Wright Brothers History

Wright Brothers Time Line

On April 16, 1867, Wilbur was born near Millville, Indiana.

On August 19, 1871, Orville was born at 7 Hawthorn Street in Dayton, Ohio.

In 1889, Wilbur and Orville first referred to themselves as "The Wright Brothers" when they started their own printing firm.

In 1896, Wilbur read about the death of a famous German glider pilot and became interested in flying.

On May 30, 1899, Wilbur wrote to the Smithsonian Institution for information on aeronautical research.

In August of 1900, Wilbur built the brothers' first glider.

On December 17, 1903 Orville made the world's first heavier-than-air, machine powered flight.

In the spring of 1904, the Wright Brothers cut the tall grass of Huffman Prairie in Greene County east of Dayton to prepare the terrain for flying and built the world's first airplane hangar.

On May 26, 1904, Orville, in the Wright Flyer II, made the first flight over Huffman Prairie.

On September 7, 1904, the Wright Brothers began using a catapult system to launch their airplane and freed themselves from dependency on the wind.

By December 9, 1904, the brothers had logged a total of 49 minutes in the air over the prairie. The longest flight was two and a half miles.

On October 5, 1905, Wilbur flew the Wright Flyer III for nearly 40 minutes, covering 24 miles, and landed only after exhausting his gasoline supply.

On October 16, 1905, the brothers stopped flying until they could secure the patent for their "flying machine."

On May 22, 1906, the Wright Brothers received patent number 821,393 from the U.S. Patent Office.

In 1910, the brothers created the Wright Company to manufacture and sell airplanes and opened the Wright School of Aviation at Huffman Prairie.

On May 30, 1912, Wilbur died in Dayton of Typhoid Fever at the age of 45.

In 1915, Orville sold his interest in the Wright Company.

On January 30, 1948, Orville died of a heart attack in Dayton at the age of 77.

For more on the Wright Brothers visit these web sites.

Dayton Aviation Heritage National Park
www.nps.gov/daav/home.htm

Wright State University Wright Brothers Archives
http://www.libraries.wright.edu/special/wright_brothers/

Wright Brothers Patent Application
http://invention.psychology.msstate.edu/inventors/i/Wrights/WrightUSPatent/WrightPatent.html

Biography of Wilbur Wright
http://wright.nasa.gov/wilbur.htm

Biography of Orville Wright
http://wright.nasa.gov/orville.htm