, ''Wilbur And Orville: A Biography of the Wright Brothers''. Mineola: Dover Publications, Inc., 1998. {{ISBN|0-486-40297-5}}
* Kelly, Fred C., ed. ''Miracle At Kitty Hawk, The Letters of Wilbur & Orville Wright''. New York: Da Capo Press, 2002. {{ISBN|0-306-81203-7}}.
* Kelly, Fred C. ''The Wright Brothers: A Biography Authorized by Orville Wright''. Mineola, New York: [[Dover Publications]], originally published in 1943, 1989. {{ISBN|0-486-26056-9}}.
* [[Wolfgang Langewiesche|Langewiesche, Wolfgang]]. ''Stick and Rudder: An Explanation of the Art of Flying''. New York: McGraw-Hill, Copyright 1944 and 1972. {{ISBN|0-07-036240-8}}.
* {{Cite book |last=McCullough |first=David |author-link=David McCullough |year=2015 |title=The Wright Brothers |location=New York |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=9781476728742 |oclc=897424190 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/wrightbrothers0000unse }}
* {{cite book |last1=Mackersey |first1=Ian |author-link=Ian Mackersey|title=The Wright brothers : the remarkable story of the aviation pioneers who changed the world |date=2003 |publisher=Time Warner Paperbacks|location=London, UK |isbn=0751533688}}
* McFarland, Marvin W., ed. ''The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright: Including the Chanute-Wright Letters and the Papers of Octave Chanute''. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2001, originally published in 1953. {{ISBN|0-306-80671-1}}.
* McPherson, Stephanie Sammartino and Joseph Sammartino Gardner. ''Wilbur & Orville Wright: Taking Flight''. Minneapolis, Minnesota, Carolrhoda, Inc., 2004. {{ISBN|1-57505-443-4}}.
* Mortimer, Gavin. ''Chasing Icarus: The Seventeen Days in 1910 That Forever Changed American Aviation''. New York: Walker, 2009. {{ISBN|978-0-8027-1711-5}}.
* Tobin, James. ''To Conquer The Air: The Wright Brothers and the Great Race for Flight''. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004. {{ISBN|0-7432-5536-4}}.
* Walsh, John E. ''One Day at Kitty Hawk: The Untold Story of the Wright Brothers''. New York: Ty Crowell Co, 1975. {{ISBN|0-690-00103-7}}.
* Winchester, Jim, ed. "Wright Flyer". ''Biplanes, Triplanes and Seaplanes'' (The Aviation Factfile). Rochester, Kent, UK: Grange Books plc, 2004. {{ISBN|1-84013-641-3}}.
* Wright, Orville. ''How We Invented the Airplane''. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, 1988. {{ISBN|0-486-25662-6}}.
* Yenne, Bill, ''Lockheed''. Greenwich, Connecticut: Bison Books, 1987. {{ISBN|0-690-00103-7}}.
{{Refend}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Wright brothers}}
{{Wikiquote|Wilbur Wright}}
{{Wikiquote|Orville Wright}}
{{Wikisource|Author:Wilbur Wright|Wilbur Wright}}
{{Wikisource|Author:Orville Wright|Orville Wright}}
* {{Gutenberg author | id=31323| name=Orville and Wilbur Wright}}
* {{Internet Archive author |search=("Orville Wright" OR "Wright, Orville" OR "Wilbur Wright" OR "Wright, Wilbur" OR "Wright brothers" OR "Orville and Wilbur Wright")|dname=Orville and Wilbur Wright}}
* {{Librivox author |id=682 |title=Orville Wright}}
* {{Librivox author |id=683 |title=Wilbur Wright}}
* [http://www.shapell.org/manuscript.aspx?169819 Original Letters From The Wright Brothers: The First Flight] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140420031317/http://www.shapell.org/manuscript.aspx?169819 |date=April 20, 2014 }} Shapell Manuscript Foundation
* [http://invention.psychology.msstate.edu To Fly Is Everything Articles, photos, historical texts]
* [http://www.wrightexperience.com The Wright Experience Articles and photos about construction of replica gliders and airplanes] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210210225341/http://www.wrightexperience.com/ |date=February 10, 2021 }}
* [https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/daav/index.htm ''What Dreams We Have'' E-book by National Park Service historian]
* [http://firstflight.open.ac.uk FirstFlight: flight simulation, videos and experiments]
* [http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&articleID=000E2A9A-2E05-1FA8-AE0583414B7F0000 ''Scientific American'' magazine (December 2003 Issue) The Equivocal Success of the Wright Brothers]
* [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/wright/ PBS ''Nova'': The Wright Brothers' Flying Machines]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20160303170249/https://www.asme.org/getmedia/3764d124-ce32-4335-bbac-24836c780066/224-Wright-Flyer-III.aspx "Wright Flyer III (1905)" at ASME.org]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070912065254/http://www.fai.org/news_archives/fai/000295.asp FAI NEWS: "100 Years Ago, the Dream of Icarus Became Reality"]
* [https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/daav/index.htm Wright Brothers], ''[[National Park Service]]''
* {{LCAuth|n79077414|Orville Wright |322|}}
* {{LCAuth|n79077415|Wilbur Wright |321|}}
* [http://www.shapell.org/manuscript/wright-brothers-first-flight Orville Wright Personal Manuscripts]
*[https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/scrc/findingaids/view.php?eadid=ICU.SPCL.CRMS185 Guide to Postcards on Wright's Airplane Ascension at Le Mans 1908] at the [https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/scrc/ University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center]
*[https://digitalcollections.museumofflight.org/collections/show/660 Orville Wright Letter] at [https://digitalcollections.museumofflight.org/ The Museum of Flight Digital Collections].

===Biographical===
* [http://www.wright-brothers.org Wright Brothers Aeroplane Company virtual museum]
*[http://www.awesomestories.com/history/history-flight/the-first-flight Pictures, letters and other sources from National Archives]
* [http://www.libraries.wright.edu/special/wright_brothers/ Wright Brothers Collection (MS-1) at Wright State University]
* [http://ead.ohiolink.edu/xtf-ead/view?docId=ead/ODa0001.xml Wright Brothers Collection (MS-001) at Dayton Metro Library]
* [https://www.c-span.org/video/?325996-1/qa-david-mccullough C-SPAN ''Q&A'' interview with David McCullough on The Wright Brothers, May 31, 2015]

===Patents===
* {{US patent|821393}}{{nbsp}}– ''Flying machine''{{nbsp}}– O. & W. Wright (Also  [http://invention.psychology.msstate.edu/i/Wrights/WrightUSPatent/WrightPatent.html in HTML])

===Museums===
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080803223827/http://www.nasm.si.edu/wrightbrothers/index_full.cfm The Wright Brothers&nbsp;– The Invention of the Aerial Age] Smithsonian Institution
* [http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/educators/lesson_plans/wright/index.html Smithsonian Stories of the Wright flights]
* [http://www.wwbirthplace.com Wilbur Wright Birthplace Museum]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060715011739/http://fi.edu/wright/ Wright Aeronautical Engineering Collection The Franklin Institute]
* [http://www.aviationheritagearea.org/wrightDunbar.htm Wright-Dunbar Interpretive Center and the Wright Cycle Company] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120806172552/http://www.aviationheritagearea.org/wrightDunbar.htm |date=August 6, 2012 }}

===Image collections===
* [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pp/wrihtml/wriabt.html Wright Brothers Negatives] in Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog
* [http://www.outerbanks.com/wrightbrothers/photographs Outer Banks of NC Wright Photographs: 1900–1911(Sourced from Library of Congress)]
* [http://invention.psychology.msstate.edu/moviesandphotos/index.html Photographs and Movies about the invention of the fixed-wing aircraft] compiled by Gary Bradshaw from [[Mississippi State University]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090822073341/http://www.flyingmachines.org/ The FLYING MACHINES website - Many pictures of early flying machines and a comprehensive chronology of flight attempts(archived)]
* [http://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/special_ms1/ Wright Brothers Collection digital images] at [[Wright State University]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050419171920/http://www.immediart.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=46_52&products_id=178 ''New Scientist'' magazine, Scientific Firsts: Print of Wright Flyer in France 1907(archived)] from Immediart
* [http://farm1.static.flickr.com/213/494113359_3adffb087d.jpg Wilbur's world famous Model A Flyer "France" sits in a hall of honor on display in a Paris museum after Wilbur donated it to the French. Its whereabouts afterwards are unknown. Sharing space with the Wright A is a Bleriot VI or VII, an Antoinette and a Voisin] on [[flickr]]
* [http://content.daytonmetrolibrary.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/wbnews Wright Brothers' Newspapers] at [[Dayton Metro Library]]
* [https://digitalcollections.museumofflight.org/collections/show/1010 Manny Gorin Wright Brothers Glass Plate Negatives Collection] at The Museum of Flight Digital Collections
* [https://catalog.archives.gov/id/2038 The video of the official test flight of the Wright Brothers' military airplane at Fort Myer, Virginia, on July 27, 1909] available online in the [[NARA|National Archives]] Catalog

{{Wright aircraft}}
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{{John Fritz Medal|state=collapsed}}
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