The Wright Brothers

EDE 417-01

Miranda Walker&

Heather Woessner

Wilbur Wright

• Born in Millville, Indiana, on April 16, 1867

• Died from typhoid fever at the age of 45

Wilbur- 13 years old

Facts about Wilbur

• Presented an independent personality

• Never graduated from high school• Loved to read and write!

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

-Wilbur Wright

Orville Wright• Born in Dayton

on August 19, 1871

• Died at the age of 76 from a heart attack

Orville- 9 years old

Facts about Orville

• Developed an interest in technology and science early in life

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

• In 1884 the Wright Family moved to Dayton

• 7 Hawthorne Street Dayton, Ohio

The West Side Newspaper

• In 1889 the Wright Brothers started the West Side News

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

The Wright Cycle Company

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

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

The Van Cleve sold for $65

The St. Claire sold for $42.50

The Beginning• The Wright Brothers developed

their plans for a flying machine from bicycle concepts

Kitty Hawk

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

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

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

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

Huffman Prairie

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

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

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

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

difficult to control • On October 20, 1904 the Wright Brothers

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

covered 4,080 feet

Wright Flyer 3• The Wright Flyer 3 was much easier to

control• The Wright Brothers began to stay in

the air for longer and longer periods of time

The Ending

• In 1905, the Wright Brothers’ experimental period ended

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

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

Read about the Wright Brothers!

Websites• http://www.aero-web.org/history/wright/first.htm • http://www.time.com/time/time100/scientist/profile/

wright.html • http://www.nasm.si.edu/wrightbrothers/index_full.cfm

• http://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Wright_Brothers

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers

• http://www.localhangar.com/cgi-bin/clubs/pictures_pages.pl?CLUBNO=6&CATID=33

THE END