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| | My man does not like it in any respect although tequila Law is what's written on my birth certificate I currently reside in Oregon Our task is a service worker and it is anything I truly enjoy To routine is something I'll never give up<br><br>[https://medium.com/@SecretShopping/how-to-become-a-mystery-shopper-77e7752502e5 Medium.com] |
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| <!-- This article is a part of [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Aircraft]]. Please see [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Aircraft/page content]] for recommended layout.-->
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| {{Infobox person
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| | name = The Wright brothers<br>
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| {{double image|center|Orville Wright 1905-crop.jpg|150|Wilbur Wright-crop.jpg|150|<center>Orville and Wilbur Wright in 1905</center>}}
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| | birth_date = '''Orville''': {{birth date|1871|8|19|}}, [[Dayton, Ohio]]<br>'''Wilbur''': {{birth date|1867|4|16|}}, Millville, Indiana
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| | death_date = '''Orville''': {{Death date and age|1948|1|30|1871|8|19|}}, Dayton<br>'''Wilbur''': {{death date and age|1912|5|30|1867|4|16|}}, Dayton
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| | ethnicity = [[Germans|German]], [[Dutch people|Dutch]], English
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| | occupation = '''Orville''': Printer/publisher, bicycle retailer/manufacturer, airplane inventor/manufacturer, pilot trainer<br>'''Wilbur''': Editor, bicycle retailer/manufacturer, airplane inventor/manufacturer, pilot trainer
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| | spouse = None (both)<br>{{double image|left|Orville Wright Signature.svg|100|Wilbur Wright Signature.svg|120}}
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| }}
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| The '''Wright brothers''', '''Orville''' (August 19, 1871 – January 30, 1948) and '''Wilbur''' (April 16, 1867 – May 30, 1912), were two American brothers, inventors, and aviation pioneers who were credited<ref>[http://www.nasm.si.edu/wrightbrothers/ "The Wright Brothers & The Invention of the Aerial Age."] ''Smithsonian Institution.'' Retrieved: September 21, 2010.</ref><ref>Johnson, Mary Ann. [http://www.libraries.wright.edu/special/symposium/Johnson.html Following the Footsteps of the Wright Brothers: Their Sites and Stories Symposium Papers] Wright State University, 2001.</ref><ref name="BBC News">[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/special_report/1998/11/98/great_balloon_challenge/299568.stm "Flying through the ages."] ''BBC News'', March 19, 1999. Retrieved: July 17, 2009.</ref> with inventing and building the world's first successful [[airplane]] and making the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air [[Flight#Mechanical|human flight]], on December 17, 1903. From 1905 to 1907, the brothers developed their [[aircraft|flying machine]] into the [[Wright Flyer III|first practical fixed-wing aircraft]]. Although not the first to build and fly experimental aircraft, the Wright brothers were the first to invent aircraft controls that made fixed-wing powered flight possible.
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| The brothers' fundamental breakthrough was their invention of [[Flight dynamics (aircraft)|three-axis control]], which enabled the pilot to steer the aircraft effectively and to maintain its equilibrium.<ref>[http://airandspace.si.edu/wrightbrothers/fly/1899/breakthrough.cfm "Inventing a Flying Machine - The Breakthrough Concept"] The Wright Brothers and the Invention of the Aerial Age, Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved March 5, 2013</ref><ref>[http://www.wright-brothers.org/History_Wing/Wright_Story/Inventing_the_Airplane/Wagging_Its_Tail/Wagging_Its_Tail.htm "Wagging Its Tail"] The Wright Story - Inventing the Airplane. wright-brothers.org. Retrieved March 5, 2013</ref><ref>[http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/aviation/wrightbrothers.htm "Aviation: From Sand Dunes to Sonic Booms"] National Park Service. Retrieved March 5, 2013</ref><ref>Padfield, Gareth D., Professor of Aerospace Engineering, and Ben Lawrence, researcher.. [http://pcwww.liv.ac.uk/eweb/fst/publications/2854.pdf "The Birth of Flight Control: An Engineering Analysis of the Wright Brothers’ 1902 Glider." (PDF format)] ''The Aeronautical Journal,'' Department of Engineering, The University of Liverpool, UK, December 2003, p. 697. Retrieved: January 23, 2008.</ref> This method became standard and remains standard on fixed-wing aircraft of all kinds.<ref>Howard 1988, p. 89.</ref><ref>Jakab 1997, p. 183.</ref> From the beginning of their aeronautical work, the Wright brothers focused on developing a reliable method of pilot control as the key to solving "the flying problem". This approach differed significantly from other experimenters of the time who put more emphasis on developing powerful engines.<ref>Mortimer 2009, p. 2.</ref> Using a small homebuilt [[wind tunnel]], the Wrights also collected more accurate data than any before, enabling them to design and build wings and propellers that were more efficient than any before.<ref>Jakab 1997, p. 156.</ref><ref>Crouch 2003, p. 228.</ref> Their first U.S. patent, 821,393, did not claim invention of a flying machine, but rather, the invention of a system of aerodynamic control that manipulated a flying machine's surfaces.<ref name="Flying Machine patent">[http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT821393&id=h5NWAAAAEBAJ&dq=821,393 "Flying Machine patent."] ''Patents''. Retrieved: September 21, 2010.</ref>
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| They gained the mechanical skills essential for their success by working for years in their shop with printing presses, bicycles, motors, and other machinery. Their work with bicycles in particular influenced their belief that an unstable vehicle like a flying machine could be controlled and balanced with practice.<ref>Crouch 2003, p. 169.</ref> From 1900 until their first powered flights in late 1903, they conducted extensive glider tests that also developed their skills as pilots. Their bicycle shop employee [[Charlie Taylor (mechanic)|Charlie Taylor]] became an important part of the team, building their first aircraft engine in close collaboration with the brothers.
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| The Wright brothers' status as inventors of the airplane has been subject to counter-claims by various parties. Much controversy persists over the many [[Early flying machines|competing claims of early aviators]].
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| {{TOC limit|limit=2}}
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| ==Childhood==
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| {{double image||Wilbur Wright child.jpg|145|Young Orville Wright.jpg|150|<center>Wilbur (left) and Orville (right) in 1876</center>||Orville|Wilbur}}
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| The Wright brothers were two of seven children born to [[Milton Wright (bishop)|Milton Wright]] (1828 – 1917), of [[English American|English]] and [[Dutch American|Dutch]] ancestry, and Susan Catherine Koerner (1831 – 1889), of [[German American|German]] and [[Swiss American|Swiss]] ancestry.<ref>http://www.daytonhistorybooks.com/the_wright_brothers_2.html</ref><ref>http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/wrighthtml/wrighttree.html</ref> Wilbur was born near [[Millville, Indiana]], in 1867; Orville in [[Dayton, Ohio]], in 1871. The brothers never married. The other Wright siblings were named Reuchlin (1861–1920), Lorin (1862–1939), [[Katharine Wright|Katharine]] (1874–1929), and twins Otis and Ida (born 1870, died in infancy). In elementary school, Orville was given to mischief and was once expelled.<ref>Wallechinsky and Wallace 2005, p. 12.</ref>
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| In 1878 their father, who traveled often as a bishop in the [[Church of the United Brethren in Christ]], brought home a toy "helicopter" for his two younger sons. The device was based on an invention of French aeronautical pioneer [[Alphonse Pénaud]]. Made of paper, bamboo and cork with a rubber band to twirl its rotor, it was about a foot long. Wilbur and Orville played with it until it broke, and then built their own.<ref>[http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Wright_Bros/wright_family/WR1.htm "The Wright Family."] ''U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission,'' 2003. Retrieved: September 21, 2010..</ref> In later years, they pointed to their experience with the toy as the initial spark of their interest in flying.<ref>Crouch 2003, pp. 56–57.</ref>
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| ==Early career and research==
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| [[Image:WrightBrothersHome.jpg|thumb|left|Wright brothers' home at 7 Hawthorn Street, Dayton about 1900. Wilbur and Orville built the covered wrap-around porch in the 1890s.]]
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| Both brothers attended high school, but did not receive diplomas. The family's abrupt move in 1884 from [[Richmond, Indiana]] to [[Dayton]], Ohio, where the family had lived during the 1870s, prevented Wilbur from receiving his diploma after finishing four years of high school.<ref group=N>The diploma was awarded to Wilbur on April 16, 1994, his 127th birthday. See Wilbur Wright entry at [http://www.waynet.org/facts/default.htm Facts/History WayNet]</ref>
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| In late 1885 or early 1886 Wilbur was accidentally struck in the face by a hockey stick while playing an ice-skating game with friends, resulting in the loss of his front teeth. He had been vigorous and athletic until then, and although his injuries did not appear especially severe, he became withdrawn, and did not attend Yale as planned. Instead, he spent the next few years largely housebound, caring for his mother who was terminally ill with tuberculosis and reading extensively in his father's library. He ably assisted his father during times of controversy within the Brethren Church,<ref>Jakab 1997, p. 164.</ref> but also expressed unease over his own lack of ambition.<ref>Crouch 2003, p. 130.</ref>
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| Orville dropped out of high school after his junior year to start a printing business in 1889, having designed and built his own printing press with Wilbur's help. Wilbur joined the print shop, and in March the brothers launched a weekly newspaper, the ''West Side News''. Subsequent issues listed Orville as publisher and Wilbur as editor on the masthead. In April 1890 they converted the paper to a daily, the ''The Evening Item'', but it lasted only four months. They focused on commercial printing afterward. One of their clients for printing jobs was Orville's friend and classmate in high school, [[Paul Laurence Dunbar]], who rose to international acclaim as a ground-breaking African-American poet and writer. The Wrights printed the ''Dayton Tattler,'' a weekly newspaper that Dunbar edited for a brief period.<ref>[http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/daav/chap4.htm "What Dreams We Have."] ''nps.gov.'' Retrieved: September 21, 2010.</ref>
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| [[File:WrightBrothersBicycle.JPG|thumb|left|Wright brothers' bicycle at the National Air and Space Museum]]
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| Capitalizing on the national [[bicycle craze]] (spurred by the invention of the [[safety bicycle]] and its substantial advantages over the [[penny-farthing]] design), the brothers opened a repair and sales shop in December 1892 (the Wright Cycle Exchange, later the [[Wright Cycle Company]]) and began manufacturing their own brand<ref>[http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Wright_Bros/wright_family/WR1G5.htm "The Van Cleve Bicycle that the Wrights Built and Sold."] ''U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission,'' 2003. Retrieved: September 21, 2010.</ref> in 1896. They used this endeavor to fund their growing interest in flight. In the early or mid-1890s they saw newspaper or magazine articles and probably photographs of the dramatic glides by [[Otto Lilienthal]] in Germany. 1896 brought three important aeronautical events. In May, Smithsonian Institution Secretary [[Samuel Langley]] successfully flew an unmanned steam-powered model aircraft. In mid-year, Chicago engineer and aviation authority [[Octave Chanute]] brought together several men who tested various types of gliders over the sand dunes along the shore of Lake Michigan. In August, Lilienthal was killed in the plunge of his glider.<ref>Crouch 2003, Chapter 10, "The Year of the Flying Machine" and Chapter 11, "Octave Chanute".</ref> These events lodged in the consciousness of the brothers. In May 1899 Wilbur wrote a letter<ref>[http://siarchives.si.edu/history/exhibits/documents/wrightmay301899.htm "Wilbur Wright May 30, 1899 Letter to Smithsonian."] ''Smithsonian Scrapbook: Letters from the Archives.'' Retrieved: September 21, 2010.</ref> to the Smithsonian Institution requesting information and publications about aeronautics.<ref>Howard 1988, p. 30.</ref> Drawing on the work of [[Sir George Cayley]], [[Octave Chanute|Chanute]], Lilienthal, [[Leonardo da Vinci]], and Langley, they began their mechanical aeronautical experimentation that year.
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| The Wright brothers always presented a unified image to the public, sharing equally in the credit for their invention. Biographers note that Wilbur took the initiative in 1899–1900, writing of "my" machine and "my" plans before Orville became deeply involved when the first person singular became the plural "we" and "our". Author James Tobin asserts, "it is impossible to imagine Orville, bright as he was, supplying the driving force that started their work and kept it going from the back room of a store in Ohio to conferences with capitalists, presidents, and kings. Will did that. He was the leader, from the beginning to the end."<ref>Tobin 2004, p. 92.</ref>
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| ===Ideas about control===
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| [[File:WrightBrothers1899Kite.jpg|right|thumb|Wright 1899 kite: front and side views, with control sticks. Wing-warping is shown in lower view. (Wright brothers drawing in Library of Congress)]]
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| Despite Lilienthal's fate, the brothers favored his strategy: to practice gliding in order to master the art of control before attempting motor-driven flight. The death of British aeronaut [[Percy Pilcher]] in another hang gliding crash in October 1899 only reinforced their opinion that a reliable method of pilot control was the key to successful—and safe—flight. At the outset of their experiments they regarded control as the unsolved third part of "the flying problem". They believed sufficiently promising knowledge of the other two issues—wings and engines—already existed.<ref>Crouch 2003, p. 166.</ref> The Wright brothers thus differed sharply from more experienced practitioners of the day, notably [[Clément Ader|Ader]], [[Hiram Maxim|Maxim]] and [[Samuel Langley|Langley]] who built powerful engines, attached them to airframes equipped with unproven control devices, and expected to take to the air with no previous flying experience. Although agreeing with Lilienthal's idea of practice, the Wrights saw that his method of balance and control—shifting his body weight—was fatally inadequate.<ref>Tobin 2004, p. 53.</ref> They were determined to find something better.
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| On the basis of observation, Wilbur concluded that birds changed the angle of the ends of their wings to make their bodies roll right or left.<ref>Tobin 2004, p. 70.</ref> The brothers decided this would also be a good way for a flying machine to turn—to "bank" or "lean" into the turn just like a bird—and just like a person riding a bicycle, an experience with which they were thoroughly familiar. Equally important, they hoped this method would enable recovery when the wind tilted the machine to one side (lateral balance). They puzzled over how to achieve the same effect with man-made wings and eventually discovered [[wing-warping]] when Wilbur idly twisted a long inner-tube box at the bicycle shop.<ref>Tobin 2004, pp. 53–55.</ref>
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| Other aeronautical investigators regarded flight as if it were not so different from surface locomotion, except the surface would be elevated. They thought in terms of a ship's rudder for steering, while the flying machine remained essentially level in the air, as did a train or an automobile or a ship at the surface. The idea of deliberately leaning, or rolling, to one side seemed either undesirable or did not enter their thinking.<ref>Crouch 2003, pp. 167–168.</ref> Some of these other investigators, including Langley and Chanute, sought the elusive ideal of "inherent stability", believing the pilot of a flying machine would not be able to react quickly enough to wind disturbances to use mechanical controls effectively. The Wright brothers, on the other hand, wanted the pilot to have absolute control.<ref>Crouch 2003, pp. 168–169.</ref> For that reason, their early designs made no concessions toward built-in stability (such as [[Dihedral (aircraft)|dihedral]] wings). They deliberately designed their 1903 first powered flyer with [[Dihedral (aircraft)#Anhedral|anhedral]] (drooping) wings, which are inherently unstable, but less susceptible to upset by gusty cross winds.
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| ==Flights==
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| ===Toward flight===
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| [[File:Park Ranker Wright Brothers Memorial.JPG|thumb|left|Park Ranger Tom White demonstrates a replica of the Wright brothers 1899 box kite at the [[Wright Brothers National Memorial]]]]In July 1899 Wilbur put [[wing warping]] to the test by building and flying a biplane kite that had a five-foot wingspan. When the wings were warped, or twisted, one end of the wings produced more lift and the other end, less lift. Unequal lift made the wings tilt, or bank: the end with more lift rose, while the other end dropped, causing a turn in the direction of the lower end. Warping was controlled by four cords attached to the kite. The cords led to two sticks held by the kite flyer, who tilted them in opposite directions to twist the wings.
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| In 1900 the brothers journeyed to [[Kitty Hawk, North Carolina|Kitty Hawk]], North Carolina to begin their manned gliding experiments. In a reply to Wilbur's first letter, [[Octave Chanute]] had suggested the mid-Atlantic coast for its regular breezes and soft sandy landing surface. Wilbur also requested and scrutinized U.S. [[National Weather Service|Weather Bureau]] data, and decided on Kitty Hawk after receiving information from the government meteorologist stationed there.<ref name="WDL"/> The location, although remote, was closer to Dayton than other places Chanute had suggested, including California and Florida. The spot also gave them privacy from reporters, who had turned the 1896 Chanute experiments at Lake Michigan into something of a circus. Chanute visited them in camp each season from 1901 to 1903 and saw gliding experiments, but not the powered flights.
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| ===Gliders===
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| {{Main|Wright Glider}}
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| [[Image:Chanute-Herring 1896 hang glider.jpg|thumb|right|Chanute's hang glider of 1896. The pilot may be [[Augustus Moore Herring|Augustus Herring.]]]]
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| The Wrights based the design of their kite and full-size gliders on work done in the 1890s by other aviation pioneers. They adopted the basic design of the Chanute-Herring biplane hang glider ("double-decker" as the Wrights called it), which flew well in the 1896 experiments near Chicago, and used aeronautical data on [[lift (force)|lift]] that Lilienthal had published. The Wrights designed the wings with [[camber (aerodynamics)|camber]], a curvature of the top surface. The brothers did not discover this principle, but took advantage of it. The better lift of a cambered surface compared to a flat one was first discussed scientifically by Sir [[George Cayley]]. Lilienthal, whose work the Wrights carefully studied, used cambered wings in his gliders, proving in flight the advantage over flat surfaces.
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| The wooden uprights between the wings of the Wright glider were braced by wires in their own version of Chanute's modified "[[Pratt truss]]", a bridge-building design he used for his biplane glider (initially built as a triplane). The Wrights mounted the horizontal [[elevator (aircraft)|elevator]] in front of the wings rather than behind, apparently believing this feature would help to avoid, or protect them, from a nosedive and crash like the one that killed Lilienthal.<ref>Jakab 1997, p. 73.</ref> When Brazilian aviation pioneer [[Alberto Santos-Dumont]] flew his ''14-bis'' in Paris in 1906, French newspapers dubbed the tail-first arrangement a "[[canard (aeronautics)|canard]]", because of the supposed resemblance to a duck in flight.<ref>[http://www.aeroclub.com/santos_dumont_14bis_14bis.htm "Les premières expériences de l'aéroplane de M. Santos-Dumont au champ d'entraînement de bagatelle." (in French)] ''aeroclub.com,'' July 28, 1906. Retrieved: July 14, 2010.</ref> Wilbur incorrectly believed a tail was not necessary,<ref>Wright, Wilbur. [http://invention.psychology.msstate.edu/inventors/i/Wrights/library/Aeronautical.html "Some Aeronautical Experiments."] ''Western Society of Engineers,'' September 18, 1901. Retrieved: July 14, 2010.</ref> and their first two gliders did not have one. According to some Wright biographers, Wilbur probably did all the gliding until 1902, perhaps to exercise his authority as older brother and to protect Orville from harm as he did not want to have to explain to Bishop Wright if Orville got injured.<ref>Howard 1988, p. 52.</ref><ref>Crouch 2003, p. 198.</ref>
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| {| class="wikitable"
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| |+ '''Glider Vital Statistics'''<ref>[http://www.wright-brothers.org/Information_Desk/Just_the_Facts/Just_the_Facts_Intro/Just_the_Facts_Intro.htm "Just the Facts"] ''Wright Brothers Aeroplane Company.'' Retrieved April 18, 2012</ref>
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| ! !! Wingspan!!Wing area!! Chord !! Camber !!Aspect ratio!!Length !!Weight
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| | '''1900''' ||{{convert|17|ft|6|in|m|abbr=on}} || {{convert|165|sqft|m2|0|abbr=on}} || {{convert|5|ft|m|0|abbr=on}} ||1/20|| 3.5:1
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| ||{{convert|11|ft|6|in|m|abbr=on}} ||{{convert|52|lb|kg|abbr=on}}
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| |-
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| |'''1901'''|| {{convert|22|ft|m|0|abbr=on}} ||{{convert|290|sqft|m2|0|abbr=on}} ||{{convert|7|ft|m|abbr=on}}||1/12,*1/19||3:1 ||{{convert|14|ft|m|abbr=on}} ||{{convert|98|lb|kg|abbr=on}}
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| |-
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| |'''1902'''||{{convert|32|ft|1|in|m|abbr=on}} ||{{convert|305|sqft|m2|0|abbr=on}}||{{convert|5|ft|m|abbr=on}}||1/20–1/24||6.5:1 ||{{convert|17|ft|m|abbr=on}} ||{{convert|112|lb|kg|abbr=on}}
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| |}
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| <nowiki>* (This airfoil caused severe stability problems; the Wrights modified the camber on-site.)</nowiki>
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| ====1900 Glider====
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| The brothers flew the glider only a few days in the early autumn of 1900 at Kitty Hawk. In the first tests, probably October 3, Wilbur was aboard while the glider flew as a kite not far above the ground with men below holding tether ropes.<ref>Crouch 2003, pp. 188–189.</ref> Most of the kite tests were unpiloted with sandbags or chains (and even a local boy) as onboard ballast.[[Image:WrightBrothers1900Glider.jpg|thumb|left|The 1900 glider. No photo was taken with a pilot aboard.]]
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| They tested wing-warping using control ropes from the ground. The glider was also tested unmanned while suspended from a small homemade tower. Wilbur (but not Orville) made about a dozen free glides on only a single day, October 20. For those tests, the brothers trekked four miles (6 km) south to the [[Kill Devil Hills]], a group of sand dunes up to {{convert|100|ft|m|-1}} high (where they made camp in each of the next three years). Although the glider's lift was less than expected (causing most tests to be unmanned), the brothers were encouraged because the craft's front elevator worked well and they had no accidents. However, the small number of free glides meant they were not able to give wing-warping a true test.
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| The pilot lay flat on the lower wing, as planned, to reduce aerodynamic drag. As a glide ended, the pilot was supposed to lower himself to a vertical position through an opening in the wing and land on his feet with his arms wrapped over the framework. Within a few glides, however, they discovered the pilot could remain prone on the wing, headfirst, without undue danger when landing. They made all their flights in that position for the next five years.
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| ====1901 Glider====
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| [[File:Wright1901GliderBottom.jpg|right|thumb|Orville at Kitty Hawk with the [[1901 Wright Glider|1901 glider]], its nose pointed skyward; it had no tail.]]
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| [[File:Wright 1901 glider landing.jpg|right|thumb|Wilbur just after landing the 1901 glider. Glider skid marks are visible behind it, and marks from a previous landing are seen in front; Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.]]
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| Hoping to improve lift, they built the 1901 glider with a much larger wing area and made 50 to 100 flights in July and August for distances of 20 to 400 ft (6 to 122 m).<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20071027105205/www.wright-brothers.org/Adventure/Workshop/building1902.htm "1902 Wright Bros. Glider."] ''Wright Brothers Aeroplane Company.'' Retrieved: September 21, 2010.</ref> The glider stalled a few times, but the parachute effect of the forward elevator allowed Wilbur to make a safe flat or "pancake" landing, instead of a nose-dive. These incidents wedded the Wrights even more strongly to the ''[[Canard (aeronautics)|canard]]'' design, which they did not give up until 1910. The glider, however, delivered two major disappointments. It produced only about one-third the lift calculated and sometimes failed to respond properly to wing-warping, turning opposite the direction intended—a problem later known as [[adverse yaw]]. On the trip home after their second season, Wilbur, stung with disappointment, remarked to Orville that man would fly, but not in their lifetimes.
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| The poor lift of the gliders led the Wrights to question the accuracy of Lilienthal's data, as well as the "[[John Smeaton|Smeaton]] coefficient" of air pressure, which had been in existence for over 100 years and was part of the accepted equation for lift.
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| {| class="wikitable floatleft"
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| |+ '''The Lift Equation'''
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| |<math>L = k\;S\;V^2\;C_L</math>
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| L = lift in pounds<br>
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| k = coefficient of air pressure (Smeaton coefficient)<br>
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| S = total area of lifting surface in square feet<br>
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| V = velocity (headwind plus ground speed) in miles per hour<br>
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| C<sub>L</sub> = coefficient of lift (varies with wing shape)
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| |}
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| [[Image:WB Wind Tunnel.jpg|thumb|Replica of the Wright brothers' [[wind tunnel]] at the Virginia Air and Space Center]]
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| The Wrights—and Lilienthal—used the equation to calculate the amount of lift that wings of various sizes would produce. On the basis of measurements of lift and wind during the 1901 glider's kite and free flights, Wilbur believed (correctly, as tests later showed) that the Smeaton number was very close to 0.0033, not the traditionally used 60 percent larger 0.0054, which would exaggerate predicted lift.
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| Back home, furiously pedaling a strange-looking bicycle on neighborhood streets, they conducted makeshift open-air tests with a miniature Lilienthal airfoil and a counter-acting flat plate, which were both attached to a freely rotating third bicycle wheel mounted horizontally in front of the handlebars. Because the third wheel rotated against the airfoil instead of remaining motionless as the calculations predicted, the Wrights confirmed their suspicion that published data on lift were unreliable, and they decided to expand their investigation. They also realized that trial-and-error with different wings on full-size gliders was too costly and time-consuming. Putting aside the three-wheel bicycle, they built a six-foot [[wind tunnel]] in their shop and conducted systematic tests on miniature wings from October to December 1901.<ref name=Dodson>Dodson, M.G. [http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/3585 "An Historical and Applied Aerodynamic Study of the Wright Brothers' Wind Tunnel Test Program and Application to Successful Manned Flight."] ''[[United States Naval Academy|US Naval Academy]]'', Technical Report, Volume USNA-334, 2005. Retrieved: September 21, 2010.</ref> The "balances" they devised and mounted inside the tunnel to hold the wings looked crude, made of bicycle spokes and scrap metal, but were "as critical to the ultimate success of the Wright brothers as were the gliders."<ref>Crouch 2003, p. 225.</ref> The devices allowed the brothers to balance lift against drag and accurately calculate the performance of each wing.<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20070929122325/www.wright-brothers.org/Adventure/Workshop/lift_and_drift.htm "Lift and Drift."] ''Wright Brothers Aeroplane Company.'' Retrieved: September 21, 2010.</ref> They could also see which wings worked well as they looked through the viewing window in the top of the tunnel. Prior to beginning their wind tunnel experiments, Wilbur, at Chanute's invitation, traveled to [[Chicago]] to give a speech to the [[Western Society of Engineers]] on September 18, 1901. Wilbur's speech consisted of detailed accounts of his and Orville's glider experiments at Kitty Hawk up to the fall of 1901 and was complemented by a [[Magic lantern|lantern slide show]] of photographs. Wilbur's speech was the first public account of the brothers' experiments.
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| ====1902 Glider====
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| [[Image:WrightGlidersSideBySide.jpg|right|thumb|'''A Big Improvement'''<br>
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| At left, 1901 glider flown by Wilbur (left) and Orville. At right, 1902 glider flown by Wilbur (right) and Dan Tate, their helper. Dramatic improvement in performance is apparent. The 1901 glider flies at a steep [[angle of attack]] due to poor lift and high drag. In contrast, the 1902 glider flies at a much flatter angle and holds up its tether lines almost vertically, clearly demonstrating a much better lift-to-drag ratio.]]
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| Lilienthal had made "whirling arm" tests on only a few wing shapes, and the Wrights mistakenly assumed the data would apply to their wings, which had a different shape. The Wrights took a huge step forward and made basic wind tunnel tests on 200 wings of many shapes and [[airfoil]] curves, followed by detailed tests on 38 of them. The tests, according to biographer Howard, "were the most crucial and fruitful aeronautical experiments ever conducted in so short a time with so few materials and at so little expense".<ref>Howard 1988, p. 72.</ref> An important discovery was the benefit of longer narrower wings: in aeronautical terms, wings with a larger [[aspect ratio]] (wingspan divided by [[Chord (aircraft)|chord]]—the wing's front-to-back dimension). Such shapes offered much better [[lift-to-drag ratio]] than the broader wings the brothers had tried so far.
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| With this knowledge, and a more accurate Smeaton number, the Wrights designed their 1902 glider. Using another crucial discovery from the wind tunnel, they made the airfoil flatter, reducing the [[camber (aerodynamics)|camber]] (the depth of the wing's curvature divided by its chord). The 1901 wings had significantly greater curvature, a highly inefficient feature the Wrights copied directly from Lilienthal. Fully confident in their new wind tunnel results, the Wrights discarded Lilienthal's data, now basing their designs on their own calculations.
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| [[Image:1902 WrightBrosGlider.jpg|left|thumb|Wilbur Wright pilots the [[1902 Wright Glider|1902 glider]] over the Kill Devil Hills, October 10, 1902. The single rear rudder is steerable; it replaced the original fixed double rudder.]]
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| With characteristic caution, the brothers first flew the 1902 glider as an unmanned kite, as they had done with their two previous versions. Rewarding their wind tunnel work, the glider produced the expected lift. It also had a new structural feature: a fixed, rear vertical rudder, which the brothers hoped would eliminate turning problems.
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| By 1902 they realized that wing-warping created "differential drag" at the wingtips. Greater lift at one end of the wing also increased drag, which slowed that end of the wing, making the aircraft swivel—or "yaw"—so the nose pointed away from the turn. That was how the tailless 1901 glider behaved.
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| The improved wing design enabled consistently longer glides, and the rear rudder prevented adverse yaw—so effectively that it introduced a new problem. Sometimes when the pilot attempted to level off from a turn, the glider failed to respond to corrective wing-warping and persisted into a tighter turn. The glider would slide toward the lower wing, which hit the ground, spinning the aircraft around. The Wrights called this "well digging".
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| Orville apparently visualized that the fixed rudder resisted the effect of corrective wing-warping when attempting to level off from a turn. He wrote in his diary that on the night of October 2, "I studied out a new vertical rudder". The brothers then decided to make the rear rudder movable to solve the problem.<ref>Anderson 2004, p. 134.</ref> They hinged the rudder and connected it to the pilot's warping "cradle", so a single movement by the pilot simultaneously controlled wing-warping and rudder deflection. Tests while gliding proved that the trailing edge of the rudder should be turned away from whichever end of the wings had more drag (and lift) due to warping. The opposing pressure produced by turning the rudder enabled corrective wing-warping to reliably restore level flight after a turn or a wind disturbance. Furthermore, when the glider banked into a turn, rudder pressure overcame the effect of differential drag and pointed the nose of the aircraft in the direction of the turn, eliminating adverse yaw.
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| In short, the Wrights discovered the true purpose of the movable vertical rudder. Its role was not to change the direction of flight (as a rudder does in sailing), but rather, to aim or align the aircraft correctly during banking turns and when leveling off from turns and wind disturbances.<ref>Culick, Fred E.C. [http://www.wrightflyer.org/Papers/AIAA_2001-3385.pdf "What the Wright Brothers Did and Did Not Understand About Flight Mechanics—In Modern Terms."] Pasadena, California: ''American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics: California Institute of Technology'', Paper AIAA-2001-3385, 37th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference and Exhibit, July 8–11, 2001. Retrieved: July 27, 2009.</ref> The actual turn—the change in direction—was done with roll control using wing-warping. The principles remained the same when [[ailerons]] superseded wing-warping.
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| [[Image:1902 Wright glider turns.jpeg|right|thumb|Wilbur makes a turn using wing-warping and the movable rudder, October 24, 1902.]]
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| With their new method the Wrights achieved true control in turns for the first time on October 8, 1902, a major milestone. From September 19 to October 24 they made between 700 and 1,000 glides, the longest lasting 26 seconds and covering {{convert|622.5|ft|m|1}}. Hundreds of well-controlled glides after they made the rudder steerable convinced them they were ready to build a powered flying machine.
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| Thus did [[flight dynamics|three-axis control]] evolve: wing-warping for roll (lateral motion), forward elevator for pitch (up and down) and rear rudder for yaw (side to side). On March 23, 1903, the Wrights applied for their famous patent for a "Flying Machine", based on their successful 1902 glider. Some aviation historians believe that applying the system of three-axis flight control on the 1902 glider was equal to, or even more significant, than the addition of power to the 1903 Flyer. Peter Jakab of the Smithsonian asserts that perfection of the 1902 glider essentially represents invention of the airplane.<ref>Langewiesche 1972, p. 163.</ref><ref>Jakab 1997, pp. 183–184.</ref>
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| ===Adding power===
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| [[File:First flight2.jpg|thumb|left|First flight of the [[Wright Flyer]] I, December 17, 1903, Orville piloting, Wilbur running at wingtip.]]
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| In 1903 the brothers built the powered [[Wright Flyer]] I, using their preferred material for construction, [[spruce]],<ref>[http://www.nasm.si.edu/exhibitions/gal100/wright1903.html "Milestones of Flight - 1903 Wright Flyer"] - [[National Air and Space Museum|Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum]]</ref> a strong and lightweight wood, and Pride of the West [[muslin]] for surface coverings. They also designed and carved their own wooden propellers, and had a purpose-built gasoline engine fabricated in their bicycle shop. They thought propeller design would be a simple matter and intended to adapt data from shipbuilding. However, their library research disclosed no established formulas for either marine or air propellers, and they found themselves with no sure starting point. They discussed and argued the question, sometimes heatedly, until they concluded that an aeronautical propeller is essentially a wing rotating in the vertical plane.<ref>Crouch 1989, pp. 242–243.</ref> On that basis, they used data from more wind tunnel tests to design their propellers. The finished blades were just over eight feet long, made of three laminations of glued spruce. The Wrights decided on twin "[[Pusher configuration|pusher]]" propellers (counter-rotating to cancel torque), which would act on a greater quantity of air than a single relatively slow propeller and not disturb airflow over the leading edge of the wings.
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| Wilbur made a March 1903 entry in his notebook indicating the prototype propeller was 66% efficient. Modern wind tunnel tests on reproduction 1903 propellers show they were more than 75% efficient under the conditions of the first flights, and actually had a peak efficiency of 82%. This is a remarkable achievement, considering that modern wooden propellers have a maximum efficiency of 85%.<ref>Ash, Robert L. Colin P. Britcher and Kenneth W. Hyde. [http://www.memagazine.org/supparch/flight03/propwr/propwr.html "100 Years of Flight: supplement, Prop-Wrights."] ''Mechanical Engineering'', December 2003.</ref>
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| [[Image:Wright brothers engine 17.jpg|thumb|A Wright engine, serial number 17, circa 1910, is on display at the [[New England Air Museum]] in [[Windsor Locks, Connecticut|Windsor Locks]], Connecticut.]]
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| The Wrights wrote to several engine manufacturers, but none met their need for a sufficiently lightweight powerplant. They turned to their shop mechanic, [[Charlie Taylor (mechanic)|Charlie Taylor]], who built an engine in just six weeks in close consultation with the brothers.<ref>Crouch 1989, p.245</ref> To keep the weight low enough, the engine block was cast from aluminum, a rare practice for the time. The Wright/Taylor engine was a primitive version of modern [[fuel-injection]] systems, having no [[carburetor]] or [[fuel pump]]. Gasoline was [[gravitation|gravity]]-fed into the crankcase through a rubber tube from the fuel tank mounted on a wing strut.
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| The propeller drive chains, resembling those of bicycles, were actually supplied by a manufacturer of heavy-duty automobile chain-drives.<ref>Howard 1988, pp. 108–109.</ref> The ''Flyer'' cost less than a thousand dollars, in contrast to more than $50,000 in government funds given to [[Samuel Pierpont Langley|Samuel Langley]] for his man-carrying [[Langley Aerodrome|Great Aerodrome]].<ref>Tobin 2004, p. 192.</ref> The Flyer had a wingspan of {{convert|40.3|ft|m|abbr=on}}, weighed {{convert|605|lb|kg|abbr=on}}<ref>[http://www.wright-brothers.org/Information_Desk/Just_the_Facts/Airplanes/Flyer_I.htm Wright Flyer I] Wright-Brothers.org. Retrieved: Jan. 31, 2013</ref> and sported a {{convert|12|hp|kW}} {{convert|180|lb|kg|abbr=on}} engine.<ref>Tobin 2004, p. 159.</ref>
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| ===First flight===
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| In camp at Kill Devil Hills, they endured weeks of delays caused by broken propeller shafts during engine tests. After the shafts were replaced (requiring two trips back to Dayton), Wilbur won a [[tossing a coin|coin toss]] and made a three-second flight attempt on December 14, 1903, stalling after takeoff and causing minor damage to the Flyer. (Because December 13, 1903, was a Sunday, the brothers did not make any attempts that day, even though the weather was good.) In a message to their family, Wilbur referred to the trial as having "only partial success", stating "the power is ample, and but for a trifling error due to lack of experience with this machine and this method of starting, the machine would undoubtedly have flown beautifully."<ref>Kelly 2002, pp. 112–113.</ref> Following repairs, the Wrights finally took to the air on December 17, 1903, making two flights each from level ground into a freezing headwind gusting to {{convert|27|mph|km/h}}. The first flight, by Orville at 10:35 am, of {{convert|120|ft|m}} in 12 seconds, at a speed of only {{convert|6.8|mph|km/h}} over the ground, was recorded in a [[:File:First flight2.jpg|famous photograph]].<ref name="WDL">{{cite web |url = http://www.wdl.org/en/item/11372/ |title = Telegram from Orville Wright in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, to His Father Announcing Four Successful Flights, 1903 December 17 |website = [[World Digital Library]] |date = 1903-12-17 |accessdate = 2013-07-21 }}</ref> The next two flights covered approximately {{convert|175|ft|m}} and {{convert|200|ft|m}}, by Wilbur and Orville respectively. Their altitude was about {{convert|10|ft|m}} above the ground.<ref>Gray, Carroll F. [http://www.thewrightbrothers.org/fivefirstflights.html "The First Five Flights, The Slope and Winds of Big Kill Devil Hill – The First Flight Reconsidered, 1903 – Who Made the First Flight?"] ''TheWrightBrothers.org,'' 2003. Retrieved: September 21, 2010.</ref> The following is Orville Wright's account of the final flight of the day:
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| <blockquote>
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| Wilbur started the fourth and last flight at just about 12 o'clock. The first few hundred feet were up and down, as before, but by the time three hundred ft had been covered, the machine was under much better control. The course for the next four or five hundred feet had but little undulation. However, when out about eight hundred feet the machine began pitching again, and, in one of its darts downward, struck the ground. The distance over the ground was measured to be 852 feet; the time of the flight was 59 seconds. The frame supporting the front rudder was badly broken, but the main part of the machine was not injured at all. We estimated that the machine could be put in condition for flight again in about a day or two.<ref>Kelly 1943, pp. 101–102.</ref>
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| </blockquote>
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| [[Image:Wright diary1.jpg|left|thumb|Orville's notebook entry of December 17, 1903]]
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| Five people witnessed the flights: Adam Etheridge, [[John T. Daniels]] (who snapped the famous "first flight" photo using Orville's pre-positioned camera) and Will Dough, all of the U.S. government coastal lifesaving crew; area businessman W.C. Brinkley; and Johnny Moore, a teenaged boy who lived in the area.
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| After the men hauled the Flyer back from its fourth flight, a powerful gust of wind flipped it over several times, despite the crew's attempt to hold it down. Severely damaged, the airplane never flew again.<ref>Howard 1988, p. 139.</ref> The brothers shipped it home, and years later Orville restored it, lending it to several U.S. locations for display, then to a British museum (see Smithsonian dispute below), before it was finally installed in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. in 1948, its current residence.
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| The Wrights sent a telegram about the flights to their father, requesting that he "inform press."<ref name="WDL"/> However, the ''Dayton Journal'' refused to publish the story, saying the flights were too short to be important. Meanwhile, against the brothers' wishes, a telegraph operator leaked their message to a Virginia newspaper, which concocted a highly inaccurate news article that was reprinted the next day in several newspapers elsewhere, including Dayton.<ref>Crouch 1989, pp. 271–272.</ref><ref>[http://www.wright-brothers.org/History_Wing/Wright_Story/Inventing_the_Airplane/December_17_1903/Virginia_Pilot_Story.htm ''Virginian-Pilot'' story.] In Their Own Words, Wright-Brothers.org. Retrieved Jan. 29, 2013</ref>
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| The Wrights issued their own factual statement to the press in January.<ref>Crouch 1989, p. 274</ref> Nevertheless, the flights did not create public excitement—if people even knew about them—and the news soon faded. (In Paris, however, Aero Club of France members, already stimulated by Chanute's reports of Wright gliding successes, took the news more seriously and increased their efforts to catch up to the brothers.)
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| Modern analysis by Professor Fred E. C. Culick and Henry R. Jex (in 1985) has demonstrated that the 1903 Wright Flyer was so unstable as to be almost unmanageable by anyone but the Wrights, who had trained themselves in the 1902 glider.<ref>Abzug, Malcolm J. and E. Eugene Larrabee.[http://assets.cambridge.org/97805218/09924/sample/9780521809924ws.pdf "Airplane Stability and Control, Second Edition: A History of the Technologies That Made Aviation Possible."] ''cambridge.org.'' Retrieved: September 21, 2010.</ref>
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| ===Trouble establishing legitimacy===
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| [[Image:1904WrightFlyer.jpg|thumb|Orville in flight over Huffman Prairie in [[Wright Flyer II]]. Flight #85, approximately {{convert|1760|ft|m|0}} in {{frac|40|1|5}} seconds, November 16, 1904.]]
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| In 1904 the Wrights built the ''[[Wright Flyer II|Flyer II]]''. They decided to avoid the expense of travel and bringing supplies to the Outer Banks and set up an airfield at [[Huffman Prairie]], a cow pasture eight miles (13 km) northeast of [[Dayton, Ohio|Dayton]]. They received permission to use the field rent-free from owner and bank president Torrance Huffman. They invited reporters to their first flight attempt of the year on May 23, on the condition that no photographs be taken. Engine troubles and slack winds prevented any flying, and they could manage only a very short hop a few days later with fewer reporters present. Some scholars of the Wrights speculate the brothers may have intentionally failed to fly in order to cause reporters to lose interest in their experiments.<ref>Howard 1998, pp. 154–155.</ref> Whether that is true is not known, but after their poor showing local newspapers virtually ignored them for the next year and a half.
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| The Wrights were glad to be free from the distraction of reporters. The absence of newsmen also reduced the chance of competitors learning their methods. After the Kitty Hawk powered flights, the Wrights made a decision to begin withdrawing from the bicycle business so they could devote themselves to creating and marketing a practical airplane.<ref>Crouch 2003, pp. 273–274.</ref> The decision was financially risky, since they were neither wealthy nor government-funded (unlike other experimenters such as [[Clément Ader|Ader]], [[Hiram Stevens Maxim|Maxim]], [[Samuel Pierpont Langley|Langley]] and Santos-Dumont). The Wright brothers did not have the luxury of giving away their invention; it was to be their livelihood. Thus, their secrecy intensified, encouraged by advice from their patent attorney, [[Harry Aubrey Toulmin, Sr.|Henry Toulmin]], not to reveal details of their machine.[[Image:WrightFlyer1904Circling.jpg|thumb|left|Wilbur flying almost four circles of Huffman Prairie, about {{frac|2|3|4}} miles in 5 minutes 4 seconds; flight #82, November 9, 1904.]]
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| [[Image:WrightBrothersFirstCircleFlightLogBook.gif|thumb|left|Wilbur's logbook showing diagram and data for first circle flight on September 20, 1904]]
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| At Huffman Prairie, lighter winds and lower air density than in Kitty Hawk (because of Ohio's higher altitude and higher temperatures) made takeoffs very difficult, and they had to use a much longer starting rail, stretching to hundreds of feet, compared to the {{convert|60|ft|m|0|sing=on|adj=on}} rail at Kitty Hawk. During the spring and summer they suffered many hard landings, real crackups, repeated Flyer damage, and bodily bumps and bruises. On August 13, making an unassisted takeoff, Wilbur finally exceeded their best Kitty Hawk effort with a flight of {{convert|1300|ft|m|-1}}.
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| Then they decided to use a weight-powered catapult to make takeoffs easier and tried it for the first time on September 7. On September 20, 1904, Wilbur flew the first complete circle in history by a manned heavier-than-air powered machine, covering {{convert|4080|ft|m|0}} in about a minute and a half.<ref>Howard 1998, p. 161</ref> Their two best flights were November 9 by Wilbur and December 1 by Orville, each exceeding five minutes and covering nearly three miles in almost four circles.<ref>Howard 1998, pp. 162-163</ref>
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| By the end of the year the brothers had accumulated about 50 minutes in the air in 105 flights over the rather soggy {{convert|85|acre|ha}} pasture, which, remarkably, is virtually unchanged today from its original condition and is now part of [[Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park]], adjacent to [[Wright-Patterson Air Force Base]].
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| Towards the end of 1904, in September, the brothers were visited by the first of many important Europeans they would befriend in coming years, the distinguished Briton [[John Capper|Colonel J. E. Capper]] who was interested in the success of aeronautics in the behest of his island nation. Capper and his wife were arriving in the United States aboard the ''[[RMS Lucania|Lucania]]'' and would be heading towards the big fair in St. Louis that fall. He cabled the Wrights from the ship for a meeting. The Wright patent was granted at its earliest in 1904 in Britain hence the interest from important people like Capper.<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=xT2rAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=britain+no+longer+an+island+nation&hl=en&sa=X&ei=UTZ9UcTsKfTL0gHDiYHACQ&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=britain%20no%20longer%20an%20island%20nation&f=false ''No Longer An Island Nation: Britain and the Wright Brothers, 1902-1909'' by Alfred W. Gollin c.1984 pages 66 - 68](for easier reading type "John Capper" or "J. E. Capper" into the GoogleBooks search on the left)</ref>
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| Despite progress in 1904, the Flyer was still frequently out of control.<ref>Crouch 2003, p. 286.</ref> The Wrights scrapped the battered and much-repaired airplane, but saved the engine, and in 1905 built a new ''[[Wright Flyer III|Flyer III]]'', which included an important design change. The brothers installed a separate control for the rear rudder instead of linking the rudder to the wing-warping "cradle" as before. Each of the three axes—pitch, roll and yaw—now had its own independent control. Nevertheless, this Flyer offered the same marginal performance as the first two. Its maiden flight was June 23 and the first several flights were no longer than 10 seconds.<ref name="Winchester">Winchester 2005, p. 311.</ref> After Orville suffered a bone-jarring and potentially fatal crash on July 14, they rebuilt the Flyer with the forward elevator and rear rudder both enlarged and placed several feet farther away from the wings.
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| These modifications greatly improved stability and control, setting the stage for a series of six dramatic "long flights" ranging from 17 to 38 minutes and 11 to {{convert|24|mi|km|0}} around the three-quarter mile course over Huffman Prairie between September 26 and October 5. Wilbur made the last and longest flight, {{convert|24.5|mi|km|1}} in 38 minutes and 3 seconds, ending with a safe landing when the fuel ran out. The flight was seen by a number of people, including several invited friends, their father Milton, and neighboring farmers.{{#tag:ref|Dayton Metro Library has a document showing durations, distances and a list of witnesses to the long flights in late September-early October 1905.<ref>Dayton Metro Library [http://www.daytonmetrolibrary.org/research-a-databases/history-a-genealogy/collections-a-exhibits/wright-brother-collection/wb-image-coll/114-scrapbooks/154-wright-brothers-scrapbook-page-two The Wright Brothers Collection] Scrapbook One (Scrapbook, 1890-1926), Page Two, pages 9,9a. Retrieved August 5, 2012.</ref>|group=N}}
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| [[Image:Wright Flyer III above.jpg|thumb|[[Wright Flyer III]] piloted by Orville over Huffman Prairie, October 4, 1905. Flight #46, covering {{frac|20|3|4}} miles in 33 minutes 17 seconds; last photographed flight of the year]]
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| Reporters showed up the next day (only their second appearance at the field since May the previous year), but the brothers declined to fly. The long flights convinced the Wrights they had achieved their goal of creating a flying machine of "practical utility" which they could offer to sell.
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| The only photos of the flights of 1904–1905 were taken by the brothers. (A few photos were damaged in the [[Great Dayton Flood]] of 1913, but most survived intact.) In 1904 Ohio beekeeping businessman [[Amos Root]], a technology enthusiast, saw a few flights including the first circle. Articles he wrote for his beekeeping magazine were the only published eyewitness reports of the [[Huffman Prairie]] flights, except for the unimpressive early hop local newsmen saw. Root offered a report to ''Scientific American'' magazine, but the editor turned it down. As a result, the news was not widely known outside of Ohio, and was often met with skepticism. The Paris edition of the [[International Herald Tribune|Herald Tribune]] headlined a 1906 article on the Wrights "FLYERS OR LIARS?"
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| In years to come Dayton newspapers would proudly celebrate the hometown Wright brothers as national heroes, but the local reporters somehow missed one of the most important stories in history as it was happening a few miles from their doorstep. [[James M. Cox]], publisher at that time of the [[Dayton Daily News]] (later governor of Ohio and Democratic presidential nominee in 1920), expressed the attitude of newspapermen—and the public—in those days when he admitted years later, "Frankly, none of us believed it."<ref>Tobin 2004, p. 211.</ref> [[Image:HeadlineWrightBros.gif|thumb|left|The ''Dayton Daily News'' reported the October 5 flight on page 9, with agriculture and business news.{{#tag:ref|Image courtesy Dayton Metro Library. The newspaper article can be read at<ref>[[commons:File:DaytonNewspaperArticleWrightBros.gif|"Wright Brothers."]] ''Dayton Metro Library.'' Retrieved: September 21, 2010.</ref>|group=N}}]]A few newspapers published articles about the long flights, but no reporters or photographers had been there. The lack of splashy eyewitness press coverage was a major reason for disbelief in Washington, D.C. and Europe and in journals like ''Scientific American,'' whose editors doubted the "alleged experiments" and asked how U.S. newspapers, "alert as they are, allowed these sensational performances to escape their notice."<ref>[http://invention.psychology.msstate.edu/i/Wrights/library/WrightSiAm1.html "To Fly is everything!"] ''msstae.edu.'' Retrieved: May 19, 2008.</ref>
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| The Wright brothers were certainly complicit in the lack of attention they received. Fearful of competitors stealing their ideas, and still without a patent, they flew on only one more day after October 5. From then on, they refused to fly anywhere unless they had a firm contract to sell their aircraft. They wrote to the U.S. government, then to Britain, France and Germany with an offer to sell a flying machine, but were rebuffed because they insisted on a signed contract before giving a demonstration. They were unwilling even to show their photographs of the airborne Flyer. The American military, having recently spent $50,000 on the [[Langley Aerodrome]]—a product of the nation's foremost scientist—only to see it plunge twice into the Potomac River "like a handful of mortar", was particularly unreceptive to the claims of two unknown bicycle makers from Ohio.<ref>[http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/aero/aircraft/langleyA.htm "Langley."] ''Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.'' Retrieved: November 21, 2006.</ref> Thus, doubted or scorned, the Wright brothers continued their work in semi-obscurity, while other aviation pioneers like Santos-Dumont, [[Henri Farman]], [[Leon Delagrange]] and American [[Glenn Curtiss]] entered the limelight.
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| ==European skepticism==
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| In 1906, skeptics in the European aviation community had converted the press to an anti-Wright brothers stance. European newspapers, especially in France, were openly derisive, calling them ''bluffeurs'' (bluffers).<ref name="EuroDoubt">[http://wrightbros.org/History_Wing/Wright_Story/Showing_the_World/Prize_Patrol/Prize_Patrol.htm The Prize Patrol] ''Wright Brothers.org''. Retrieved Oct. 1, 2012.</ref>
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| [[Ernest Archdeacon]], founder of the [[Aéro-Club de France]], was publicly scornful of the brother's claims in spite of published reports; specifically, he wrote several articles and in 1906, stated that "the French would make the first public demonstration of powered flight".<ref name="US Cent">[http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Dictionary/Archdeacon/DI49.htm "Ernest Archdeacon."] ''US Centennial of Flight'', 2003. Retrieved: October 14, 2009.</ref>
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| The Paris edition of the ''[[New York Herald]]'' summed up Europe's opinion of the Wright brothers in an editorial on February 10, 1906:
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| :The Wrights have flown or they have not flown. They possess a machine or they do not possess one. They are in fact either fliers or liars. It is difficult to fly. It's easy to say, 'We have flown.'<ref name="EuroDoubt"/>
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| In 1908, after the Wrights' first flights in France, Archdeacon publicly admitted that he had done them an injustice.<ref name=US_Cent/>
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| ==Contracts and return to Kitty Hawk==
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| The Wright brothers made no flights at all in 1906 and 1907. They spent the time attempting to persuade the U.S. and European governments that they had invented a successful flying machine and were prepared to negotiate a contract to sell such machines. They also experimented with a pontoon and engine setup on the Miami River (Ohio) in hopes of flying their airplane from the water. These experiments proved unsuccessful. [[File:1905 Wright Flyer Kill Devil Hills.jpg|thumb|left|The modified 1905 Flyer at the Kill Devil Hills in 1908, ready for practice flights. *Note there is no catapult derrick, all takeoffs were used with the monorail alone.]]
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| Replying to the Wrights' letters, the U.S. military expressed virtually no interest in their claims. The brothers turned their attention to Europe, especially France, where enthusiasm for aviation ran high, and journeyed there for the first time in 1907 for face-to-face talks with government officials and businessmen. They also met with aviation representatives in Germany and Britain. Before traveling, Orville shipped a newly built [[Wright Model A|Model A]] Flyer to France in anticipation of demonstration flights.
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| In France Wilbur met [[Frank P. Lahm]], a lieutenant in the U.S. Army [[Aeronautical Division, U.S. Signal Corps|Aeronautical Division]]. Writing to his superiors, Lahm smoothed the way for Wilbur to give an in-person presentation to the U.S. Board of Ordnance and Fortification in Washington, D.C. when he returned to the U.S. This time, the Board was favorably impressed, in contrast to its previous indifference. With further input from the Wrights, the [[Signal Corps (United States Army)|U.S. Army Signal Corps]] issued Specification #486 in December 1907, inviting bids for construction of an airplane under military contract.<ref>[http://www.wright-brothers.org/History_Wing/Wright_Story/Showing_the_World/Back_in_Air/Signal_Corps_Spec.htm "In Their Own Words: Signal Corps Specification No. 486."] ''Wright Brothers Aeroplane Company.'' Retrieved: October 13, 2011.</ref> The Wrights submitted their bid in January.<ref group=N>The Board was surprised when it received 41 bids, having expected only one. None of the other bids amounted to a serious proposal.</ref>
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| In early 1908 the brothers also agreed to a contract with a French company. In May they went back to Kitty Hawk with their 1905 Flyer to practice in private for their all-important public demonstration flights, as required by both contracts. Their privacy was lost when New York newspapers heard about the tests and sent several reporters to the scene.
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| [[File:O.Wright Soaring 1911.jpg|thumb|Soaring flight, Kitty Hawk, Oct., 1911 "Arrows indicate 50-Mile Wind, Showing How Machine Was Sustained in a Stationary Position"<ref>Lougheed, Victor. [http://www.firstflightfoundation.org/bm~doc/1911-11-popmech-lougheed_-secret-flights2.pdf V. "The Secret Experiments of the Wright Brothers."] ''Popular Mechanics'', December 1911.</ref>]]
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| Their contracts required them to fly with a passenger, so they modified the 1905 Flyer by installing two seats and adding upright control levers. After tests with sandbags in the passenger seat, [[Charles Furnas|Charlie Furnas]], a helper from Dayton, became the first fixed-wing aircraft passenger on a few short flights May 14. For safety, and as a promise to their father, Wilbur and Orville did not fly together. However, several newspaper accounts at the time mistakenly took Orville's flight with Furnas as both brothers flying together. Later that day after flying solo seven minutes, Wilbur suffered his worst crash when—still not well-acquainted with the two new control levers—he apparently moved one the wrong way and slammed the Flyer into the sand between {{convert|40|mi|km}} and {{convert|50|mi|km}} an hour. He emerged with only bruises and a cut nose, but the accident ended the practice flights—and the aircraft's flying career.
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| ===Return to glider flights===
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| In October 1911, Orville Wright returned to the Outer Banks again, to improve the aircraft and conduct tests for safety and stabilization with [[Wright Glider|a new glider]]. On October 24, he soared for nine minutes and 45 seconds, a record that held for almost 10 years, when [[gliding]] as a sport began in the 1920s.<ref>[http://firstflightfoundation.org/first-flight-foundation-events/first-flight-foundation-soaring-100/ "Soaring100 Documentation and Celebration 2011."] ''First Flight Foundation,'' October 21, 2011.</ref>
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| ==Public showing==
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| [[Image:Wright-Fort Myer.jpg|thumb|left|Orville demonstrating the flyer to the [[U.S. Army]], [[Fort Myer, Virginia|Fort Myer]], Virginia September 1908. Photo: by C.H. Claudy.]]
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| [[Image:HartBerg with WilburWright.jpg|thumb|left|Hart O. Berg (left), the Wrights' European business agent, and Wilbur at the flying field near Le Mans. <!--In this photo Berg is often confused to be Leon Bollée, the car factory owner where Wilbur assembled the Model A and a much larger man.---does not belong but useful for others as an "invisible"--->]]
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| The brothers' contracts with the U.S. Army and a French syndicate depended on successful public flight demonstrations that met certain conditions. The brothers had to divide their efforts. Wilbur sailed for Europe; Orville would fly near Washington, D.C.
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| Facing much skepticism in the French aeronautical community and outright scorn by some newspapers that called him a "bluffeur," Wilbur began official public demonstrations on August 8, 1908 at the Hunaudières horse racing track near the town of [[Le Mans]], France. His first flight lasted only one minute 45 seconds, but his ability to effortlessly make banking turns and fly a circle amazed and stunned onlookers, including several pioneer French aviators, among them [[Louis Bleriot]]. In the following days, Wilbur made a series of technically challenging flights, including figure-eights, demonstrating his skills as a pilot and the capability of his flying machine, which far surpassed those of all other pioneering airplanes and pilots of the day.<ref>Howard, pp. 258-260</ref><ref>Crouch 1989, pp. 368-369</ref>
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| The French public was thrilled by Wilbur's feats and flocked to the field by the thousands. The Wright brothers catapulted to world fame overnight. Former doubters issued apologies and effusive praise. ''[[L'Aérophile]]'' editor Georges Besançon wrote that the flights "have completely dissipated all doubts. Not one of the former detractors of the Wrights dare question, today, the previous experiments of the men who were truly the first to fly...."<ref>''L'Aerophile'', August 11, 1908, quoted in Crouch 2003, p. 368.</ref> Leading French aviation promoter Ernest Archdeacon wrote, "For a long time, the Wright brothers have been accused in Europe of bluff... They are today hallowed in France, and I feel an intense pleasure...to make amends."<ref>''L'Auto'', August 9, 1908, quoted in Crouch 2003, p. 368.</ref>
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| On October 7, 1908, Edith Berg, the wife of the brothers' European business agent, became the first American woman passenger when she flew with Wilbur—-one of many passengers who rode with him that autumn.<ref>[http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/aero/women_aviators/therese_peltier.htm "Thérèse Peltier."] ''Smithsonian'', Retrieved: July 3, 2010.</ref>{{#tag:ref|The first woman passenger was Thérèse Peltier on July 8, 1908 when she made a flight of {{convert|656|ft|m|0}} with [[Léon Delagrange]] in Milan, Italy.|group=N}} Wilbur also became acquainted with [[Léon Bollée]] and his family. Bollée was the owner of an automobile factory where Wilbur would assemble the Flyer and where he would be provided with hired assistance. Bollée would fly that autumn with Wilbur. Madame Bollée had been in the latter stages of pregnancy when Wilbur arrived in LeMans in June 1908 to assemble the Flyer. Wilbur promised her that he would make his first European flight the day her baby was born which he did, August 8, 1908.<ref>Combs 1979, p. 282. [of material presented to Orville Wright in Dayton in 1920 by Madame Bollée and her daughter Elizabeth Bollée (the August 1908 baby)]</ref>
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| Orville followed his brother's success by demonstrating another nearly identical Flyer to the [[United States Army]] at [[Fort Myer]], Virginia, starting on September 3, 1908. On September 9, he made the first hour-long flight, lasting 62 minutes and 15 seconds.[[Image:Fort Myer Wright Flyer crash.jpg|thumb|Fort Myer crash. Photo by C.H. Claudy.]]{{wikisource|Fatal fall of Wright airship}} On September 17, Army lieutenant [[Thomas Selfridge]] rode along as his passenger, serving as an official observer. A few minutes into the flight at an altitude of about {{convert|100|ft|m|-1}}, a propeller split and shattered, sending the aircraft out of control. Selfridge suffered a fractured skull in the crash and died that evening in the nearby Army hospital, becoming the first airplane crash fatality. Orville was badly injured, suffering a broken left leg and four broken ribs. Twelve years later, after he suffered increasingly severe pains, X-rays revealed the accident had also caused three hip bone fractures and a dislocated hip.<ref>Kelly 1943, p. 230.</ref> The brothers' sister Katharine, a school teacher, rushed from Dayton to Virginia and stayed by Orville's side for the seven weeks of his hospitalization. She helped negotiate a one-year extension of the Army contract. A friend visiting Orville in the hospital asked, "Has it got your nerve?" "Nerve?" repeated Orville, slightly puzzled. "Oh, do you mean will I be ''afraid'' to fly again? The only thing I'm afraid of is that I can't get well soon enough to finish those tests next year."<ref>Kelly 1943, pp. 231–232.</ref>
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| Deeply shocked by the accident, Wilbur determined to make even more impressive flight demonstrations; in the ensuing days and weeks he set new records for altitude and duration. In January 1909 Orville and Katharine joined him in France, and for a time they were the three most famous people in the world, sought after by royalty, the rich, reporters and the public. The kings of England, Spain and Italy came to see Wilbur fly. [[Image:1909 Flyer and Derrick.jpg|thumb|left|Wright Model A Flyer flown by Wilbur 1908–1909 and launching derrick, France, 1909]] The Wrights traveled to [[Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques|Pau]], in the south of France, where Wilbur made many more public flights, giving rides to a procession of officers, journalists and statesmen—and his sister Katharine on February 15. He trained two French pilots, then transferred the airplane to the French company. In April the Wrights went to Italy where Wilbur assembled another Flyer, giving demonstrations and training more pilots. An Italian cameraman [[:fr:Federico Valle|Federico Valle]] climbed aboard and filmed the first motion picture from an aircraft.
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| After their return to the U.S., the brothers and Katharine were invited to the White House where [[William Howard Taft|President Taft]] bestowed awards upon them. Dayton followed up with a lavish two-day homecoming celebration. In July 1909 Orville, with Wilbur assisting, completed the proving flights for the U.S. Army, meeting the requirements of a two-seater able to fly with a passenger for an hour at an average of speed of 40 miles an hour (64 km/h) and land undamaged. They sold the aircraft to the Army's [[Aeronautical Division, U.S. Signal Corps]] for $30,000 (which included a $5,000 bonus for exceeding the speed specification). Wilbur climaxed an extraordinary year in early October when he flew at New York City's Hudson-Fulton celebrations, circling the [[Statue of Liberty]] and making a 33-minute flight up and down the Hudson River alongside Manhattan in view of up to one million New Yorkers. These flights solidly established the fame of the Wright brothers in America.
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| ===Family flights===
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| On May 25, 1910 back at Huffman Prairie, Orville piloted two unique flights. First, he took off on a six-minute flight with Wilbur as his passenger, the only time the Wright brothers ever flew together. They received permission from their father to make the flight. They had always promised Milton they would never fly together to avoid the chance of a double tragedy and to ensure one brother would remain to continue their experiments. Next, Orville took his 82-year-old father on a nearly seven-minute flight, the only one of Milton Wright's life. The airplane rose to about {{convert|350|ft|m|0}} while the elderly Wright called to his son, "Higher, Orville, higher!"<ref>Crouch 2003, p. 12.</ref>
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| ==Patent war==
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| {{See also|The Wright brothers patent war}}
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| The Wright brothers wrote their 1903 [[patent application]] themselves, but it was rejected. In January 1904 they hired Ohio patent attorney [[Harry Aubrey Toulmin, Sr.|Henry Toulmin]], and on May 22, 1906, they were granted U.S. Patent 821393<ref name="Flying Machine patent"/> for "new and useful Improvements in Flying Machines."
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| [[Image:WrightPatentIntro.jpg|thumb|right|<center>[[U.S. Patent and Trademark Office]] archive</center>]] The patent illustrates a non-powered flying machine—namely, the 1902 glider. The patent's importance lies in its claim of a new and useful method of ''controlling'' a flying machine, powered or not. The technique of wing-warping is described, but the patent explicitly states that other methods instead of wing-warping could be used for adjusting the outer portions of a machine's wings to different angles on the right and left sides to achieve lateral (roll) control. The concept of varying the angle presented to the air near the wingtips, by any suitable method, is central to the patent. The patent also describes the steerable rear vertical rudder and its innovative use in combination with wing-warping, enabling the airplane to make a ''coordinated turn'', a technique that prevents hazardous ''[[adverse yaw]]'', the problem Wilbur had when trying to turn the 1901 glider. Finally, the patent describes the forward elevator, used for ascending and descending.
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| ===Lawsuits begin===
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| Attempting to circumvent the patent, [[Glenn Curtiss]] and other early aviators devised [[aileron]]s to emulate lateral control described in the patent and demonstrated by the Wrights in their public flights.
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| Soon after the historic July 4, 1908 one-kilometer flight by Curtiss in the [[AEA June Bug]], the Wrights warned him not to infringe their patent by profiting from flying or selling aircraft that used ailerons.
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| Curtiss was at the time a member of the [[Aerial Experiment Association]] (AEA), headed by [[Alexander Graham Bell]], where in 1908 he had helped reinvent wingtip ailerons for their Aerodrome No. 2, known as the [[AEA White Wing]]<ref name="Aerospaceweb">Yoon, Joe. [http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/history/q0103.shtml Origins of Control Surfaces], Aerospaceweb.org, November 17, 2002.</ref><ref name="Casey">Casey, Louis S. [http://books.google.ca/books?id=PXtGAAAAYAAJ ''Curtiss, The Hammondsport Era, 1907-1915''], New York: Crown Publishers, 1981, pp. 12–15, ISBN 0517543265, ISBN 9780517543269.</ref> (the AEA's other members became dismayed when Curtiss unexpectedly dropped out of their organization; they later came to believe he had sold the rights to their joint innovation to the United States Government).{{Citation needed|date=November 2012}}
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| Curtiss refused to pay license fees to the Wrights and sold an aircraft equipped with ailerons to the Aeronautic Society of New York in 1909. The Wrights filed a lawsuit, beginning a years-long legal conflict. They also sued foreign aviators who flew at U.S. exhibitions, including the leading French aviator [[Louis Paulhan]]. The Curtiss people derisively suggested that if someone jumped in the air and waved his arms, the Wrights would sue.<ref>Wicks, Frank. [http://web.archive.org/web/20110629103435/http://www.memagazine.org/supparch/flight03/trialby/trialby.html "Trial by Flyer"]''Mechanical Engineering 100 Years of Flight.'' Retrieved from Web Archive July 29, 2012.</ref>
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| European companies which bought foreign patents the Wrights had received sued other manufacturers in their countries. Those lawsuits were only partly successful. Despite a pro-Wright ruling in France, legal maneuvering dragged on until the patent expired in 1917. A German court ruled the patent not valid because of prior disclosure in speeches by Wilbur Wright in 1901 and [[Octave Chanute]] in 1903. In the U.S. the Wrights made an agreement with the [[Aero Club of America]] to license airshows which the Club approved, freeing participating pilots from a legal threat. Promoters of approved shows paid fees to the Wrights.<ref>[http://www.daytonhistorybooks.com/page/page/2599316.htm "Flying Machines: Construction and Operation, Chapter 23."] ''Dayton History Books Online''.'' Retrieved: May 22, 2007.</ref> The Wright brothers won their initial case against Curtiss in February 1913 when a judge ruled that ailerons were covered under the patent. The Curtiss company appealed the decision.
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| From 1910 until his death from [[typhoid fever]] in 1912, Wilbur took the leading role in the patent struggle, traveling incessantly to consult with lawyers and testify in what he felt was a moral cause, particularly against Curtiss, who was creating a large company to manufacture aircraft. The Wrights' preoccupation with the legal issue stifled their work on new designs, and by 1911 Wright aircraft were considered inferior to those of European makers. Indeed, aviation development in the U.S. was suppressed to such an extent that when the U.S. entered World War I no acceptable American-designed aircraft were available, and U.S. forces were compelled to use French machines. Orville and Katharine Wright believed Curtiss was partly responsible for Wilbur's premature death, which occurred in the wake of his exhausting travels and the stress of the legal battle.
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| ===Victory and cooperation===
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| In January 1914, a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the verdict against the Curtiss company, which continued to avoid penalties through legal tactics. Orville apparently felt vindicated by the decision, and much to the frustration of company executives, he did not push vigorously for further legal action to ensure a manufacturing monopoly. In fact, he was planning to sell the company and departed in 1915. In 1917, with World War I underway, the U.S. government pressured the industry to form a cross-licensing organization, the Manufacturers Aircraft Association, to which member companies paid a blanket fee for the use of aviation patents, including the original and subsequent Wright patents.<ref>[http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Wright_Bros/Patent_Battles/WR12.htm "Glenn Curtiss and the Wright Patent Battles.] ''centennialofflight,'' 2003. Retrieved: March 7, 2009.</ref>{{#tag:ref|Quote: "The suit finally ended with the advent of World War I when the aircraft manufacturers established the Manufacturers' Aircraft Association to coordinate wartime aircraft manufacturing in the United States and formed a [[patent pool]] with the approval of the U.S. government. All patent litigation ceased automatically. Royalties were reduced to one percent and free exchange of inventions and ideas took place among all the airframe builders." |group=N}} The Wright-Martin company (successor to the Wright company) and the Curtiss company (which held a number of its own patents) each received a $2 million payment.<ref>[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9906E2D8133AE433A25754C0A96E9C946696D6CF "End Patent Wars of Aircraft Makers."] ''[[The New York Times]]'', August 7, 1917. Retrieved: March 7, 2009.</ref>{{#tag:ref|Quote: "New Organization Is Formed, Under War Pressure, to Interchange Patents."|group=N}}<ref>"Big Royalties to be Paid: Wright and Curtiss Interests Each to Receive Ultimately $2,000,000 – Increased Production Predicted. Payment of Royalties." ''[[The New York Times]]'', August 7, 1917. Retrieved: March 7, 2009.</ref> The "[[patent war]]" ended, although side issues lingered in the courts until the 1920s. In a twist of irony, the [[Wright Aeronautical Corporation]] (another successor) and the Curtiss Aeroplane company merged in 1929 to form the [[Curtiss-Wright Corporation]], which remains in business today producing high-tech components for the aerospace industry.
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| Aviation historian [[Charles Harvard Gibbs-Smith]] stated a number of times<ref>[[Charles Harvard Gibbs-Smith]] [http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1956/1956%20-%200598.html Correspondence: The First Aileron], U.K.: ''Flight Magazine'', 1956, p. 598. Retrieved from FlightGlobal.com, January 2011.</ref><ref name="Flight-1960.09.16">[http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1960/1960%20-%201994.html A Complete New Historical Assessment], U.K.: [[Flight International|''Flight'' magazine]], 16 September 1960, pp. 478. Retrieved from FlightGlobal.com, January 2011. Retrieved 15 April 2013.</ref> that the Wrights' legal victory would have been "doubtful" if an 1868 patent of "a prior but lost invention" by [[Matthew Piers Watt Boulton]] of the UK had been known in the period 1903–1906.<ref name="Aerospaceweb" /><ref name="Gibbs-Smith">[[Charles Harvard Gibbs-Smith]]. [http://books.google.ca/books?id=u4dTAAAAMAAJ ''Aviation: An Historical Survey From Its Origins To The End Of The Second World War''], Science Museum, 2000, p.54, ISBN 1-900747-52-9, ISBN 978-1-900747-52-3.</ref><ref>F. Alexander Magoun & Eric Hodgins [http://books.google.ca/books?id=UnLVAAAAMAAJ ''A History of Aircraft''], Whittlesey House, 1931, p. 308.</ref> The lengthy patent and drawing sheet, titled ''Aërial Locomotion &c'' (Aerial Locomotion etcetera), described several engine improvements and conceptual designs and then offered, almost in passing, a complete technical description and drawings of an [[Aircraft flight control system#Primary controls|aileron control system]], including an optional feature intended to function as a [[Autopilot#Modern autopilots|single-axis autopilot]].<ref name="Boulton Patent, No. 392, 1868">Boulton, M.P.W. "Specification of Matthew Piers Watt Boulton : A.D. 1868, 5th February. N<sup>o</sup> 392. : Aärial Locomotion &c.", London: [[Great Seal of the Realm|Great Seal Patent Office]] (printed by George E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode), 1868.</ref><ref name="Bridgements">"''Patents For Inventions: Bridgements Of Specifications: Class 4, Aeronautics: Period—A.D. 1867–76''", London: [[Office of Public Sector Information|His Majesty's Stationary Office]] (Darling & Sons Ltd. Printers), 1903, pp. 7–8.</ref>
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| ===Friendship ends===
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| The lawsuits damaged the public image of the Wright brothers, who were generally regarded before this as heroes. Critics said the brothers were greedy and unfair and compared their actions unfavorably to European inventors, who worked more openly. Supporters said the brothers were protecting their interests and were justified in expecting fair compensation for the years of work leading to their successful invention. Their 10-year friendship with Octave Chanute, already strained by tension over how much credit, if any, he might deserve for their success, collapsed after he publicly criticized their actions.<ref>Howard, 1998, chapter 39, "End of a Friendship"</ref>
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| ==In business==
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| [[File:Wright Brothers in 1910.jpg|thumb|Wright brothers at the [[Belmont Park]] Aviation Meet in 1910]]
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| The [[Wright Company]] was incorporated on November 22, 1909. The brothers sold their patents to the company for $100,000 and also received one-third of the shares in a million dollar stock issue and a 10 percent royalty on every airplane sold.<ref>Crouch 2003, p. 410.</ref> With Wilbur as president and Orville as vice president, the company set up a factory in Dayton and a flying school/test flight field at [[Huffman Prairie]]; the headquarters office was in New York City.
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| In mid-1910, the Wrights changed the design of the Wright Flyer, moving the horizontal elevator from the front to the back and adding wheels although keeping the skids as part of the undercarriage unit. It had become apparent by then that a rear elevator would make the airplane easier to control, especially as higher speeds grew more common. This aircraft was designated the "Model B", although the original canard design was never referred to as the "Model A" by the Wrights. However, the US Signal Corps which bought the aircraft did call it "[[Wright Model A|Wright Type A]]".<ref>Cragg 1973, p. 272.</ref>{{#tag:ref| The author obtained information at the Fort Sam Houston Museum that also records the place of the flights as the Arthur MacArthur Field, then used for cavalry drill.|group=N}}
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| There were not many customers for aircraft, so in the spring of 1910 the Wrights hired and trained a [[Wright Exhibition Team|team]] of salaried exhibition pilots to show off their machines and win prize money for the company—despite Wilbur's disdain for what he called "the mountebank business". The team debuted at the [[Indianapolis Speedway]] on June 13. Before the year was over, pilots [[Ralph Johnstone]] and [[Arch Hoxsey]] died in air show crashes, and in November 1911 the brothers disbanded the team on which nine men had served (four other former team members died in crashes afterward).<ref>Crouch 2003, Chapter 31, "The Mountebank Game".</ref>
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| The Wright Company transported the first known commercial air cargo on November 7, 1910 by flying two bolts of dress silk {{convert|65|mi|km|0}} from Dayton to Columbus, Ohio for the Morehouse-Martens Department Store, which paid a $5,000 fee. Company pilot [[Philip Orin Parmelee|Phil Parmelee]] made the flight—which was more an exercise in advertising than a simple delivery—in an hour and six minutes with the cargo strapped in the passenger's seat. The silk was cut into small pieces and sold as souvenirs.
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| Between 1910 and 1916 the [[Wright Brothers Flying School]] at [[Huffman Prairie]] trained 115 pilots who were instructed by Orville and his assistants. Several trainees became famous, including [[Henry H. Arnold|Henry "Hap" Arnold]], who rose to Five-Star General, commanded U.S. Army Air Forces in World War II, and became first head of the U.S. Air Force; [[Calbraith Perry Rodgers]], who made the first coast-to-coast flight in 1911 (with many stops and crashes) in a Wright Model EX named the "[[Vin Fiz Flyer|Vin Fiz]]" after the sponsor's soft drink; and Eddie Stinson, founder of the [[Stinson Aircraft Company]].
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| ===Problem airplanes in the Army===
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| In 1912–1913 a series of fatal crashes of Wright aircraft bought by the U.S. Army called into question their safety and design. The death toll reached 11 by 1913, half of them in the Wright model C. All six model C Army airplanes crashed. They had a tendency to nose dive,<ref name="MIL">[http://www.history.army.mil/books/30-17/S_4.htm "The Signal Corps Takes to the Air."] ''history.army.mil.'' Retrieved: January 8, 2012.</ref> but Orville insisted that stalls were caused by pilot error.<ref>Crouch 2003, p. 459.</ref> He cooperated with the Army to equip the airplane with a rudimentary flight indicator to help the pilot avoid climbing too steeply. A government investigation said the Wright C was "dynamically unsuited for flying,"<ref name="MIL"/> and the military ended its use of airplanes with "[[Pusher configuration|pusher]]" type propellers, including models made by both the Wright and Curtiss companies, in which the engine was located behind the pilot and likely to crush him in a crash. Orville resisted the switch to manufacturing "[[Tractor configuration|tractor]]" type propeller airplanes, worried that a design change could threaten the Wright patent infringement case against Curtiss.<ref>Crouch 2003, p. 457.</ref>
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| ==Smithsonian feud==
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| [[Samuel P. Langley]], secretary of the [[Smithsonian Institution]] from 1887 until his death in 1906, experimented for years with model flying machines and successfully flew unmanned powered model aircraft in 1896 and 1903. Two tests of his manned full-size motor-driven Aerodrome in October and December 1903, however, were complete failures. Nevertheless, the Smithsonian later proudly displayed the Aerodrome in its museum as the first heavier-than-air craft "capable" of manned powered flight, relegating the Wright brothers' invention to secondary status and triggering a decades-long feud with Orville Wright, whose brother had received help from the Smithsonian when beginning his own quest for flight. (Ironically, the Wright brothers were the initial recipients of the [[Langley Gold Medal|Samuel P. Langley Medal for Aerodromics]] from the Smithsonian in 1910.)
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| [[Image:LangleyAerodromeFlown.jpg|thumb|[[Glenn Curtiss]] or an assistant coaxes the structurally modified [[Langley Aerodrome]] into the air above the surface of [[Keuka Lake]] near Hammondsport, New York, September 17, 1914.]]
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| The Smithsonian based its claim for the Aerodrome on short test flights [[Glenn Curtiss]] and his team made with it in 1914. The Smithsonian allowed Curtiss, in an unsavory alliance, to make major modifications to the craft before attempting to fly it.<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20100202023250/http://home.att.net/~dannysoar2/Langley.htm Twin Pushers] "The Langley Aerodrome". Retrieved: December 29, 2011.</ref>{{#tag:ref|The archived website contains details of the modifications. |group=N}}
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| The Smithsonian hoped to salvage Langley's aeronautical reputation by proving the Aerodrome could fly; Curtiss wanted to prove the same thing to defeat the Wrights' patent lawsuits against him. The tests had no effect on the patent battle, but the Smithsonian made the most of them, honoring the Aerodrome in its museum and publications. The Institution did not reveal the extensive Curtiss modifications, but Orville Wright learned of them from his brother Lorin and a close friend, Griffith Brewer, who both witnessed and photographed some of the tests.<ref>Howard 1988, Chapter 46: "The Aerodrome Affair".</ref>
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| Orville repeatedly objected to misrepresentation of the Aerodrome, but the Smithsonian was unyielding. Orville responded by loaning the restored 1903 Kitty Hawk Flyer to the [[London Science Museum]] in 1928, refusing to donate it to the Smithsonian while the Institution "perverted" the history of the flying machine.<ref>Crouch 2003, p. 491.</ref> Subsequently Orville would never see his invention again as he would die before its return to the United States. [[Charles Lindbergh]] attempted to mediate the dispute, to no avail. In 1942, after years of bad publicity, and encouraged by Wright biographer [[Fred C. Kelly]], the Smithsonian finally relented by publishing, for the first time, a list of the Aerodrome modifications and recanting misleading statements it had made about the 1914 tests.<ref>Honious, Ann. 2003, [http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/daav/appendix-c.htm "What Dreams We Have, Appendix C – Tests of the Langley Aerodrome."] ''nps.gov.'' Retrieved: September 21, 2010.</ref> Orville then privately requested the British museum to return the Flyer, but the airplane remained in protective storage for the duration of World War II and finally came home after Orville's death.
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| On November 23, 1948, the executors of Orville's estate signed an agreement for the Smithsonian to purchase the Flyer for one dollar. At the insistence of the executors, the agreement also included strict conditions for display of the airplane.[[File:Wright flyer - full.jpg|thumb|left|Original 1903 Wright Flyer in the [[National Air and Space Museum]] in Washington, D.C.]] The agreement reads, in part, "Neither the Smithsonian Institution or its successors, nor any museum or other agency, bureau or facilities administered for the United States of America by the Smithsonian Institution or its successors shall publish or permit to be displayed a statement or label in connection with or in respect of any aircraft model or design of earlier date than the 1903 Wright Aeroplane, claiming in effect that such aircraft was capable of carrying a man under its own power in controlled flight."<ref>[http://www.foxnews.com/science/interactive/2013/04/01/contract-between-wrights-smithsonian-decrees-flyer-was-first-plane/ "Contract between Wrights, Smithsonian decrees Flyer was first plane"], foxnew.com</ref><ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20020817151648/glennhcurtiss.com/d93f42b0.jpg "Image of the Agreement."] on [http://web.archive.org/web/20030228050514/http://glennhcurtiss.com/id50.htm archived page] of the ''glennhcurtiss.com'' website. Retrieved: May 20, 2008.</ref>{{#tag:ref|The Agreement is also available upon request from the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution.|group=N}} If this agreement is not fulfilled, the Flyer can be reclaimed by the heir of the Wright brothers. Some aviation buffs, particularly those who promote the legacy of [[Gustave Whitehead]], now accuse the Smithsonian of refusing to investigate claims of earlier flights.<ref>O'Dwyer, William J. ''History by Contract: The Beginning of Motorized Aviation, August 14, 1901: Gustave Whitehead, Fairfield, Conn.''. Leutershausen, Germany: Fritz Majer & Sohn, 1978. ISBN 3-922175-00-7.</ref> After a ceremony in the Smithsonian museum, the Flyer went on public display on December 17, 1948, the 45th anniversary of the only day it was flown successfully.
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| The Wright brothers' nephew Milton (Lorin's son), who had seen gliders and the Flyer under construction in the bicycle shop when he was a boy, gave a brief speech and formally transferred the airplane to the Smithsonian, which displayed it with the accompanying label:
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| {| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto; text-align:center; width:85%; height:95px;"
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| |The original Wright brothers aeroplane
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| The world's first power-driven heavier-than-air machine in which man made free, controlled, and sustained flight<br>
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| Invented and built by Wilbur and Orville Wright<br>
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| Flown by them at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina December 17, 1903<br>
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| By original scientific research the Wright brothers discovered the principles of human flight<br>
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| As inventors, builders, and flyers they further developed the aeroplane, taught man to fly, and opened the era of aviation
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| |}
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| ==Last years==
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| ===Wilbur===
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| Neither brother married. Wilbur once quipped that he "did not have time for both a wife and an airplane."<ref>Crouch 2003, p. 118.</ref> He became ill on a business trip to Boston in April 1912,<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Maurer | first1 = Richard | title = The Wright Sister: Katherine Wright and her Famous Brothers | publisher = Macmillan | year = 2003 | pages = 88–89 | url = http://books.google.com/books?id=eSCpF3fIHesC&pg | accessdate = 2013-01-03 | isbn = 978-0761315469}}</ref> the illness sometimes attributed to eating bad shellfish at a banquet. After returning to Dayton, he was diagnosed with typhoid fever. He lingered in and out of consciousness for several weeks until he died, at age 45, in the Wright family home on May 30.{{#tag:ref|Quote: "[[Dayton, Ohio|Dayton]], Ohio. Following a sinking spell that developed soon after midnight, Wilbur Wright, aviator and aeroplane builder, died of typhoid fever at 8:15 am to-day. Wright had been lingering for many days and though his condition from time to time gave some hopes to members of his family, the attending physicians, Drs. D.B. Conkihn and Levi Spitler, maintained throughout the latter part of his sickness that he could not recover."<ref>"Wilbur Wright Dies of Typhoid Fever. Ill More Than Three Weeks, the End Came at 3:15 o'clock Thursday Morning." ''[[The New York Times]]'', May 30, 1912. Retrieved: July 21, 2007.</ref> |group=N}} His father Milton wrote about Wilbur in his diary: "A short life, full of consequences. An unfailing intellect, imperturbable temper, great self-reliance and as great modesty, seeing the right clearly, pursuing it steadfastly, he lived and died."<ref>Crouch 2003, p. 449.</ref>
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| ===Orville===
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| [[File:Orville Wright-1928.jpg|right|thumb|200px|<center>Orville Wright, 1928</center>]]
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| Orville succeeded to the presidency of the Wright company upon Wilbur's death. Sharing Wilbur's distaste for business but not his brother's executive skills, Orville sold the company in 1915. He, Katharine and their father Milton moved to a mansion, [[Hawthorn Hill]], [[Oakwood, Montgomery County, Ohio|Oakwood, Ohio]], which the newly wealthy family built. Milton died in his sleep in 1917. Orville made his last flight as a pilot in 1918 in a 1911 Model B. He retired from business and became an elder statesman of aviation, serving on various official boards and committees, including the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics ([[NACA]]), predecessor agency to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ([[NASA]]) and Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce (ACCA), predecessor to the [[Aerospace Industries Association]] (AIA). Katharine married [[Henry Haskell]] of Kansas City, a former Oberlin classmate, in 1926, which greatly upset Orville. He refused to attend the wedding or even communicate with her. He finally agreed to see her, apparently at Lorin's insistence, just before she died of pneumonia in 1929.
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| Orville Wright served [[NACA]] for 28 years. In 1930, he received the first Daniel Guggenheim Medal established in 1928 by the Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics. In 1936, he was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
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| "Scipio" was Orville's famed St. Bernard.<ref>McPherson and Gardner 2004, [http://books.google.com/?id=Y8GRjXwXHuMC&pg=PA103&lpg=PA103&dq=Orville+Wright+scipio#v=onepage&q&f=false p. 103.]</ref><ref>[http://www.old-picture.com/wright-brothers/Orville-Wright-St-Bernard.htm "Scipio."] ''old-picture.com.'' Retrieved: January 8, 2012. <!----is this notable?----></ref>
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| On April 19, 1944, the second production [[Lockheed Corporation|Lockheed]] [[Lockheed Constellation|Constellation]], piloted by [[Howard Hughes]] and TWA president [[Jack Frye]], flew from [[Burbank, California]], to Washington, D.C. in 6 hours and 57 minutes (2300 mi – 330.9 mph). On the return trip, the aircraft stopped at [[Wright Field]] to give Orville Wright his last airplane flight, more than 40 years after his historic first flight. He may even have briefly handled the controls. He commented that the wingspan of the Constellation was longer than the distance of his first flight.<ref name=yenne>Yenne 1987, pp. 44–46.</ref> Perhaps the last major highlight of Orville's life was supervising the reclamation and preservation of the 1905 [[Wright Flyer III]], an aircraft that stands equally in importance with the 1903 Flyer.
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| Orville died on January 30, 1948, after his second heart attack, having lived from the horse-and-buggy age to the dawn of [[supersonic]] flight. He was followed a day later by [[John T. Daniels]], the Coast Guardsman who took their famous first flight photo. Both brothers are buried at the family plot at [[Woodland Cemetery, Dayton, Ohio]].<ref>"Orville Wright, 76, is Dead in Dayton; Co-Inventor With His Brother, Wilbur, of the Airplane Was Pilot in First Flight." ''[[The New York Times]]'', January 31, 1948. Retrieved: July 21, 2007.</ref>{{#tag:ref|Quote: "[[Dayton, Ohio|Dayton]], Ohio, October 30, 1948, Orville Wright, who with his brother, the late Wilbur Wright, invented the airplane, died here tonight at 10:40 in Miami Valley Hospital. He was 76 years old." |group=N}}
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| ==Competing claims==
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| {{Further2|[[Early flying machines]]}}
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| First flight claims are made for [[Clément Ader]], [[Gustave Whitehead]], [[Richard Pearse]], and [[Karl Jatho]] for their variously documented tests in years prior to and including 1903. Claims that the first true flight occurred after 1903 are made for [[Traian Vuia]] and [[Alberto Santos-Dumont]]. Supporters of the post-Wright pioneers argue that techniques used by the Wright brothers disqualify them as first to make successful airplane flights. Those techniques were: a launch rail; skids instead of wheels; a headwind at takeoff; and a catapult after 1903. Supporters of the Wright brothers argue that proven, repeated, controlled, and sustained flights by the brothers entitle them to credit as inventors of the airplane, regardless of those techniques.<ref>[http://www.wright-brothers.org/History_Wing/History_of_the_Airplane/Who_Was_First/Who_Was_First_Intro/Who_Was_First_Intro.htm "Who Was First?"] ''Wright Brothers Aeroplane Company.'' Retrieved: September 23, 2010</ref> Aviation historian [[Charles Harvard Gibbs-Smith]] is a supporter of the Wrights' claim to primacy in flight. He writes that a barn door can be made to "fly" for a short distance if enough energy is applied to it; he determines that the very limited flight experiments of Ader, Vuia and others were "powered hops" instead of fully controlled flights.<ref name="Gibbs-Smith"/>
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| == Ohio–North Carolina rivalry ==
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| <center>
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| <gallery caption="Wright coinage" widths="150px" heights="130px" perrow="4">
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| OH winner.gif|[[Ohio]] [[50 State Quarters|50 State Quarter]] features the 1905 [[Wright Flyer III]] built and flown in Ohio, in a famous photo from [[Huffman Prairie]]
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| 2001 NC Proof.png|[[North Carolina]] [[50 State Quarters|50 State Quarter]] features the famous first flight photo of the 1903 [[Wright Flyer]] I at [[Kitty Hawk, North Carolina|Kitty Hawk]], North Carolina
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| </gallery>
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| </center>
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| The U.S. states of [[Ohio]] and [[North Carolina]] both take credit for the Wright brothers and their world-changing inventions—Ohio because the brothers developed and built their design in Dayton, and North Carolina because Kitty Hawk was the site of the Wrights' first powered flight. With a spirit of friendly rivalry, Ohio adopted the slogan "Birthplace of Aviation" (later "Birthplace of Aviation Pioneers", recognizing not only the Wrights, but also astronauts [[John Glenn]] and [[Neil Armstrong]], both Ohio natives). The slogan appears on Ohio [[History of United States and Canadian license plates|license plates]]. North Carolina uses the slogan "First In Flight" on its license plates.
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| The site of the first flights in North Carolina is preserved as [[Wright Brothers National Memorial]], while their Ohio facilities are part of [[Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park]]. As the positions of both states can be factually defended, and each played a significant role in the history of flight, neither state truly has an exclusive claim to the Wrights' accomplishment.
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| Notwithstanding the competition between those two states, the Wrights' final bicycle shop and home, both from Dayton, Ohio, were in 1937 moved to and are now located at [[Greenfield Village]] in [[Dearborn, Michigan]].
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| ==Statuary Hall vote==
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| In early 2010, the Wright brothers were proposed by the [[Ohio Historical Society]] as finalists in a statewide vote for inclusion in [[Statuary Hall]] at the [[United States Capitol]].
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| ==See also==
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| [[File:US pilots certificate back.jpg|thumb|The back of the [[Pilot certification in the United States|US Airman Certificate]] with a picture of the Wright brothers.]]
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| {{Portal|Aviation}}
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| *''[[History by Contract]]''
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| *[[Wright Middle School (disambiguation)|Wright Middle School]]
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| *[[Katharine Wright]]
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| *[[Milton Wright (bishop)]]
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| *[[Wright Brothers flights of 1909]]
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| *[[Wright Brothers Medal]]
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| *[[Wright Cycle Company]]
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| *[[Wright Exhibition Team]]
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| *[[Wright Flyer]]
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| *[[Wright Flying School]]
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| *[[Wright Glider]]
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| *[[John Joseph Montgomery]]
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| *''[[The Winds of Kitty Hawk]]'' (1978)
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| ==References==
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| ;Notes
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| {{reflist|group=N}}
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| ;Citations
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| {{reflist|colwidth=30em}}
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| ;Bibliography
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| {{refbegin}}
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| * Anderson, John D. ''Inventing Flight: The Wright Brothers and Their Predecessors''. Baltimore, Maryland: [[Johns Hopkins University Press]], 2004. ISBN 0-8018-6875-0.
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| * [[Russell Ash|Ash, Russell]]. ''The Wright Brothers''. London: Wayland, 1974. ISBN 978-0-85340-342-5.
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| * Ciampaglia, Giuseppe. "Il soggiorno romano dei Fratelli Wright". ''La Strenna dei Romanisti'', 1992.
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| * Ciampaglia, Giuseppe. ''I Fratelli Wright e le loro macchine volanti''. Roma: IBN Editore, 1993.
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| * Combs, Harry with Martin Caidin. ''Kill Devil Hill: Discovering the Secret of the Wright Brothers''. Denver, Colorado: Ternstyle Press Ltd, 1979. ISBN 0-940053-01-2.
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| * Cragg, Dan, Sgt.Maj, USA (Ret.), ed. ''The Guide to Military Installations''. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books, 1983. ISBN 978-0-8117-2781-5.
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| * Crouch, Tom D. ''The Bishop's Boys: A Life of Wilbur and Orville Wright''. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2003. ISBN 0-393-30695-X.
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| * Howard, Fred, ''Wilbur And Orville: A Biography of the Wright Brothers''. New York: Ballantine Books, 1988. ISBN 0-345-35393-5.
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| * Howard, Fred, ''Wilbur And Orville: A Biography of the Wright Brothers''. Mineola: Dover Publications, Inc., 1998. ISBN 0-486-40297-5
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| * Jakab, Peter L. ''Visions of a Flying Machine: The Wright Brothers and the Process of Invention'' (Smithsonian History of Aviation and Spaceflight Series). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian, 1997. ISBN 1-56098-748-0.
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| * Kelly, Fred C., ed. ''Miracle At Kitty Hawk, The Letters of Wilbur & Orville Wright''. New York: Da Capo Press, 2002. ISBN 0-306-81203-7.
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| * Kelly, Fred C. ''The Wright Brothers: A Biography Authorized by Orville Wright''. Mineola, New York: [[Dover Publications]], originally published in 1943, 1989. ISBN 0-486-26056-9.
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| * [[Wolfgang Langewiesche|Langewiesche, Wolfgang]]. ''Stick and Rudder: An Explanation of the Art of Flying''. New York: McGraw-Hill, Copyright 1944 and 1972. ISBN 0-07-036240-8.
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| * McFarland, Marvin W., ed. ''The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright: Including the Chanute-Wright Letters and the Papers of Octave Chanute''. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2001, originally published in 1953. ISBN 0-306-80671-1.
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| * McPherson, Stephanie Sammartino and Joseph Sammartino Gardner. ''Wilbur & Orville Wright: Taking Flight.'' Minneapolis, Minnesota, Carolrhoda,Inc., 2004. ISBN 1-57505-443-4.
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| * Mortimer, Gavin. ''Chasing Icarus: The Seventeen Days in 1910 That Forever Changed American Aviation''. New York: Walker, 2009. ISBN 978-0-8027-1711-5.
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| * Tobin, James. ''To Conquer The Air: The Wright Brothers and the Great Race for Flight''. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004. ISBN 0-7432-5536-4.
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| * Walsh, John E. ''One Day at Kitty Hawk: The Untold Story of the Wright Brothers''. New York: Ty Crowell Co, 1975. ISBN 0-690-00103-7.
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| * Winchester, Jim, ed. "Wright Flyer." ''Biplanes, Triplanes and Seaplanes'' (The Aviation Factfile). Rochester, Kent, UK: Grange Books plc, 2004. ISBN 1-84013-641-3.
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| * Wright, Orville. ''How We Invented the Airplane''. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, 1988. ISBN 0-486-25662-6.
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| * Yenne, Bill, ''Lockheed.'' Greenwich, Connecticut: Bison Books, 1987. ISBN 0-690-00103-7.
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| {{refend}}
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| ===Biographical===
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| * [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=1131 Wilbur Wright at Findagrave]
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| * [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=1130 Orville Wright at Findagrave]
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| * [http://www.wright-brothers.org Wright Brothers Aeroplane Company virtual museum]
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| *[http://www.awesomestories.com/history/history-flight/the-first-flight pictures, letters and other sources from National Archives]
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| *[http://www.charlesgraafdelambert.nl/joomla/index.php/en/chapter-7-the-pioneer/countess-cordelia-mary US Air Services article March 1935 ''My Memories of Wilbur Wright'' by Marquise Cordelia de Lambert(wife of Count de Lambert)]
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| * [http://www.libraries.wright.edu/special/wright_brothers/ Wright Brothers Collection (MS-1) at Wright State University]
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| * [http://ead.ohiolink.edu/xtf-ead/view?docId=ead/ODa0001.xml Wright Brothers Collection (MS-001) at Dayton Metro Library]
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| ===Patents===
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| * {{US patent|821393}} – ''Flying machine'' – O. & W. Wright
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| * [http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT821393&id=h5NWAAAAEBAJ&dq=821,393 U.S. Patent 821,393 at Google Patents]
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| * [http://invention.psychology.msstate.edu/i/Wrights/WrightUSPatent/WrightPatent.html patent in HTML]
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| ===Museums===
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| * [http://www.nasm.si.edu/wrightbrothers/index_full.cfm The Wright Brothers – The Invention of the Aerial Age] Smithsonian Institution
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| * [http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/educators/lesson_plans/wright/index.html Smithsonian Stories of the Wright flights]
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| * [http://www.wwbirthplace.com Wilbur Wright Birthplace Museum]
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| * [http://www.fi.edu/wright/ Wright Aeronautical Engineering Collection The Franklin Institute]
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| * [http://www.sil.si.edu/smithsoniancontributions/AnnalsofFlight/pdf_hi/SAOF-0005.pdf ''The Wright Brothers' Engines and Their Design'' by [[Leonard S. Hobbs]], Smithsonian Institution Press, 1971]
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| * [http://www.aviationheritagearea.org/wrightDunbar.htm Wright-Dunbar Interpretive Center and the Wright Cycle Company]
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| ===Image collections===
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| * [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pp/wrihtml/wriabt.html Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog – Wright Brothers Negatives]
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| * [http://www.outerbanks.com/wrightbrothers/photographs Outer Banks of NC Wright Photographs: 1900–1911(Sourced from Library of Congress)]
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| * [http://invention.psychology.msstate.edu/moviesandphotos/index.html Video clips about the invention of the fixed-wing aircraft]
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| * [http://www.flyingmachines.org/ The Pioneer Aviation Group Many pictures of early flying machines and a comprehensive chronology of flight attempts]
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| *[http://www.corbisimages.com/search#p=1&s=50&sort=0&q=wilbur%20wright Wilbur Wright photo gallery at Corbis (page one)]
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| *[http://www.corbisimages.com/search#p=1&s=50&sort=0&q=orville%20wright Orville Wright photo gallery at Corbis (page one)]
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| *[http://core.libraries.wright.edu/handle/2374.WSU/827 Wright Brothers Collection digital images at Wright State University]
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| * [http://www.immediart.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=46_52&products_id=178 New Scientist Magazine, Scientific Firsts: Print of Wright Flyer in France 1907]
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| *[http://farm1.static.flickr.com/213/494113359_3adffb087d.jpg Wilbur's world famous model A Flyer "France" sits in a hall of honor on display in a Paris museum after Wilbur donated it to the French. Its whereabouts afterwards are unknown. Sharing space with the Wright A is a Bleriot VI or VII, an Antoinette and a Voisin]
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| * [http://content.daytonmetrolibrary.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/wbnews Wright Brothers' Newspapers] at [[Dayton Metro Library]]
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| == External links ==
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| {{Commons category|Wright brothers}}
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| {{wikiquote|Wilbur Wright}}
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| {{wikiquote|Orville Wright}}
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| {{wikisource|Author:Orville Wright|Orville Wright}}
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| *{{gutenberg author|Wright,_Orville|name=Orville and Wilbur Wright}}
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| *{{librivox author|Orville+Wright|title=''The Early History of the Airplane'' by the Wright Brothers}}
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| *[http://www.shapell.org/manuscript.aspx?169819 Original Letters From The Wright Brothers: The First Flight] Shapell Manuscript Foundation
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| * [http://invention.psychology.msstate.edu To Fly Is Everything Articles, photos, historical texts]
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| * [http://www.wrightexperience.com The Wright Experience Articles and photos about construction of replica gliders and airplanes]
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| * [http://invention.psychology.msstate.edu/inventors/i/Wrights/library/Aeronautical.html Some Aeronautical Experiments by Wilbur Wright, to Western Society of Engineers September 18, 1901]
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| *[http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/daav/contents.htm What Dreams We Have E-book by National Park Service historian]
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| * [http://firstflight.open.ac.uk FirstFlight: flight simulation, videos and experiments]
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| * [http://www.wrightstories.com/archives.html Wrightstories]
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| * [http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&articleID=000E2A9A-2E05-1FA8-AE0583414B7F0000 Scientific American Magazine (December 2003 Issue) The Equivocal Success of the Wright Brothers]
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| * [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/wright/ PBS Nova: The Wright Brothers' Flying Machines]
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| * [http://www.asme.org/Communities/History/Landmarks/Wright_Flyer_III_1905.cfm "Wright Flyer III (1905)" at ASME.org]
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| * [http://www.fai.org/news_archives/fai/000295.asp FAI NEWS: "100 Years Ago, the Dream of Icarus Became Reality"]
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| *[http://core.libraries.wright.edu/handle/2374.WSU/1223 photo of Adam Etheridge and John T. Daniels(April 16, 1938; Wilbur's 71st birthday), both who were present at Kitty Hawk on December 17, 1903]
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| *[http://www.corbisimages.com/stock-photo/rights-managed/VV12871/wright-plane-taking-off?popup=1 steep takeoff by Orville at 1909 Fort Myer trials; Charlie Taylor watching]
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| *[http://core.libraries.wright.edu/bitstream/handle/2374.WSU/2417/17-9-8.jpg?sequence=2 Wilbur and Charlie Taylor watch Orville in flight during the 1909 Fort Myer trials]
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| * Wilbur, Orville and Katharine returning from European tour 1909 on [[RMS Adriatic]], [http://corbisimages.com/stock-photo/rights-managed/UB5973RINP/orville-wilbur-katharine-wright?popup=1 photo #1]..[http://www.corbisimages.com/stock-photo/rights-managed/SF8885/orville-wilbur-and-katharine-wright?popup=1 photo #2]
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| * {{Internet Archive short film|id=gov.dod.dimoc.39349|name=I Saw Kitty Hawk (1975)}}
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| *[http://www.old-picture.com/wright-brothers/Wilbur-Wright.htm rare photo of Wilbur]
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| {{good article}}
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| {{Authority control|VIAF=24611728|LCCN=n/79/077414}}
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| {{Authority control|VIAF=22263374|LCCN=n/79/077415}}
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| {{Wright aircraft}}
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| {{Aviation lists}}
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| {{DEFAULTSORT:Wright brothers}}
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| [[Category:1867 births]]
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| [[Category:1871 births]]
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| [[Category:1912 deaths]]
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| [[Category:Aerodynamicists]]
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| [[Category:American aerospace engineers]]
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| [[Category:Congressional Gold Medal recipients]]
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| [[Category:Elliott Cresson Medal recipients]]
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| [[Category:Flight altitude record holders]]
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| [[Category:Flight instructors|Wright, Orville]]
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| [[Category:Glider pilots]]
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| [[Category:People from Dayton, Ohio]]
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| [[Category:People from Richmond, Indiana]]
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| [[Category:Recipients of the Langley Medal]]
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| [[Category:Smithsonian Institution Archives related]]
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