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Title: The Wright Brothers
Author: Anonymous
Release Date: August 31, 2021 [eBook #66194]
Language: English
Produced by: Stephen Hutcheson and the Online Distributed Proofreading
Team at https://www.pgdp.net
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WRIGHT BROTHERS ***
_The_
WRIGHT BROTHERS
“As scientists, they discovered the secret of flight. As inventors,
builders and flyers, they brought aviation to the world.”
On December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the first
power-driven heavier-than-air machine ever to achieve sustained flight
rose from its starting track and in 12 seconds soared through the air
for a distance of 120 feet. Short as this flight was, it nevertheless
marked the beginning of man’s conquest of the air. Orville Wright was at
the controls; Wilbur Wright balanced the machine at the take-off. This
picture records for posterity an epochal event witnessed by just seven
men, the Wright brothers themselves and five others who, more than they
knew, stood that day on the threshold of history.
[Illustration: The first flight at Kitty Hawk, N. C., December 17,
1903.]
[Illustration: uncaptioned]
The Age of Flight, with its miracle of service, began in an obscure
little bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio. Here two devoted brothers, working
amid tires, wheels and air pumps, dreamed that man could fly in a
heavier-than-air machine. The names of these two brothers who wrote
themselves indelibly into history, were Wilbur and Orville Wright.
The story of the Wright brothers is an inspiring narrative of success.
Wilbur and Orville combined to a rare degree the searching intelligence
of the scientist, the ability to visualize of the inventor, and the
practical craftsmanship of the builder. In addition they had great
personal courage.
The Wright brothers were by no means the first who sought the secret of
flight. Particularly in Europe, able men had delved deep and risked much
in the effort to fly like a bird. Certain theories of aerodynamics had
been developed and were generally accepted as accurate. One of the major
setbacks to the hopes of the Wrights was the discovery, through their
own experiments, that these previously accepted theories were incorrect.
This meant that they had to start from the beginning and develop their
own tables of air pressures. Two developments of the Wrights made it
possible to build an aeroplane that would fly. One was a crude wind
tunnel and the other was an ingenious set of balances made out of old
hack saw blades and bicycle spokes. With these comparatively crude
instruments, they compiled data which made flight possible.
In the months and years following their first flights, the Wrights were
acclaimed by nations and by men. They knew success in the fullest
measure. But probably no subsequent achievement quite equaled the thrill
which must have been theirs when they were able to send to their father
and sister that now famous message:
“Success four flights Thursday morning all against twenty-one-mile
wind started from level with engine power alone average speed through
air thirty-one miles longest 59 seconds inform press home Christmas.”
An idea is born
[Illustration: The shop of the Wright Cycle Company on West Third
Street in Dayton ... birthplace of the aeroplane.]
The Wright brothers sprang from pioneers who settled Dayton when the
Ohio country was young. Their father, the Reverend Milton Wright, became
a bishop of the United Brethren Church. His vocation necessitated
frequent changes of residence. Thus it came about that Wilbur was born
April 16, 1867, on a farm eight miles from Newcastle, Indiana, while
Orville was born in a house at 7 Hawthorn Street in Dayton. This house
was the Wright home for more than forty years.
From earliest childhood, the boys were mechanically minded. They had
both the inclination and the aptitude for creative work. The pioneering
urge and the gift of original thinking were theirs.
[Illustration: An issue of the “West Side News,” an early Wright
venture.]
One day the Bishop came home from a short trip, bringing the children a
present. He held something in his hands and then tossed it toward them.
It was a toy helicopter. Instead of flopping to the floor, it ascended
to the ceiling where it fluttered before it fell. That helicopter set up
a milepost in the lives of the Wright boys. The idea of their future
conquest of the air, in all likelihood, was born then and there.
[Illustration: Wilbur Wright in the bicycle shop, 1897.]
[Illustration: Orville Wright, in white shirt, at work in shop.]
At an early age they began to fly kites. They became interested
successively in wood cuts, printing and photography. The urge for
invention was strong in them. Wilbur got a job folding the entire issue
of an eight-page church paper. When he found the handwork tiring and
tedious, he designed and built a machine that did the folding.
[Illustration: The house on Hawthorn Street, home of the Wrights for
40 years and now re-erected in Greenfield Village in Dearborn,
Michigan.]
Orville was no less enterprising. When he was 15, he entered into a
partnership with Ed Sines, a neighbor boy, and launched the printing
firm of Sines and Wright. The plant was located in a corner of the Sines
kitchen. One of their first ventures was to print a little paper called
“The Midget.”
[Illustration: One of the Wrights’ first efforts to measure the
effect of air pressure was this horizontal bicycle wheel mounted on
one of their own bicycles and equipped with two metal vanes. This
bicycle was placed in the Park through the co-operation of the
family of the late Frank Miller, former Superintendent of Dayton
Schools.]
Later Orville started a weekly newspaper called the “West Side News.”
Wilbur joined him as an editorial writer. These publications and others
which followed were printed on a press which the Wright boys designed
and built.
In 1892 came the enterprise that was to provide the setting for, and the
approach to, the supreme adventure with which the names of the Wright
brothers are associated. The boys became absorbed in bicycles. Orville
became interested in track racing and participated in several events. In
their enthusiasm the boys decided to go into the bicycle business. After
embarking on bicycle selling they discovered they must have a repair
shop. Punctures provided the bulk of their business, with free air as a
side issue. The first shop of what became the Wright Cycle Company was
at 1005 West Third Street.
Business increased to such an extent that the Wrights moved to South
Williams Street. Here they began to manufacture bicycles. Their first
model was called the Van Cleve, named after one of their pioneer Dayton
ancestors. Continued expansion of the business necessitated a move to
1127 West Third Street. This was the shop linked with the birth and
development of aviation. It was here that Wilbur and Orville not only
dreamed of flying but practically built the first plane.
A hint of what the future had in store came one day when the brothers
were discussing what was then the new-fangled horseless carriage. Since
it was an original idea, it appealed to them. Orville suggested that
they might engage in the automobile business. “No,” replied Wilbur,
“you’d be tackling the impossible. Why, it would be easier to build a
flying machine.”
[Illustration: A replica of the Wrights’ original wind tunnel which
secured its pressure from a fan mounted on the shaft of an old
grinding wheel.]
The first active interest in flying that the Wrights displayed developed
in 1895 when they read about the glider experiments being carried out by
Otto Lilienthal in Germany. They now began to read everything they could
lay hands on that bore on the attempts of man to fly, going back to the
days of the great Leonardo da Vinci. They wrote to the Smithsonian
Institution for a list of books on the subject. The germ of flying now
entered their systems, never to be eradicated.
The Wrights went thoroughly into the problem of gliders. After
Lilienthal had been killed while gliding, the brothers discovered that
neither he nor any other man who glided had an adequate method of
insuring lateral balance. In seeking the solution to this problem,
Orville worked out a theory for the operation to vary the inclination of
sections of the wings, thereby obtaining force for restoring balance.
Thus he hit upon a fundamental principle which became a claim in the
original Wright patent.
[Illustration: One of the most valued possessions of the Wrights, a
balance made of hacksaw blades. With this balance they evolved their
own tables of air pressure which eventually enabled them to fly. The
original balance is in Franklin Institute, Philadelphia; this
replica is in Wright Hall, Carillon Park.]
[Illustration: Many glider flights at Kitty Hawk preceded the first
attempt to fly in a power-driven plane. Here the Wrights are flying
a glider as a kite, controlling it from the ground. Later flights
were made in man-carrying gliders.]
The brothers now began to study wing structure, but hit upon many
difficulties. A simple incident set them on the right track. In selling
a customer an inner tube for a tire, Wilbur had taken the tube from the
pasteboard box and was idly twisting the box back and forth as he talked
to the customer. In doing so he noticed that although the vertical sides
remained rigid at the ends, the top and bottom sides could be twisted so
that they made different angles at the opposite ends. He immediately
wondered why the wings of a gliding machine could not be warped from one
end to the other in this same way. In this way the wings could be put at
a greater angle at one side than the other and there would be no
structural weakness. Wilbur explained the plan to Orville and it seemed
so satisfactory that they adopted it for their gliders.
The Wrights were now glider-conscious. They built a bi-plane kite with a
new system of controls. In 1900 the brothers constructed a man-carrying
glider. In order to get practice in operation, they decided to fly it
first as a kite. For kite flying they required flat, open country; and
for gliding, sand hills free from trees or shrubs were necessary.
Favorable winds were also needed.
From reports received from the Weather Bureau in Washington, the Wrights
learned that a place named Kitty Hawk in North Carolina seemed to meet
all requirements. So they wrote to the man in charge of the weather
station there for further information. On his and other data, the
brothers came to the conclusion that Kitty Hawk was suitable for
experiments. What was then a tiny spot on the map was to become, in
time, a center of world interest.
[Illustration: Diary of Orville Wright, showing page recording the
first successful flight.]
[Illustration: Map of Kitty Hawk area.]
Man conquers the air
The spot chosen for the Wrights’ experiments was located on a long strip
of sandy beach separated from the mainland of North Carolina. At one
point was the Kitty Hawk Life Saving Station and alongside, a government
weather station. A mile back from the ocean was the tiny village of
Kitty Hawk. Four miles south was the Kill Devil Life Saving Station.
Altogether, it was a dreary and uninviting area but one where history
was to be made.
The Wrights’ experiments at Kitty Hawk covered two periods. In 1900 they
began flying gliders. Winds proved to be unsatisfactory with the result
that the experiments of this year fell far below expectations. They were
back in 1901 with a much larger glider. From this model they learned
that large surfaces could be controlled almost as easily as smaller
ones, provided the control was by manipulation of the surfaces
themselves instead of the movements of the operator’s body. In their
glider experiments of 1901 they broke all records for distance in
gliding.
Air lift still troubled the brothers, so Orville rigged up a small wind
tunnel made out of an old starch box. Within the box was a balance, the
main feature of which was a metal rod that pivoted like a weather vane.
The starch box experiment led to the design of the more scientific wind
tunnel shown on Page 5.
[Illustration: Newspaper comments on the early efforts of the Wright
brothers.]
In the third glider trials in 1902 the brothers put all their new
knowledge to the test with good results. One new feature was a “tail.”
The idea of making this tail movable led to the system of control
generally used today—the independent control of aileron and rudder. The
third series of glider flights was highly successful.
The Wright brothers were now convinced they could build a successful
power flyer. One of the first requirements was an engine to produce at
least eight horsepower and weigh not more than 20 pounds per horsepower.
Unable to obtain such an engine, they built one themselves. The plane
now took shape with wings having a total span of a little over 40 feet
with the upper and lower wings six feet apart. Total weight of the plane
was 750 pounds.
Although the plane was assembled in Kitty Hawk by September 23, 1903,
weather and various mechanical mishaps postponed the day of trial until
December 14. On the toss of a coin, Wilbur won the right to make the
first trial. The machine climbed a few feet, stalled and fell. Several
parts were broken, requiring two days for repairs. There were other
minor delays and then came the fateful day of December 17.
This time Orville was the pilot. The few spectators stood silently by,
little realizing that they were participating in an event that would be
“forever known.” Orville lay flat in the pilot’s place with Wilbur
running alongside, a hand on a wing, until the machine left the rail.
This, in the words of one of the historians of the flight, is what
happened:
“Signals that all was in readiness were exchanged. The motor turned, the
propellers whirled, a restraining wire was released; the machine rolled
along a crude runway, then took off under its own power and flew for
twelve unbelievable seconds for 120 incredible feet.
“With that brief flight, the first ever made by a heavier-than-air
machine, man was freed from the bonds that held him close to Mother
Earth from the beginning of time, and glimpsed the realization of his
oldest, boldest dream ... the conquest of the air.”
The moment when that homemade plane rose from the ground was akin to
others that heralded epochs in the progress of mankind. Crude as it was,
that first plane represented an almost incredible amount of preparation.
Gliders had been designed, constructed and flown to gain technical data
and piloting technique; a satisfactory system of control had been
discovered; a wind tunnel and balance had been built to amplify flight
data; an aircraft engine sufficiently light in weight had been
developed; and finally an aeroplane had been designed and built. All
these things were accomplished in about three years. As one challenge
followed another, the Wrights met them all and from their first flight
went on to the further development of their invention.
[Illustration: The engines used in the first Wright planes were
built by Orville and Wilbur and had four cylinders. This is the
original engine from the 1903 plane.]
[Illustration: The restored 1905 Wright plane in Wright Hall.]
The Wrights learn to fly
Although the first flight took place at Kitty Hawk, the Wrights
themselves always said that they really learned to fly on Huffman
Prairie east of Dayton on the present site of Wright-Patterson Field.
Having proved that they could fly even if for a maximum of less than a
minute, they now set out to build a more practical and useful machine.
They reasoned that if they could fly 852 feet against a 20-mile wind as
they did in the fourth flight at Kitty Hawk, it should be possible to
build a plane which would fly much farther.
The plane in which the first flight was made was called the Kitty Hawk.
Construction of its immediate successor began in January, 1904. It was
much the same as the one flown at Kitty Hawk but there were a number of
changes and the construction was more sturdy throughout. This plane was
equipped with an entirely new engine. Because of a shortage of spruce in
Dayton they changed to white pine for spar construction, thinking it
would be equally good. However, the pine broke in actual use and the
wings had to be entirely rebuilt.
[Illustration: Wilbur Wright during the first demonstrations of the
plane in Europe.]
[Illustration: Wilbur at the controls during a flight in France.]
[Illustration: Orville and Wilbur Wright, modest men whose
achievements made history.]
[Illustration: Original patent issued to the Wrights.]
[Illustration: Katherine and Orville Wright aboard ship bound for
Europe.]
[Illustration: Orville Wright with Thomas A. Edison.]
[Illustration: Towing the plane from one field to another at Le
Mans, France.]
[Illustration: Upon their return from Europe in May 1908, the Wright
brothers and their sister, Katherine, were received at the White
House by President Taft.]
[Illustration: Orville Wright, members of his family and fellow
Daytonians at dedication of the Kitty Hawk monument.]
[Illustration: The pilot lay prone in early Wright planes.]
[Illustration: One of many cartoons depicting the honors which came
to the Wright brothers.]
[Illustration: Dayton newspaper reporting the Home-coming
Celebration in honor of the Wright brothers.]
[Illustration: Orville Wright with Colonel E. A. Deeds on a visit to
Wright Field.]
[Illustration: Orville Wright with Henry Ford as Dayton honored 35th
anniversary of flight.]
[Illustration: The Wright home and bicycle shop as they appear today
in Greenfield Village, Dearborn, Michigan.]
During 1904 more than 100 flights had been made at Huffman Prairie. Of
those flights, a complete circle made for the first time on the 20th of
September and two flights of three miles each were the most notable. In
May of 1905 the Wrights made various improvements in the machine making
it much stronger at various points which had proved weak when landing in
1904 flights. The warping of the wings and operation of the tail rudder
were made independent of each other and the camber of the wings was
changed. The most important development was the addition of two
“blinkers” between the surfaces of the front elevator. The purpose of
the blinkers was to assist the rear rudder in making a turn. This device
was patented and proved quite important for it removed the danger of a
tail spin.
The Wright brothers considered their flights of 1905 of great
importance, and the 1905 plane proved through performance that it was a
greatly improved “flyer.” In a report to the Aero Club of America dated
March 12, 1906, they said this:
“The object of the 1905 experiments was to determine the cause and
discover remedies for several obscure and somewhat rare difficulties
which had been encountered in some of the 1904 flights and which it was
necessary to overcome before it would be safe to employ flyers for
practical purposes. Toward the middle of September, means of correcting
the obscure troubles were found and the flyer was at last brought under
satisfactory control. From this time forward almost every flight
established a new record.” The last flight was the longest of all,
lasting for 38 minutes and 3 seconds and covering 24⅕ miles. It ended
because of exhaustion of fuel. The gas tank, which held only about a
gallon, had, through oversight, not been full before the take-off.
[Illustration: One of the many flights made over Huffman Prairie,
just east of Dayton on present site of Wright-Patterson airfields.]
[Illustration: The Wright Memorial overlooking Huffman Prairie.]
THE WRIGHT MEMORIAL
On a hilltop overlooking Huffman Prairie where the Wright brothers
accomplished so much, stands this shaft, made of North Carolina pink
granite and erected by the citizens of Dayton in their memory. To
the east lies Wright Field, the great government air center named in
their honor. The principal bronze plaque tells in a few words the
story of their great contribution to the progress of mankind. A
smaller tablet records the names of those early flyers who were
trained by the Wright brothers. In the simplicity of design and the
strength of structure, it reflects the characters of the men it
honors.
The report to the Aero Club continued, “The 1905 flyer had a total
weight of about 925 pounds, including the operator and was of such
substantial construction as to be able to make landings at high speed
without being strained or broken. From the beginning the prime object
was to devise a machine of practical utility, rather than a useless and
extravagant toy.... The favorable results which have been obtained have
been due to improvements in flying quality resulting from more
scientific design and to improved methods of balancing and steering....
The best dividends on the labor invested have invariably come from
seeking more knowledge rather than more power.”
The submission of this report was followed by the adoption of a
resolution by the Aero Club commending the Wrights upon their
accomplishment. This, it might be said, marked official recognition on
the part of the public that the Wrights really had flown. Despite
numerous flights made in 1904 and 1905, there was considerable
skepticism and grave doubts on the part of most people that flights were
being made. In fact, the unwillingness of the world to believe that man
could fly was one of the ironies of the Wright story. It was many months
before the last doubting Thomas was convinced that practical flight had
actually been achieved.
Improvements had been made on the 1905 plane, including the engine. In
1908 the plane was taken to Kitty Hawk for further tests. After several
successful flights, an accident occurred which so badly damaged the
plane that it was dismantled and stored there in frame hangars. Over the
years parts of the plane were given to several museums and others were
acquired by residents of the area as mementoes. The engine, the
propellers and other parts were shipped back to Dayton.
[Illustration: The restored 1905 aeroplane in process of
reconstruction. Engineers and others who inspected the plane during
its rebuilding, marveled at the craftsmanship reflected in its
original construction.]
When it was decided to reconstruct an early Wright plane for Carillon
Park, the first thought was that it should be a replica of the Kitty
Hawk, which of course would have been accurate in appearance but would
have contained no original parts.
Orville Wright himself suggested that if the original parts of the 1905
plane could be brought together, a plane which could truly be called a
restored Wright aeroplane could be built. An exhaustive search was begun
and with the co-operation of the museums and the residents of Kitty
Hawk, many of the original parts were secured. Orville Wright located
the original drawings and supervised much of the reconstruction. His
death occurred shortly before the plane was finished.
At least 60 per cent of the parts in the plane are original. These
include the engine, the chain guides, control levers and pilot’s cradle,
the propellers, the greater part of the wing structure as well as some
of the front rudder struts. Construction of the plane was supervised by
Mr. Harvey D. Geyer, an early employee of the Wrights, who was uniquely
fitted for this responsibility and who, in contributing his services,
has done much to perpetuate the achievements of the Wrights in their
home city. As does the original Kitty Hawk in the Smithsonian
Institution, this restored plane will, for generations to come, help to
tell the story of the genius of the Wrights.
[Illustration: Newspaper headlines]
Recognition ... at home and abroad
[Illustration: King Edward VII visits Wright brothers during flights
at Pau, France.]
A world that has convinced itself something cannot be done, yields
slowly to the realization that the “impossible” has been achieved. When
the Wrights approached their own government with the suggestion that
their invention might be useful for scouting purposes their proposal
evoked no interest. Actually, appreciation of the implications and
possibilities of the new device came more quickly from Europe than
America. England and France were among the first to seek information on
the machine that had so thoroughly proved its ability to fly. As early
as 1905 a member of the French military had at least made unofficial
inquiry as to the cost of a plane, but for a time this led to nothing.
In 1907 the United States government realized that the Wrights had
proved the practicability of flying. The Signal Corps drew up
specifications and asked for bids. The Wrights offered to build a test
plane for $25,000. Their bid was accepted in February, 1908. Three
months later they signed a contract with a French syndicate to sell or
license the use of the plane in France. The Wrights were now in the
international picture.
[Illustration: King Alfonso XIII of Spain was keenly interested in
flying, but promised his family that he would not make flight.]
About this time the Wrights, always seeking better performance, made a
notable improvement in their plane. In their first historic flight and
during the experiments on Huffman Prairie, they rode “belly buster” just
as a boy does when coasting on a sled. They now made a different
arrangement of levers which enabled them to sit up while piloting the
plane. A seat for a passenger was also provided. Interestingly enough,
recent experiments with high-speed planes have brought some return of
the prone position for the pilot.
On May 14, 1908, newspaper men saw a history-making flight at Kitty
Hawk. The remodeled 1905 machine under perfect control carried two men.
Flights for the army followed in September and the last trace of
skepticism disappeared. Unfortunately, on the last flight Lieutenant
Selfridge, the passenger, was killed and Orville severely injured.
The year 1908 was notable in the saga of the Wrights. Wilbur made a
series of flights abroad that not only won all observers but aroused
wide interest and admiration throughout Europe. His quiet demeanor, his
unassuming modesty and his proved skill, stirred the popular
imagination. The French exalted him to the status of a hero. The great
of the world flocked to meet him and see him fly. They included King
Edward VII of England, King Alfonso XIII of Spain, and the Dowager Queen
Margherita of Italy. Invitations to fly came from Rome and Berlin. In
Rome King Victor Emmanuel watched him fly.
[Illustration: Wilbur, at right, in characteristic pose—making a
repair in France.]
[Illustration: Orville Wright with army officer during highly
successful flights at Fort Myer, Virginia.]
In December, 1908, Orville and his sister, Katherine, went to Europe to
join Wilbur. The weather at Le Mans where Wilbur had been flying became
unsuitable for further flights and operations were transferred to Pau in
southern France. Here Orville and Katherine joined Wilbur. Many flights
were made and many distinguished visitors came to see the modern miracle
of human flight.
Honors were heaped upon the Wrights. They received among many other
distinctions, the gold medal of the Aeronautical Society of Great
Britain and the Aero Club of the United Kingdom. The French Aero Club of
the Sarthe gave them a bronze trophy. Later the Aero Club of America
bestowed medals on the flyers. A few weeks afterward, President Taft
received the Wrights at the White House and the brothers returned to
Dayton where a tumultuous welcome awaited them.
[Illustration: Wilbur flies low over spectators’ carriages at Pau,
France.]
Welcome home!
[Illustration: Main Street and Third on day of great Homecoming
Celebration, June 17, 1909.]
Probably nothing stirred the Wrights quite so deeply as their welcome
when they returned to Dayton from their foreign triumphs. The
“homecoming” lasted two days, June 17 and 18, 1909. Whistles blew, bands
played, bells rang, men, women and children paraded. During the
celebration practically all business in Dayton was suspended.
[Illustration: Orville and Wilbur on second day of Dayton
demonstration.]
Wilbur and Orville rode to the celebration in a carriage with their old
friends, Ed Sines, boyhood newspaper partner of Orville, and Ed Ellis, a
long-time friend of Wilbur. The Wrights reviewed a parade in their honor
and in the evening witnessed a spectacular display of fireworks. The
celebration continued the next day when one of the features was the
formation of a huge living American flag by 2,500 school children,
wearing red, white and blue. Immediately after the celebration Wilbur
and Orville left for Washington to complete the trials for the Army at
Fort Myer. The contract with the government had specified that the plane
must do forty miles an hour. Actually, Orville completed one 10-mile
flight in 14 minutes at approximately 43 miles per hour. The Wright
plane was accepted by the Army at the conclusion of these tests.
[Illustration: Michelin Trophy awarded to Wright brothers for
achievements in France.]
[Illustration: {Medal from the Aero Club of America.}]
[Illustration: This trophy from the Aero Club of Sarthe, France, was
placed in niche in Wright home.]
Immediately after the flights at Fort Myer, Orville and Katherine left
for Germany. His purpose was to train pilots for the German company
which had been organized. He made many flights on that trip, some of
them witnessed by members of the royal family and on one of which the
Crown Prince was a passenger. On one he raised the world’s altitude
record from 100 meters to 172 meters, roughly 550 feet. Shortly
thereafter he flew for one hour, thirty-five minutes and forty-seven
seconds with a passenger, thereby establishing a new world’s record for
a flight with a passenger.
While Orville was in Germany in 1909, Wilbur was making spectacular
flights around New York. In one of these he flew 21 miles from
Governor’s Island up the Hudson River to Grant’s Tomb and back.
To train pilots to fly their planes the Wrights opened a flying school
on Huffman Prairie where those early and precarious flights had been
made. Here a notable group of flyers received their training. One of
them was Henry H. Arnold who became Commanding General of the Army Air
Corps in World War II.
In May, 1910, Wilbur made his last flight as pilot. Shortly afterward he
and Orville flew for a brief time together. It was the only flight when
the brothers were both in the air at the same time. Later the same day
Orville took up his 82-year-old father. In the spirit of the Wrights the
Bishop’s only comment was ... “Higher! Higher!” Orville’s final flight
as pilot was made in 1918 from South Field near Dayton.
[Illustration: Orville Wright meeting with members of National
Advisory Committee for Aeronautics.]
After an illness of three weeks, Wilbur Wright died on May 30, 1912, in
his forty-fifth year. The whole world mourned him. Thus, in the prime of
life, with a record of achievement privileged to few, passed a notable
figure in American creative history. Orville Wright survived his brother
for 36 years, passing away January 30, 1948. Throughout his life he
maintained his active interest in aviation, was a life member of the
National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and a frequent and honored
visitor to Wright Field, the great Air Force research center named in
honor of the Wright brothers.
[Illustration: Always interested in new developments, Orville Wright
visits Wright Field.]
[Illustration: The “Kitty Hawk,” Smithsonian Institution,
Washington.]
The Wright brothers have been honored by many nations. Medals, trophies,
monuments tell in part, at least, the story of their great achievement.
The original Kitty Hawk aeroplane holds the place of honor in the
aeronautical exhibit of Smithsonian Institution, Washington. A replica
of the Kitty Hawk in the Science Museum at South Kensington, London,
speaks for the British nation in honoring the Wrights. Monuments have
been erected at Kitty Hawk, N. C., at Le Mans, France, and at Dayton.
And now Wright Hall with its restored 1905 plane takes its place as one
of the efforts of a grateful world to honor one of man’s greatest
achievements.
[Illustration: Wright Memorial, Kitty Hawk, N. C.]
[Illustration: Monument to Wrights, Le Mans, France.]
[Illustration: Wright Hall in Carillon Park houses restored 1905
Wright aeroplane.]
On the walls of Wright Hall is inscribed this tribute to the
achievements and to the personal character of two great Americans:
_In honored memory of Wilbur and Orville Wright, citizens of Dayton
and of the world. Through original research, the Wright brothers
acquired scientific knowledge and developed theories of aerodynamics
which, with their invention of aileron control, enabled them in 1903
to build and fly, at Kitty Hawk, the first power-driven, man-carrying
aeroplane capable of flight._
_Their further development of the aeroplane gave it a capacity for
service which established aviation as one of the great forward steps
in human progress._
_As scientists, Wilbur and Orville Wright discovered the secret of
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_Their courage, perseverance and ability are comparable only to the
magnitude of their achievement. The aeroplane will stand for all time
as one of those few truly great inventions which have shaped the life
and destiny of man._
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