The Aviation Life Of The Wright Brothers

The Wright Brothers’ biography starts with Wilbur Wright being born on April 16, 1867, in Millville, Indiana.  His younger brother, Orville, was born on August 19, 1871, in Dayton, Ohio. 

Both of them showed a love for aviation from their childhood until the day each brother passed away.  Even though they had different personalities, they were able to mesh with each other to get things done. 

During the life of the Wright Brothers, older brother Wilbur had planned to attend Yale University and major in theology.  Their father Milton Wright was already a bishop in the United Brethren of Christ denomination. 

However, one day, while Wilbur was playing hockey with some friends, he encountered an injury to his face.  He became depressed and decided not to attend Yale after all. 

Within their life, the Wright Brothers helped their father with his religious periodicals.  In 1892, while living in Dayton, Ohio, the brothers decided to open up a bicycle shop.  Wright Cycle Shop was in business and the Wright Brothers designed several bicycles.  Designing and building bicycles would help them later in life when they entered the aviation industry. 

As they became more interested in aviation, they studied information from someone that came before them.  Otto Lilienthal was an aeronautical engineer who was known to have flown many times in an aircraft.  In 1896, the life of the Wright Brothers took another turn.  They decided to design gliders.  They used the gliders as flying instruments in experiments.

The brothers continued gathering information about aviation and flying.  They designed and built their own gliders and engines to go with them.  The more they tested, the more they realized they needed to tweak their results. 

At one point, the Wright brothers thought that they needed to put more effort and work into their aircraft.  The earlier models that they designed were not made for body shifting for the pilots.  This was needed in order for the pilots to get a handle of the airplane.  Finally, the brothers decided that the airplane would be better served if the wings moved.

Later in the biography of the Wright Brothers, they finally were able to get the model airplane that they wanted.  They started testing with many gliders and kites to see how they would operate.  These experiments continued for many years until the fall of 1903.  On December 17 of that year, the brothers were able to fly the first aircraft that had power.  This aircraft was also made for someone to fly in it. 

On this same date, the Wright Brothers were able to pilot four flights from Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.  The initial flight only lasted 12 seconds and the last flight lasted just about a minute. 

After the last flight for that day, the plane was to be taken back to the hanger.  On the way back, there was inclement weather that includes high gusts of wind.  The force of the wind caused severe damage to the aircraft and it was never flown again. 

Even with that, they continued their quest for flying.  In 1909, they created a company using the family name.  About three years after that, Wilbur Wright passed away from an illness on May 30, 1912.  Since Orville wasn’t interested in running the business by himself, he sold it in 1915. 

He still would experiment with things related to the aviation industry.  Orville’s accomplishments were noticed by President Woodrow Wilson that he appointed Orville to one of the NASA committees.  He served on this committee until he passed away from a heart attack on January, 30, 1948.   

The life of the Wright Brothers was definitely not in vain.  They impacted enough people to make a lasting impression in the aviation industry.