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Notable people · Aviation · Inventor

Orville Wright

Piloted the first controlled, powered, sustained airplane flight on December 17, 1903, and with his brother Wilbur developed the first practical airplane at Dayton.

Born August 19, 1871, Dayton
Died January 30, 1948, Dayton

Orville Wright
Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

At a glance

Born
August 19, 1871, Dayton (Montgomery County) source
Died
January 30, 1948, Dayton (Montgomery County) source
Buried
Woodland Cemetery, Dayton (Montgomery County) source
Also known as
the Wright brothers
Known as
Aviation, Inventor
Organizations
Wright Company

Life story

Orville Wright was born in Dayton in 1871, the younger of the two flying brothers. Like Wilbur he left high school without a diploma.

He began a printing business in 1889 that led to the family newspaper, and he worked with Wilbur in the bicycle shop and on gliders from 1899.

Orville piloted the first powered flight on 17 December 1903. Through 1904-1905 he and Wilbur improved the Flyer at Huffman Prairie.

After Wilbur's death in 1912 he lived on in Dayton and had a long public fight with the Smithsonian over credit for invention. He died in 1948.

Ohio ties

  • Dayton (West Side, 7 Hawthorn Street) (1871-1914 (with childhood years in Iowa and Indiana))
    birthplace city; family home until the move to Hawthorn Hill Montgomery County · source
  • Dayton (Central High School) (to 1889)
    student; classmate of Paul Laurence Dunbar; left without a diploma Montgomery County · source
  • Dayton (print shop and bicycle shops, West Third and South Williams streets) (1889-1908)
    printer and bicycle maker with Wilbur Montgomery County · source
  • Huffman Prairie (1904-1905; 1910-1916)
    test flying; instructor at the Wright Company flying school Greene County · source
  • Oakwood (Hawthorn Hill, 901 Harman Avenue) (1914-1948)
    home with sister Katharine and father Milton Montgomery County · source
  • Dayton (laboratory on North Broadway) (after 1915-1948)
    private laboratory near the old cycle shop and family home Montgomery County · source
  • Moraine (Dayton-Wright Company) (1917-1919)
    lent his name and served as consultant to the wartime aircraft firm founded by Kettering and Deeds Montgomery County · source

Timeline

  1. 1871 Born August 19 in Dayton, Ohio. source
  2. 1889 Left Central High School after his junior year to start a printing business, using a press he designed and built with Wilbur's help. source
  3. 1889 From May 1889 to August 1890 the brothers edited and published the West Side News and the Evening Item. source
  4. 1892 In December the brothers opened a bicycle repair and sales shop in Dayton, later the Wright Cycle Company. source
  5. 1896 Contracted typhoid fever in August, the same month Otto Lilienthal died in a glider accident. source
  6. 1903 On December 17 made the first controlled, powered, sustained airplane flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. source
  7. 1905 The Dayton Daily News reported the October 5 Huffman Prairie flight on page 9; publisher James M. Cox later admitted, 'Frankly, none of us believed it.' source
  8. 1908 Crashed during U.S. Army trials at Fort Myer, Virginia, killing passenger Lt. Thomas Selfridge and breaking his own thigh and pelvis. source
  9. 1910 The Wright Company moved testing to Huffman Prairie and opened its flying school, which trained 115 pilots by 1916 with Orville as an instructor. source
  10. 1912 Became president of the Wright Company after Wilbur's death. source
  11. 1914 Moved with Katharine and Milton into Hawthorn Hill in Oakwood. source
  12. 1915 Sold his interests in the Wright Company and stayed on a year as consulting engineer. source
  13. 1917 Lent his name to and consulted for the Dayton-Wright Company, founded by Charles F. Kettering and Edward A. Deeds. source
  14. 1927 On June 22 Charles Lindbergh visited him at Hawthorn Hill and the two made a brief balcony appearance for a crowd outside. source
  15. 1928 Lent the 1903 Flyer to the Science Museum in London rather than the Smithsonian, which he believed misrepresented aviation history. source
  16. 1936 Henry Ford acquired the Wright home and cycle shop and moved them to Greenfield Village, Michigan; Orville consulted on accuracy. source
  17. 1948 Died of a heart attack in Dayton on January 30; the 1903 Flyer returned to the Smithsonian and went on display December 17, 1948. source

What Orville is known for

  • Piloted first powered flight 17 Dec 1903
  • Co-held the Wright brothers' US flying machine patent (US 821,393, granted 1906)
  • Founded Dayton-Wright Airplane Co. with Deeds and others
  • Wright Flyer (1903)
  • Three-axis control system
  • Wright Cycle Company

Stories

A 'machine for living' in Oakwood

Hawthorn Hill was designed by both brothers with the Dayton firm Schenck and Williams, but Wilbur died in 1912 just after the final plans were approved, so Orville oversaw construction. He moved in with his sister Katharine and father Milton in 1914 and called the house his 'machine for living.' He rigged a chain-and-rod system to control the furnace from upstairs, an early water softener for a large shower, a toaster that sliced and browned bread, and a buzzer between dining room and kitchen. Guests included Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Carl Sandburg and Franklin D. Roosevelt. After Orville died in 1948, NCR's Edward Deeds bought the estate and used it as a guesthouse.

Source

Dayton's newspapers did not believe it

Hometown recognition came slowly. The Dayton Journal refused to publish the story of the December 1903 flights because they seemed too short to be important. When the brothers flew over Huffman Prairie on October 5, 1905, the Dayton Daily News ran it on page 9. Its publisher, future Ohio governor James M. Cox, later admitted, 'Frankly, none of us believed it.' The only published eyewitness accounts of the 1904 flights came from Ohio beekeeper Amos Root, in his beekeeping magazine.

Source

The laboratory Dayton tore down

After selling the Wright Company in 1915, Orville built a private laboratory on Broadway in west Dayton, close to the last cycle-shop site and the old family home on Hawthorn Street. He worked there for the rest of his life. Long after his death the building was torn down for a gas station that was never built. Cartoonist Mike Peters mocked the empty lot, and Dayton Daily News columnist Martin Gottlieb called Dayton 'The City That Never Much Cared.'

Source

Inventions and firsts

All Ohio inventions and firsts

Honors and things named for them

  • Wright Brothers National Memorial

Named for Orville Wright

  • Wright Field (dedicated 1927), now part of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (near Dayton, Greene County) source

Family

Sites to know

Homes, graves, markers, museums and monuments; the numbered ones are on the map.

12345

Places in Ohio to see

Ohio places

Where Orville Wright was born, lived, worked and is remembered, with the ZIP code, town and county pages for each.

Myths and corrections

Things often said about Orville Wright, and what the record shows.

Often said The house where the Wrights lived on Hawthorn Street can be toured in Dayton.

The record Henry Ford moved the house and the last bicycle shop to Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan, in 1936-1937. The Dayton lot now has wayside signs, an outline of the house and a partial replica porch. source

Often said Orville gave the 1903 Flyer to the Smithsonian.

The record He sent it to London's Science Museum in 1928 because of his dispute with the Smithsonian; it came to the Smithsonian only after his death, under a November 23, 1948 agreement. source

  • The Smithsonian feud over the Flyer's display location and credit lasted decades after the brothers died.

Pictures

Free to use with the credit shown. Select a picture for the original and its license.

  • Orville Wright
    Public domain
  • Newspaper article describing the Wright Brothers' first powered, heavier-than air flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina,
    Newspaper article describing the Wright Brothers' first powered, heavier-than air flight at Kitty Hawk, North ...
    Public domain
  • Article published in The New York Times (magazine section, January 7, 1906) describing the first few years of the Wright
    Article published in The New York Times (magazine section, January 7, 1906) describing the first few years of ...
    Public domain
  • American Military Aircraft Pre-1914 Wright Military Flyer 1909. Left to right: Lt. Benjamin D. Faulis; Wilbur Wright, Lt
    American Military Aircraft Pre-1914 Wright Military Flyer 1909. Left to right: Lt. Benjamin D. Faulis; Wilbur ...
    Public domain
  • Frank Lahm and Orville Wright qualifying in the US Army's first aircraft, Fort Myer, Virginia July 27, 1909 from [1]
    Frank Lahm and Orville Wright qualifying in the US Army's first aircraft, Fort Myer, Virginia July 27, 1909 fr...
    Public domain
  • Orville Wright and NACA officials tour the new Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory on May 20, 1943.
    Orville Wright and NACA officials tour the new Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory on May 20, 1943.
    Public domain
  • A group of VIPs, including Orville Wright, center. Left to right bottom row ?, Walter Reiser, Elton Miller, Orville Wrig
    A group of VIPs, including Orville Wright, center. Left to right bottom row ?, Walter Reiser, Elton Miller, Or...
    Public domain
  • Along with brother, Wilbur Wright, credited with the invention of the first successful airplane and making the first con
    Along with brother, Wilbur Wright, credited with the invention of the first successful airplane and making the...
    No known restrictions
  • Boys' Life Cover (September 1914)
    Boys' Life Cover (September 1914)
    Public domain
  • Title: Brains of Aeronautic World represented on National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. The National Advisory Comm
    Title: Brains of Aeronautic World represented on National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. The National Adv...
    Public domain
  • Title: Col. Lindbergh receives Harmon trophy. The highlight of today's session of the International Civil Aeronautics Co
    Title: Col. Lindbergh receives Harmon trophy. The highlight of today's session of the International Civil Aero...
    Public domain
  • Title: Col. Lindbergh receives Harmon trophy. The highlight of today's session of the International Civil Aeronautics Co
    Title: Col. Lindbergh receives Harmon trophy. The highlight of today's session of the International Civil Aero...
    Public domain

Further reading

Sources

Confidence. Medium: the main facts were confirmed, but some details (often an address or ZIP code) were not.

Every link goes to the original source. Profile researched 2026-10-14.

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