Wright brothers: Wilbur and Orville Wright

[center]The Wright brothers:
Wilbur and Orville Wright [/center]


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Orville and Wilbur Wright had two older brothers, Reuchlin (1861-1920) and Lorin (1862-1939), and a younger sister Katharine (1874-1929). They were the children of Milton Wright (1828-1917) and Susan Catherine (Koerner) Wright (1831-1889). Wilbur Wright was born near Millville, Indiana on April 16, 1867. Orville Wright was born at 7 Hawthorn Street in Dayton, Ohio, August 19, 1871. Their father settled the family in Dayton, where he was editor of a newspaper published by the Church of the United Brethren in Christ. His various jobs as a minister in that church led to the family moving frequently, including a move to Iowa after his being elected Bishop in 1877, and later another move back to Indiana. But they didn't sell the house on 7 Hawthorn Street, and kept returning.

The Wright house provided an excellent setting for the children's cognitive and creative development. Orville wrote of his childhood: "We were lucky enough to grow up in an environment where there was always much encouragement to children to pursue intellectual interests; to investigate whatever aroused curiosity." One activity Bishop Wright initiated was for debates in which two family members would each defend one side, then switch and defend the other side. The house had two libraries: Books on theology were kept in the bishop's study, while the downstairs library had a large and diverse collection. Reading in the family library played a big role in the development of their interest in flight.


In 1878, when Orville and Wilbur were ages 7 and 11, their father brought them a toy "helicopter." It was based on an invention by French aeronautical pioneer Alphonse Penaud. Made of cork, bamboo, and paper, with a rubber band to twirl its twin blades, it was a little bigger than an adult's hand. They later said this sparked their interest in flight. During the next few years, Wilbur and Orville tried to build these themselves, but the bigger they made them the less well they flew. Somewhat discouraged, the brothers turned to kites.

The family moved from Richmond, Indiana back to Dayton in June 1884, less than a month before Wilbur would have graduated from high school. The next year he attended Central High School in Dayton for additional studies, in Greek and trigonometry.

During the winter of 1885-1886, Wilbur was hit in the face with a hockey stick while playing an ice-skating game, resulting in his losing his front teeth. The injury did not seem particularly serious, at least at first. But Wilbur, who had been athletic and healthy until then, began to be withdrawn. As the Bishop later said, "In his nineteenth year when playing a game on skates at an artificial lake at the Soldier's Home near Dayton, Ohio, a bat accidentally flew out of the hand of a young man... and struck Wilbur, knocking him down, but not injuring him much. A few weeks later, he began to be affected with nervous palpitations of the heart, which precluded the realization of the former idea of his parents, of giving him a course in Yale College." Wilbur remained homebound for the next four years, possibly suffering as much from depression as from his vaguely-defined heart disorder. Wilbur cared for his mother Susan during this time, who was dying from tuberculosis. He also read extensively from the family library.

In 1889, with Wilbur's help, Orville designed and built a printing press, and the brothers began publishing a weekly and then a daily paper. In 1892 they opened a bicycle shop, and in 1896 started manufacturing their own brand. Orville invented a self-oiling wheel hub. That year German aviator Otto Lilienthal died in a glider crash, but his pioneering work showed that manned flight was feasible. French aviation researcher Octave Chanute collected data and brought together young aviators to experiment with gliders on the sand dunes at the Lake Michigan shore. The Wright brothers interest in flight was renewed, and they set about to learn everything they could about the subject, gathering and reading whatever they could, and later designing experiments of their own.

To provide adequate lift for large gliders, the Wright brothers needed to find a place with more wind than was typical anywhere near Dayton. In November 1899, Wilbur wrote to Willis L. Moore, Chief of the U.S. Weather Bureau, asking about high wind conditions throughout the country. The first rural place on the list Moore sent back was Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. During the years 1900, 1901, and 1902, Orville and Wilbur experimented at Kitty Hawk with kites, gliders, and a wind tunnel they built to test wing design. The Wright brothers developed the first effective airplane, and made the historic first airplane flight in 1903.

In 1905, the Wright brothers built an airplane that could fly for more than half an hour at a time. In 1908 Orville made the world's first flight of over one hour at Fort Myer, Virginia, in a demonstration for the U.S. army, which subsequently made the Wright planes the world's first military airplanes. That same year Wilbur made over 100 flights near Le Mans, France; the longest one, on Dec. 31, a record flight: 2 hours, 19 minutes.

The brothers never married. Wilbur Wright died at age 45 of typhoid. Orville Wright died of a heart attack at age 77.