The Wright brothers – Orville (1871-1948 ) and Wilbur (1867-1912) redefined what it meant to transport goods and people over long distances when they invented, built, and then flew the first motorized airplane. After years of trial-and-error, building, and experimentation, the brothers hopped aboard the Wright Flyer a few miles outside of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina on December 17, 1903 and took flight.
The brothers were born in the northern Midwest four years apart and as children, constantly moved across the US with their parents. Both brothers attended high school but because of their constant moving and Orville likely suffering from depression after a head injury, neither stayed at a school long enough to ever receive a high school diploma. Both brothers worked at a newspaper business before opening a bicycle repair shop in the early 1890’s. In 1896, the brothers witnessed multiple individuals achieve small steps toward flight and in 1899, the brothers joined forces, using the money from their bicycle repair shop, to turn their interest of aeronautics into a business endeavor.
After studying previous attempts from other pilots and the movement of birds, they began to draw schematics and put together potential models, eventually patenting wing warping, a new control system for an aircraft that was used to adjust the angles of a wing by using pulleys, which they believed best mimicked the birds’ movement they had previously studied.
After consulting with experts about the best location to conduct their experimental flights, the brothers headed to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina where they test-flew multiple different variations of gliders over the next couple years. They developed the ideas of lift and drag while determining the thrust needed in their motor and in the winter of1903, after weeks of delay, the Wright Flyer took to the sky in the first motorized aircraft. The first three flights that day only went a few hundred feet in length and were no more than 10 feet off the ground but the fourth and final flight of the day was a far greater success, reaching almost 900 feet and lasting almost a minute.
In 1904, the brothers built the Wright Flyer II, followed by the Flyer III in 1905. Each resulted in marginal improvements. The final flight was 24.5 miles and lasted almost 40 minutes before safely landing. After this, they believed they had achieved their goal and chose not to fly again unless they were selling an aircraft as they grew worried about someone stealing their invention.
In 1908, the brothers began demonstrations near Washington D.C. in an effort to gain a business contract with the US Military. It was here the brothers became world famous after days of successful and challenging flights and In 1909, the Wright Company was formed. The brothers achieved a contract with the US Army and continued to work on aircraft evolution, training pilots and building safer planes in the process.
Without the brothers’ innovation and eagerness to achieve flight, we would not have been able to use airplanes in human travel, transportation/shipping, defense and much more. Their work can be heralded as the genius and intuition of the human mind, making the Wright brothers this week’s heroes of capitalism.
Sources:
Wiki entry
History profile