The Wright Brothers

Inventing and building the world's first successful airplane

Making the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight, on December 17, 1903

The brothers developed their flying machine into the first practical fixed-wing aircraft

The Flyer, especially by 1905, was the first heavier-than-air, manned, powered, winged machine to fly successfully under full control, using aerodynamic principles developed by the Wright brothers and applied since then on all practical airplanes.

Inventions

Wilbur Wright

Born- April 16, 1867Died-May 30, 1912 (age 45) in typhoid fever1886 winter- accidentFaught for their patent rights until his death

Presented an independent personality Never graduated from high school Loved to read and write!

“I have always thought I would like to be a teacher.…”

-Wilbur Wright

Facts about wilbur

Orville Wright

Born August 19, 1871Died January 30, 1948( aged 76) after his second heart attackStarted his own printing businessSold their company in 19151930- recieved the first Daniel Guggenheim Medal1936- was elected a member of the National Academy of Science

Developed an interest in technology and science early in life

More of an inventor than Wilbur Very shy but a class clown Never graduated from high school

Facts about Orville

In 1889 the Wright Brothers started the West Side News

It was a weekly newspaper that Wilbur and Orville Wright published briefly in 1889 and 1891

The West Side Newspaper

In 1893 The Wright Brothers started a bicycle shop that allowed them to rent and repair bicycles.

Only 5 of the Wright Brothers’ bicycles exist to this day.

The Wright Cycle Company

The Wright Brothers developed their plans for a flying machine from bicycle concepts

The Beginning

Wright Flyer 1“ On December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk,

North Carolina, the Wright Flyer became the first powered, heavier-than-air machine to achieve controlled, sustained flight with a pilot aboard.”

Kitty Hawk

This stopwatch was used to time the Wright Brothers’ flights at Kitty Hawk

The first successful flight was 12 seconds long and covered 120 feet

Travel to Kitty Hawk was tedious The Wright Brothers found a local cow

pasture just outside of Dayton where they could extend their experiments and practices

Huffman Prairie

The farmer who owned Huffman Prairie didn’t not charge rent to the brothers but he insisted that they make sure the farm animals were out of the way first!

The Wright Flyer 2 worked well However, Wilbur and Orville still found it

difficult to control On October 20, 1904 the Wright Brothers

flew the first complete circle in an aircraft The flight was 1 minute, 36 seconds and

covered 4,080 feet

Wright Flyer 2

The Wright Flyer 3 was much easier to control

The Wright Brothers began to stay in the air for longer and longer periods of time

Wright Flyer 3

In 1905, the Wright Brothers’ experimental period ended

With their third powered airplane, they now routinely made flights lasting several minutes

On October 5, Wilbur made an amazing flight in which he circled the field 30 times in 39 minutes for a total distance of 24 1/2 miles

The Ending

Pictures of first flightFirst flight of Wright flyer 1 Wright flyer 3

THE END