Hyderabad: "Wilbur and Orville were among the blessed few who combined mechanical ability with intelligence in about equal amounts," Wright Brothers biographer Fred Howard once wrote. "One man with this dual gift is exceptional. Two such men whose lives and fortunes are closely linked can raise this combination of qualities to a point where their combined talents are akin to genius."
- Orville Wright piloted the Wright Flyer.
- According to biographer David McCullough, the boys’ loving father, Milton, was a bishop in the liberal United Brethren Church in Christ. Their mother, Susan, was shy and inventive, able to make anything – especially custom toys for her children.
- Although there were five children in the family, from the start Wilbur and Orville would share a special, almost symbiotic bond. From an early age, the boys were wrapped in dreams of discovery. Their interest in aviation was sparked early by their father when he brought home a small 50 cent French toy that worked as a rudimentary helicopter.
- Orville’s first teacher in grade school, Ida Palmer, would remember him at his desk tinkering with bits of wood,” McCullough writes in The Wright Brothers. “Asked what he was up to, he told her he was making a machine of a kind that he and his brother were going to fly someday.”
- In 1912, Wilbur died at the age of 45 of typhoid fever, which he contracted after eating bad oysters at a hotel in Boston. Orville, always shyer and less worldly, sold the Wright Company soon after, making around $1.5 million in the process.
- He spent the rest of his life tinkering in his workshop, hanging out with his family, and protecting the Wright family legacy.
- Images of early flight pioneers (including the Wright brothers), airplanes and other flight vehicles, aviation industry workers (such as pilots), and any other images linked with the aviation industry have been seen on the material used to promote National Aviation Day. The Wright Glider was launched in 1902:-
- George Cayley used aerodynamics while designing fixed-wing aircraft. His designs would later inspire Orville and Wilbur Wright.
- Brothers, Orville and Wilbur Wright, had studied Octave Chanute’s 1894 Progress in Flying Machines. The brothers set to work testing their designs, first with gliders. Eventually, they sought to add an engine.
- Two American inventors and aviation pioneers, the Wright brothers are credited with inventing and building the world’s first successful airplane and making the first controlled powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight on December 17, 1903.
- In 1902, Charles Edward Taylor joined their team in pursuit of powered flight. Since automobile companies couldn’t supply an engine light enough and powerful enough, they would have to build it. Taylor, a machinist, set to work building the 12-horsepower engine. It took Taylor 6 weeks to build the engine.
- After completing the design in September of 1903, the Wrights returned to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Just months before, they had successfully tested their glider. However, setbacks and weather postponed the powered flight.
- It wasn’t until mid-December that the brothers finally felt all was in order. After flipping a coin to decide who would pilot the machine, Wilbur climbed aboard. The first attempt failed, only flying 3.5 seconds. However, the brothers learned what worked.
- The next attempt on December 17, 1903, Orville took the controls. After launching, the machine flew for 120 feet.
- Since that day, aviation exploded into the skies. Its applications became immediately apparent to the military.
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