50 Fun Facts About Wright Brothers

On what date did the Wright brothers make the first controlled, sustained powered flight?

Wilbur had won a coin toss for a first attempt three days earlier, but stalled after takeoff.

Near which Outer Banks town did the first flights take place?

The actual spot, four miles south, is now known as Kill Devil Hills.

What business did the Wright brothers run in Dayton to fund their flight experiments?

They opened the Wright Cycle Exchange in December 1892 and began making their own bicycles in 1896.

What was the Wright brothers' breakthrough invention, still standard on all airplanes?

Their 1903 patent claimed a system of aerodynamic control, not a flying machine as such.

What was the profession of the Wrights' father, Milton?

Neighbours called Wilbur and Orville 'the bishop's boys'; the family moved twelve times before settling for good.

What 1878 toy from their father did the brothers credit with sparking their interest in flight?

Made of paper, bamboo and cork, it was based on a design by Frenchman Alphonse Penaud; when it broke, they built their own.

Which brother was born first?

Orville arrived four years later; neither brother ever married.

What injury derailed Wilbur's plans to attend Yale?

The boy who hit him, Oliver Crook Haugh, later became a serial killer.

Which famous poet, Orville's classmate, was a client of the brothers' printing business?

They printed the Tattler, a weekly paper Dunbar edited.

Whose 1896 glider death did the Wrights cite as the start of their serious interest in flight?

Wilbur called him 'without question the greatest of the precursors'.

To whom did Wilbur write in May 1899 asking for information about aeronautics?

Decades later Orville would feud bitterly with the same institution.

How did Wilbur discover wing-warping?

He had concluded from watching birds that they rolled by changing the angle of their wingtips.

Who suggested the mid-Atlantic coast to the Wrights for its regular breezes and soft sand?

Chanute visited their camp each season from 1901 to 1903, but never saw a powered flight.

What did the dejected Wilbur tell Orville on the trip home from the disappointing 1901 glider season?

The 1901 glider produced only a third of the lift they calculated, which led them to doubt the accepted data.

What device did the Wrights build in their shop in 1901 to test dozens of miniature wings?

The tests were called 'the most crucial and fruitful aeronautical experiments ever conducted in so short a time with so few materials'.

On what date did the Wrights apply for their famous 'Flying Machine' patent, based on the 1902 glider?

Their own application was rejected; with attorney Henry Toulmin they were granted US Patent 821,393 in 1906.

Who built the engine for the 1903 Wright Flyer in just six weeks?

No engine manufacturer could meet their weight requirement, so the block was cast in aluminium.

What wood did the Wrights use to build the 1903 Flyer?

It was covered in Pride of the West muslin, and the propellers were three laminations of glued spruce.

Roughly what did the Wright Flyer cost to build?

Samuel Langley had received more than $50,000 in government funds for his Aerodrome, which twice plunged into the Potomac.

How long did the first flight, by Orville, last on that historic December morning?

It covered 120 feet at a ground speed of 6.8 mph into a freezing headwind.

How far did Wilbur fly on the fourth and longest flight of the first day?

It lasted 59 seconds and ended with the frame of the front rudder badly broken.

Who snapped the famous photograph of the first flight?

Orville had pre-positioned the camera; Daniels died the day after Orville in 1948.

What happened to the 1903 Flyer after its fourth flight?

Orville later restored it; it now hangs in the Smithsonian.

Why did the hometown Dayton Journal refuse to publish the story of what happened on the Outer Banks?

A telegraph operator leaked the message and a Virginia paper printed a wildly inaccurate account instead.

Where near Dayton did the Wrights fly in 1904 and 1905?

Bank president Torrance Huffman let them use it rent-free; it is now part of a national historical park.

What did Wilbur achieve on September 20, 1904, that no powered aircraft had done before?

He covered 4,080 feet in about a minute and a half.

Whose beekeeping magazine carried the only published eyewitness reports of the Huffman Prairie flights?

Scientific American turned down his report, and the news was widely doubted.

How long was Wilbur's longest flight of 1905, the last of the season on October 5?

He flew 24.5 miles around Huffman Prairie and landed safely when the fuel ran out.

What two-word headline did the Paris edition of the Herald Tribune use about the Wrights in 1906?

French sceptics called them 'bluffeurs' until Wilbur flew in France in 1908.

Who became the first fixed-wing aircraft passenger, on May 14, 1908?

Their contracts required flying with a passenger, so they fitted two upright seats to the 1905 Flyer.

Near which French town did Wilbur begin his public flight demonstrations in August 1908?

His effortless banking turns amazed onlookers including Louis Bleriot; former doubters issued apologies.

Who became the first airplane crash fatality, in September 1908?

A propeller split during Orville's Army demonstration at Fort Myer; Orville broke a leg and four ribs.

Which sibling nursed Orville for seven weeks after the Fort Myer crash and helped negotiate the Army contract?

Orville later cut her off for years when she married in 1926, relenting only just before she died.

Which president presented awards to the Wrights at the White House in June 1909?

Their home town followed with a lavish two-day homecoming celebration.

What unusual accessory was fitted to Wilbur's plane for his 1909 flight up the Hudson River?

About a million people in Manhattan watched the flight during the Hudson-Fulton Celebration.

How many times did the Wright brothers fly together?

They had promised their father never to fly together; that same day Orville took the 82-year-old bishop up, who called 'Higher, Orville, higher!'

Which rival aviator did the Wrights sue over the use of ailerons, starting a years-long 'patent war'?

Their companies eventually merged in 1929 to form Curtiss-Wright, which is still in business.

Which pilot made the first US coast-to-coast flight in 1911 in a plane named after a grape soda?

The Wright Model EX was called the Vin Fiz; the trip involved many stops and crashes.

What was the first known commercial air cargo, flown by the Wright Company in 1910?

A department store paid $5,000; the silk was cut up and sold as souvenirs.

Of what did Wilbur Wright die in May 1912, aged 45?

His father wrote of 'a short life, full of consequences'.

Wilbur once quipped that he did not have time for both an airplane and what?

Both brothers were lifelong bachelors.

Where abroad did Orville send the 1903 Flyer in 1928 in protest at the Smithsonian?

The Smithsonian had credited Langley's Aerodrome as the first machine 'capable' of manned flight; the Flyer came home only after Orville died.

For how much did the Smithsonian buy the 1903 Flyer from Orville's estate in 1948?

The deal forbids the museum from ever claiming an earlier aircraft was capable of controlled manned flight, or the Flyer can be reclaimed.

Which anniversary did President Franklin D. Roosevelt designate as National Aviation Day in 1939?

Orville served on the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics for 28 years.

On what aircraft did Orville take his last flight, in 1944?

He remarked that its wingspan was longer than the distance of his first flight.

Which state's licence plates carry the slogan 'First in Flight'?

Ohio counters with 'Birthplace of Aviation'; both states have a defensible claim.

Where were the Wrights' last workshop and home moved to in 1937?

Henry Ford collected historic buildings for his open-air museum there.

What did NASA name the first Martian airfield, used by the Ingenuity helicopter in 2021?

A scrap of the 1903 Flyer's wing fabric was attached beneath Ingenuity's solar panel; Neil Armstrong carried a similar piece to the Moon.

Where are both Wright brothers buried?

Orville died in 1948, more than 35 years after Wilbur, having lived from the horse-and-buggy age to supersonic flight.

What was the name of the weekly newspaper the brothers launched from their Dayton print shop in 1889?

Orville had dropped out of high school to start the printing business; the Dayton Tattler, briefly printed by the Wrights, was edited by poet Paul Laurence Dunbar.