Wilbur Wright

Notable people · Aviation · Inventor

Wilbur Wright

With his brother Orville, built and flew the first controlled, powered, sustained airplane flight (1903) and developed the first practical airplane at Huffman Prairie near Dayton.

Born April 16, 1867, near Millville, IN
Died May 30, 1912, Dayton (family home, 7 Hawthorn Street)

Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

At a glance

Born: April 16, 1867, near Millville, IN source
Died: May 30, 1912, Dayton (family home, 7 Hawthorn Street) (Montgomery County) source
Buried: Woodland Cemetery, Dayton (Montgomery County) source
Also known as: Will Wright, the Wright brothers
Known as: Aviation, Inventor
Organizations: Wright Cycle Company, Wright Company

Life story

Wilbur Wright was born in 1867 in Millville, Indiana, and moved with his family many times for his father, a church bishop. He attended high school but did not receive a diploma; one was awarded after his death, in 1994.

With his brother Orville he started a print shop in 1889 and opened a Dayton bicycle shop in 1892. Otto Lilienthal's death in 1896 pushed them to take flight seriously, and in 1899 Wilbur wrote to the Smithsonian for information.

They tested gliders and a wind tunnel, and made the first powered flights at Kill Devil Hills on 17 December 1903. In 1904-1905 they refined the aircraft at Huffman Prairie near Dayton.

They were doubted in Europe until demonstrations in France in 1908. Wilbur died of typhoid in Dayton on 30 May 1912.

Ohio ties

Dayton (West Side, 7 Hawthorn Street) (1884-1912)
family home; Central High School; died here Montgomery County · source
Dayton (Hoover Block, West Third Street) (1890-1895)
Wright and Wright Job Printers; printed Paul Laurence Dunbar's Dayton Tattler Montgomery County · source
Dayton (bicycle shops, West Third and South Williams streets) (1892-1908)
Wright Cycle Company; gliders and 1903 Flyer built at 1127 West Third Street Montgomery County · source
Huffman Prairie, east of Dayton (1904-1905; 1910-1916)
flying field where the brothers developed the practical airplane; later Wright Company test field and flying school Greene County · source
Dayton (Wright Company factory) (1909-1912)
first president of the Wright Company, whose Dayton factory opened in 1910 Montgomery County · source

Timeline

1867 Born April 16 near Millville, Indiana, third of seven children of Milton and Susan Koerner Wright. source
1884 Family moved to Dayton before his Richmond, Indiana, high school commencement, so he never received his diploma. source
1885 A hockey injury in the winter of 1885-86 kept him convalescing at home for about three years. source
1889 Mother Susan died of tuberculosis; Wilbur and Orville formed a printing partnership and began publishing the West Side News. source
1892 The brothers opened their first bicycle shop at 1005 West Third Street in Dayton. source
1899 Wrote to the Smithsonian Institution asking for reading on earlier flight experiments. source
1903 On December 17 the brothers made the first controlled, powered, sustained airplane flights at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. source
1904 On September 20 Wilbur flew the first complete circle in an airplane, 4,080 feet, over Huffman Prairie. source
1905 By year's end the Wright Flyer III, flown at Huffman Prairie, could stay up for 20 miles or more. source
1908 Demonstrated the airplane in France and became a celebrity in Europe. source
1909 Became first president of the Wright Company, incorporated November 22, with a factory in Dayton. source
1912 Contracted typhoid fever in early May, probably from contaminated oysters, and died May 30 at 7 Hawthorn Street. source
1917 Wilbur Wright Field was established on May 22 as a World War I installation next to Huffman Prairie; it is now part of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. source

What Wilbur is known for

First controlled, sustained powered flight 1903 with Orville (Kitty Hawk, NC)
Developed three-axis control
Flew the 1904-05 flyers at Huffman Prairie near Dayton
Wright Flyer (1903)
Wright Cycle Company
'Flying Machine' patent application filed 23 March 1903
Three-axis control system

Stories

The hockey stick that may have made an aviator

In the winter of 1885-86, the year after the family returned to Dayton, Wilbur was badly hurt in what the National Park Service calls a 'freak hockey injury.' He had been on the college-preparatory track at Dayton's Central High School, but instead he spent about three years convalescing at home. In those years he nursed his mother, Susan, who was dying of tuberculosis and died in 1889. He also read widely in his father Milton's library. When he came out of that period he went into business with his younger brother, first as printers and then as bicycle dealers, rather than going to college.

Source

A cow pasture in Greene County

After Kitty Hawk, the brothers needed a test field close to home. Dayton bank president Torrence Huffman let them use his pasture east of the city rent-free. Their first attempts there in 1904 were frustrating, but on September 20, 1904, Wilbur flew the first complete circle in an airplane, covering 4,080 feet in about a minute and a half. Ohio beekeeping businessman Amos Root saw flights that year and wrote them up in his beekeeping magazine, the only published eyewitness reports of the Huffman Prairie flights. The Dayton Journal had already declined to run the 1903 flight story because the flights seemed too short to matter.

Source

A death blamed on oysters

Wilbur fell ill on a business trip to Boston in April 1912. Back in Dayton in early May he was diagnosed with typhoid fever, which the Park Service says he probably caught from contaminated oysters. He died at the family home at 7 Hawthorn Street on May 30, 1912, at 45. His father's diary called it a short life full of consequences. He had approved the final plans for Hawthorn Hill, the Oakwood mansion the brothers designed together, shortly before his death, and never lived there.

Source

Inventions and firsts

All Ohio inventions and firsts

Powered, controlled airplane (1903) credit is disputed
First practical airplane (Flyer III) (1904-1905)
First U.S. factory built specifically for airplanes (1910-1911)
Wright Company flying school at Huffman Prairie (1910)

Honors and things named for them

Diploma awarded 1994 (posthumous)
Wright Brothers National Memorial, NC

Named for Wilbur Wright

Wilbur Wright Field (established 1917; merged into Wright Field 1924-1927 and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base 1948) (near Dayton / Fairborn, Greene County) source

Family

father: Milton Wright
brother: Orville Wright
sister: Katharine Wright

Sites to know

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

1 Wright Cycle Company building, 22 South Williams Street (Dayton Aviation Heritage NHP)
Dayton Montgomery County · source
2 Huffman Prairie Flying Field (Dayton Aviation Heritage NHP)
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, near Fairborn Greene County · source
3 Wright Brothers plot, Woodland Cemetery
Dayton, 118 Woodland Avenue Montgomery County · source
4 Wright Flyer III, John W. Berry Sr. Wright Brothers Aviation Center, Carillon Historical Park
Dayton Montgomery County · source
5 Hawthorn Hill (designed by both brothers; Wilbur died before completion)
Oakwood, 901 Harman Avenue Montgomery County · source
Wright Company Factory (unknown)
Dayton Montgomery County · source
Wright family home, 7 Hawthorn Street (moved to Greenfield Village, Dearborn, Michigan) (demolished)
Dayton (original site) Montgomery County · source

Places in Ohio to see

Huffman Prairie Flying Field (park)
Dayton, Greene County ZIP 45433 (approximate) · Greene County · official page
Carillon Historical Park (museum)
1000 Carillon Blvd, Dayton, Montgomery County ZIP 45409 · Dayton · Montgomery County · official page
Woodland Cemetery (family graves) (grave)
118 Woodland Ave, Dayton, Montgomery County ZIP 45409 · Dayton · Montgomery County · official page

Ohio places

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

Worked: Dayton, Montgomery County (22 S. Williams St (Wright Cycle Co. shop; address from prior knowledge, not re-opened)) ZIP 45402 · Dayton · Montgomery County
Lived: Dayton, Montgomery County ZIP 45402 · Dayton · Montgomery County
Buried: Woodland Cemetery, Dayton, Montgomery County (118 Woodland Ave) ZIP 45409 · Montgomery County

Myths and corrections

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

Often said The Wright family home on Hawthorn Street still stands in Dayton.

The record Henry Ford acquired the Wrights' home and their last cycle shop in 1936 and moved both to Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan, with Orville consulting on accuracy. The surviving Wright cycle building in Dayton is the 22 South Williams Street shop. source

Often said The Wrights' aviation story happened only at Kitty Hawk.

The record The 1903 flights were at Kitty Hawk, but the brothers built their machines in Dayton and made about 150 flights at Huffman Prairie in 1904-1905, developing the Flyer III, which historians call the first practical airplane. source

Reports that the Wrights were fakes: French press called them 'bluffeurs' until the 1908 demonstrations.
The Smithsonian feud: the 1903 Flyer sat in London's Science Museum and did not reach the Smithsonian until 1948.

Pictures

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Wilbur Wright at the controls of the damaged Wright Flyer, on the ground after unsuccessful trial of December ...
Public domain
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 ...
Public domain
Margarethe von Italien und Wilbur Wright in Le Mans
Public domain
[Collection Jules Beau. Photographie sportive] : T. 35. Années 1908, 1909 et 1910 / Jules Beau : [Aviation, Wi...
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Wilbur Wright (links) und Eduard VII (rechts) zusammen an der Tragfläche des „Model A“ in Pau
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Alphonse XIII et W. Wright à Pau
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Alphonse XIII et W. Wright à Pau
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Local call number: PR00447 Title: [Flight of Lloyd C. Griscom's and Wilbur Wright] Physical descrip: 1 photogr...
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American Military Aircraft Pre-1914 Wright Military Flyer 1909. Left to right: Lt. Benjamin D. Faulis; Wilbur ...
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1013 - Wright Airplane at Le Mans Consists of a cell of two superimposed planes; at the front, elevator, at th...
Public domain