Biography

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[b]AS A CHILD[/b][br /]
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Wilbur Wright, the eldest of the ‘Wright Brothers’ was born on April 6, 1867 on a small farm near Millville, Indiana. In 1871, four years later, Orville was born in Dayton, Ohio. His father’s name was Bishop Milton Wright. He was a minister and later became a bishop of the Church, in United Brethren. He was a distinguished bishop. Bishop Milton and his wife Susan Catherine had four sons – Reuchlin, Lorin, Wilbur and Orville, and one daughter Katherine.[br /]
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Bishop Wright moved frequently from job to job, and hence had to shift his residences. The house on 7, Hawthorn Street remained the longest in the family’s possession. The Wright family had moved to the city, so that Milton Wright could edit the Church papers.[br /]
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The Wright household was a stimulating place for the children. They grew up in an environment where there was always much encouragement to children to pursue intellectual interests, to investigate whatever aroused curiosity. The house of Wright family had two libraries. One was Bishop’s study library, where books on theology were kept, and the downstairs library had a large and diverse collection. Wilbur and Orville’s father was a firm disciplinarian. Both the parents were loving-natured and the family was a close one.[br /]
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[b]First Interest in Flying[/b][br /]
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Wilbur was the third son of the Wright family and Orville was the fourth one. When the boys were 11 and seven, their father brought a toy ‘Helicopter’ for them, which sparked their interest in flying. Though their ‘helicopter’ was fragile and did not survive due to their rough play, it ignited an interest in them for the hidden world of aviation, and ultimately put the man flying in the sky.[br /]
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Over the next several years, the boys tried to build these themselves. They called them "bats". But the larger they got, the lesser they could fly. The innocent boys didn’t know that a machine with only twice the linear dimensions required eight times as much power. Both brothers were discouraged for the time being and diverted their attention to kite-flying.[br /]
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The Wright family moved from Richmond, Indiana back to Dayton in June 1884. Wilbur was to have graduated from high school. But he left Richmond without receiving his diploma. He was an excellent student. After returning to Dayton, he rejoined Central High School the next year for further studies in Greek and trigonometry.[br /]
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At the age of 19, Wilbur Wright was hit in the face with a bat while playing an ice-skating game. The injury at first didn’t seem serious. A few weeks later, he began to be affected with nervous palpitations of the heart, which precluded the realization of the former idea of his parents of giving him a course in Yale College. For the next four years, Wilbur remained homebound. He suffered as much from depression as from his vaguely-defined heart disorder. He spent those years at home, caring for his mother suffering from tuberculosis.[br /]
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[b]The First Step in the Career[/b][br /]
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Wilbur and Orville’s mother Susan died. At that time they were just 22 and 18 respectively. Shocked by this event, Orville decided to quit school. He was an average student. He started a printing business with his elder brother. They published a four page weekly: ‘West Side News’. It was for the first time they introduced themselves as ‘The Wright Brothers’.[br /]
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The business did not do well, so they diverted to retailing, repairing and manufacturing bike for next four years.[br /]
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Later on, the brothers went deep into the business of bicycles. And so Orville invented a self-oiling wheel hub.[br /]
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[b]Back to ‘Flying’[/b][br /]
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In 1896, Orville suffered from typhoid. While taking care of him, Wilbur read about the death of Otto Lilienthal, a famous German glider pilot. He had made over 2,000 sustained and replicable glides. That was a turning point for the brothers, who got seriously interested in flight again. They read all the articles on aeronautics that they could get.[br /]
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To get more details, Wilbur wrote to Smithsonian Institution, requesting to provide them published papers on flight. In the letter, he wrote: "My observations… have only convinced me more firmly that human flight is possible and practicable. It is only a question of knowledge and skill, just as in all aerobatic feats.[br /]
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He requested for papers, saying that he was about to begin a systematic study of the subject in preparation for practical work.[br /]
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Wilbur asked Octave Chanute, a civil engineer, who wrote about early aviation experiments, for his help in gathering still more information. At that time he had been afflicted with the belief that flight was impossible to man. He wrote: "My disease has increased in severity and I feel it will soon cost me an increased amount of money, if not my life." In the letter Wilbur outlined his solution for the need to control a flying machine. He described a technique called ‘wing warping’ – which required twisting the surface of each wing to change its position in relation to the oncoming wind.[br /]
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Chanute and Wrights kept up a regular correspondence during the brothers’ process of building a manned flying machine. Together with his brother Orville, a mechanical wizard, they became self-taught engineers.[br /]
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[b]HISTORY MAKERS[/b][br /]
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In the year 1900, the Wright Brothers began their first field experiment. They designed the glider to be flown as a kite with a man on board. But it did not have enough lift. So, they flew it as an unmanned kite operating the levers through cords from the ground. In the summer 1901, the Wright Brothers built a bigger version of their previous glider. But again its lift fell short of calculations. They built a wind tunnel to measure the lift data themselves. They built it in the winter of 1901. In the process, they discovered that the commonly accepted coefficient of lift was too high. They also identified a longer and narrower wing shape, that was for more efficient for flight.
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[b]Success At Last[/b][br /]
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The year 1902 was the golden year for the Wrights. In the fall, they successfully tested a new glider based on their own measurements. They made almost 1,000 gliding flights – some covering distances even more than 600 feet. In the next year, Wright Brothers made another breakthrough. Ship-building literature did not prove enough to provide the theory of propulsion for the propeller, which they needed on their aeroplane. They built the first efficient air propellers. They also built a four-cylinder engine that got the best power-to-weight ratio than anything around.[br /]
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[b]Made Aviation History[/b][br /]
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The Wrights had not even flown the Flyer yet, but they applied for a patent of their work.[br /]
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On December 17, 1903, at 10:35 a.m., the Wright Brothers made an aviation history. With a few jerky up-and-down movements, Orville flew the Flyer for 12 seconds. He covered just 120 feet. They made a total of four flights that day before a gust of wind damaged the Flyer. In 1905, the Wrights made the world’s first ‘practical’ aeroplane. It could stay airborne for more than half an hour. The next year, on May 22, they succeed in receiving their patent for the ‘Wright flying Machine’. Wilbur made record-breaking flights with their new improved machines near Le Mans, France. In five months of flight demonstrations, he made over 100 flights, that was airborne for total 25 hours. He ended with a record flight of 2 hours and 20 minutes at a stretch.[br /]
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After winning a contract to produce Wright aeroplanes in Europe, Orville got the chance to shine in Fort Myer, Virginia, demonstrating the worthiness of the Wright Flying Machines for the U.S. Army. The Wright Brothers astonished the world with their exhibition flights in France, Italy, Germany and the United States. Wright Brother’s planes became the world’s first military aeroplanes to be used by U.S. army.[br /]
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[b]IN THE LAST YEARS[/b][br /]
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[b]Pair Was Broken[/b][br /]
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Wilbur Wright, the eldest in Wright Brothers, died of typhoid. He died on May 30, 1912, at the age of 45 years, one month and 45 days. His short life was full of consequences. He was an intelligent, imperturbable tempered, self-reliable and modest person. A national monument was dedicated to the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk. It was the only national monument in the United States that was erected while its namesake was living.[br /]
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Orville outlived his brother, Wilbur, by 36 years. He continued doing what he loved best – experimenting with mechanical designs to improve daily life and work. He developed an automatic pilot system, designed and patented toys. Most of his time spent creating labor-saving gadgets – a remote furnace control system, a reading stand for his favorite armchair, and a bread slicer and toaster to turn his toast to a golden brown.[br /]
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[b]Smithsonian Controvers[/b][br /]
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After Wilbur’s death, Orville was left alone to fight whether Wright Brothers really did develop the first human carrying aeroplane. This controversy had emerged in 1914, when the Smithsonian Institute claimed that its former secretary Samuel Langley’s aerodrome was capable of flight before the Wright Brothers flew their flying machine. [br /]
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Samuel Langley’s so-called ‘Great Aerodrome’ broke apart upon takeoff, throwing its pilot into the Potomac River. This happened just nine days before the Wright Brothers’ Flight. Insulted by Smithsonian’s refusal to retract their false claim, Orville announced to send the Flyer to the Science Museum in London. After 28 years the Smithsonian retracted its false claim in 1942.[br /]
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[b]Orville – On The Way to Wilbur[br /]
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Orville Wright, the youngest in Wright Brothers, died of a heart-attack on January 30, 1948. He died while fixing a doorbell at his place. He was 77 years old. Like his elder brother, Wilbur Wright, he died a bachelor.[br /]
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The Wright Brother’s accomplishments were great. Not only did they give us flight, but they brought the U.S.A. into a new era of technology and transportation. To celebrate the 45th anniversary of the world’s first flight, the Smithsonian institute unveiled the Flyer with an inscription commemorating the Wright Brothers.[/b][br /]
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• We were lucky enough to grow up in an environment where there was always much encouragement to children to pursue intellectual interests; to investigate whatever aroused curiosity.[br /]
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• We had taken up aeronautics merely as a sport. We reluctantly entered upon the scientific side of it. But we soon found the work so fascinating that we were drawn into it deeper and deeper.[br /]
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• For some years I have been afflicted with the belief that flight is possible to man. My disease has increased in severity and I feel that it will soon cost me an increased amount of money, if not my life.[br /]
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• I am about to begin a systematic study of the subject in preparation for practical work to which I expect to devote what time I can spare from my regular business… I am an enthusiast, but not a crank in the sense that I have some pet theories as to the proper construction of a flying machine.[br /]
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• After two years of experiment, we cast it all aside, and decided to rely entirely upon our own investigations.[br /]
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• Machine to a foreign museum is the only way of correcting the history of the flying machine which by false and misleading statements has been perverted by the Smithson; an Institution. In its campaign to discredit others in the flying art, the Smithsonian has issued scores of these false and misleading statements. In a foreign museum this machine will be a constant reminder of the reasons for its being there, and after the people and petty jealousies of the day are gone, the historians of the future may examine the evidence impartially and make history accord with it. Your regret that this old machine must leave the country can hardly be so great as my own.[br /]
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• The first flight lasted only twelve seconds, a flight very modest compared with that of birds, but it was, nevertheless, the first in the history of the world in which a machine carrying a man had raised itself by its own power into the air in free flight, had sailed forward on a level course without reduction of speed, and had finally landed without being wrecked.[br /]
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• High efficiency in a screw-propeller is not dependent upon any particular or peculiar shape, and there is no such thing as the "best" screw…The propeller should in every case be designed to meet the particular conditions of the machine to which it is applied.[br /]
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• When we left Kitty Hawk at the end of 1901, we doubted that we would ever resume our experiments. Although we had broken the record for distance in gliding, and although Mr. Chanute, who was present at that time, assured us that our results were better than had ever before been attained, yet when we looked at the time and money, which we had expended, and considered the progress made and the distance yet to go, we considered our experiments a failure. At this time I made the prediction that men would sometime fly, but that it would not be within our lifetime.[br /]
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• Not within a thousand years would man ever fly !.[br /]
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• If a man is in too big a hurry to give up an error, he is liable to give up some truth with it.[br /]
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• The exact action of the screw-propeller, after a century of use, was still very obscure.[br /]
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The Wright Brothers made the world’s first manned and powered flight covering just 120 feet, on December 17, 1903. This was their great achievement.[br /]
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In 1892, after quitting school, Wright Brothers decided to manufacture their own bicycles. In the course of their business, Orville Wright invented a self-oiling wheel hub.[br /]
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Wright Brothers made another breakthrough in 1903. They built the first efficient air propeller. They made a four cylinder engine, that got the best power-to-weight ratio than anything around.[br /]
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Wright Brothers made the world’s first ‘practical’ aeroplane. It could stay airborne for more than half an hour. It was made in 1905.[br /]
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They got chance to shine in 1909. They exhibited flights in France, Italy, Germany and the United States.[br /]
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In 1825, Smithsonian Institute claimed that its secretary Samuel Langley had successfully tested the flight before the Wright Brothers. Insulted by such claim, Orville Wright announced to send the Flyer to the Science Museum, London. After 28 years, Smithsonian Institute retracted its false claim. That was a big victory for the Wright Brothers. The Flyer was finally brought back to the U.S.[br /]
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Smithsonian took over a quarter of a century to recognize the Wright Brother’s contribution to aviation. On the 45th anniversary of the world’s first flight, Smithsonian unveiled the Flyer with an inscription commemorating the Wright Brothers. It was unveiled on December 17, 1948, with the following inscription : "The original Wright Brothers aeroplane, the world’s first power driven, heavier than air machine in which man made free, controlled and sustained flight invented and built by Wilbur and Orville Wright flown by them at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, December 17, 1903."[br /]
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Other institutions like the Franklin Institute honored the Wright Brothers with the "Cresson Medal" for scientific achievement in 1914.[br /]
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On March 3, 1932 a national monument was dedicated to the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk in the United States.[br /]
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