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The Wright brothers, Orville (August 19, 1871 – January 30, 1948) and Wilbur (April 16, 1867 – May 30, 1912), were two American aviators, engineers, inventors, and aviation pioneers who are generally credited[1][2][3] with inventing, building, and flying the world's first successful airplane. They made the first controlled, sustained flight of a powered, heavier-than-air aircraft on December 17, 1903, four miles south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. In 1904–05 the brothers developed their flying machine into the first practical fixed-wing aircraft. Although not the first to build experimental aircraft, the Wright brothers were the first to invent aircraft controls that made fixed-wing powered flight possible.
The brothers' fundamental breakthrough was their invention of three-axis control, which enabled the pilot to steer the aircraft effectively and to maintain its equilibrium.[4][5][6][7] This method became and remains standard on fixed-wing aircraft of all kinds.[8][9] From the beginning of their aeronautical work, the Wright brothers focused on developing a reliable method of pilot control as the key to solving "the flying problem". This approach differed significantly from other experimenters of the time who put more emphasis on developing powerful engines.[10] Using a small homebuilt wind tunnel, the Wrights also collected more accurate data than any before, enabling them to design and build wings and propellers that were more efficient than any before.[11][12] Their first U.S. patent, 821,393, did not claim invention of a flying machine, but rather, the invention of a system of aerodynamic control that manipulated a flying machine's surfaces.[13]
They gained the mechanical skills essential for their success by working for years in their shop with printing presses, bicycles, motors, and other machinery. Their work with bicycles in particular influenced their belief that an unstable vehicle like a flying machine could be controlled and balanced with practice.[14] From 1900 until their first powered flights in late 1903, they conducted extensive glider tests that also developed their skills as pilots. Their bicycle shop employee Charlie Taylor became an important part of the team, building their first airplane engine in close collaboration with the brothers.
The Wright brothers' status as inventors of the airplane has been subject to counter-claims by various parties. Much controversy persists over the many competing claims of early aviators. Edward Roach, historian for the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park argues that they were excellent self-taught engineers who could run a small company, but they did not have the business skills or temperament to dominate the growing aviation industry.[15]
The brothers' fundamental breakthrough was their invention of three-axis control, which enabled the pilot to steer the aircraft effectively and to maintain its equilibrium.[4][5][6][7] This method became and remains standard on fixed-wing aircraft of all kinds.[8][9] From the beginning of their aeronautical work, the Wright brothers focused on developing a reliable method of pilot control as the key to solving "the flying problem". This approach differed significantly from other experimenters of the time who put more emphasis on developing powerful engines.[10] Using a small homebuilt wind tunnel, the Wrights also collected more accurate data than any before, enabling them to design and build wings and propellers that were more efficient than any before.[11][12] Their first U.S. patent, 821,393, did not claim invention of a flying machine, but rather, the invention of a system of aerodynamic control that manipulated a flying machine's surfaces.[13]
They gained the mechanical skills essential for their success by working for years in their shop with printing presses, bicycles, motors, and other machinery. Their work with bicycles in particular influenced their belief that an unstable vehicle like a flying machine could be controlled and balanced with practice.[14] From 1900 until their first powered flights in late 1903, they conducted extensive glider tests that also developed their skills as pilots. Their bicycle shop employee Charlie Taylor became an important part of the team, building their first airplane engine in close collaboration with the brothers.
The Wright brothers' status as inventors of the airplane has been subject to counter-claims by various parties. Much controversy persists over the many competing claims of early aviators. Edward Roach, historian for the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park argues that they were excellent self-taught engineers who could run a small company, but they did not have the business skills or temperament to dominate the growing aviation industry.[15]
Wright brothers - Wikipedia
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Birthday
American History
Aviator
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Thank you my friend Maj Marty Hogan for making us aware that August 19 is the anniversary of the birth of American aviator, engineer, inventor, and aviation pioneer Orville Wright who along with his older brother Wilbur inventing, building, and flying the world's first successful airplane four miles south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
Images:
1. The Wright brothers on the steps of their boyhood home at 7 Hawthorn St. in Dayton.
2. 1903 Wilbur Wright in his airplane at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina
3. 1897 newspaper ad for Wright Van Cleve bicycles. 'Van Cleves get there first,' was a play on words, but you had to know local history to get the joke. The Wright’s great-great-grandmother, Catherine Van Cleve, and her daughter Mary Van Cleve had been the first to step ashore from a boat of settlers that had traveled upriver in 1796 to the site where Dayton was built.
4. the Wright Brothers record breaking first powered flight that took place at Kitty Hawk on the Outer banks on the 17th December 1903.
Background from [https://www.nps.gov/people/orvillewright.htm]
"Quick Facts
PLACE OF BIRTH: Dayton, Ohio
DATE OF BIRTH: August 19, 1871
PLACE OF DEATH: Dayton, Ohio
DATE OF DEATH: January 30, 1948
PLACE OF BURIAL: Dayton, Ohio
CEMETERY NAME: Woodland Cemetery
Orville Wright, working with his brother Wilbur, made the first heavier-than-air, powered, controlled flight by man, leading the world into the aviation age.
Family Life
Orville was born to Milton and Susan Wright in Dayton, Ohio on August 19, 1871. Orville was the sixth child of seven, but two of his older siblings did not survive infancy. Those siblings that did survive were his 3 older brothers, Reuchlin, Lorin, and Wilbur, and he would have one younger sister, Katherine, born exactly three years after him in the very same room, in the family house in Dayton on 7 Hawthorne Street. He would become very close with Wilbur, as their scientific collaborations can attest, and he would also have a close relationship with Katharine. Their father Milton was a Bishop in the United Brethren Church, causing the family to relocate frequently, in addition to Milton often traveling for work. Despite this, it was a very loving, close-knit family. Their parents raised the children to be self-confident and to pursue whatever aroused their curiosity.
Education
Orville received his formal schooling in Iowa, Indiana, and Dayton, Ohio, where the family was finally able to settle for good in 1884. Orville, like his older brother Wilbur, was a good student favoring math and science classes, with mechanical inclinations and ambitions. Milton recalled young Orville as enthusiastic and a leader. Among other fun exploits, Orville promoted circuses for the area, and became famous in the community for his high quality kites he flew and sold, designing and building the kites himself. Orville found high school to be less than challenging, causing him to drop out in the 11th grade. However he and Wilbur would later be bestowed with honorary PhD degrees from Harvard, Yale, and other prominent schools for their invention of the airplane.
Occupation
For two summers while in high school, having worked for Dayton printers, he decided to start his own printing business with his friend Ed Sines. After eventually buying Ed Sines out as co-owner, he asked Wilbur to join him in the printing business. Soon the brothers began building their own printing presses. Orville was famous for making a press out of the folding tops of carriages, tombstones, and other spare parts. The Wright’s printing business stayed in operation until 1899, but after 1892 Ed Sines mostly ran the business. Wilbur and Orville formed the Wright Cycle Company in 1892 selling, repairing, and manufacturing bicycles. The bicycle business was a great success, allowing them the funding and time they would need for their pursuit of aviation.
Interest in Flight
Both Orville and Wilbur fondly recalled when, in 1878, their father brought home a toy helicopter powered by a rubber band. Designed by French aeronautical experimenter Alphonse Pénaud, this toy did not simply fall to the ground as expected. Rather it "flew across the room till it struck the ceiling, where it fluttered awhile, and finally sank to the floor." The delicate toy didn’t last long before it broke, but it truly caught the brothers’ attention; they tried to replicate the toy themselves. Orville later credited this childhood toy as being the object that sparked their original interest in flight.
The Wright’s fascination with flying increased due to two events in 1896; the death of Otto Lilienthal, the celebrated glider experimenter, in a flying accident, and the semi-successful unmanned launching of powered models by Samuel Langley. They continued their bicycle business for the next two years, but mastery of flight weighed heavy on their minds.
Pursuit of Flight
In 1899, Orville and Wilbur began reading all they could about flight, in addition to constantly observing birds and continuing their kite experiments. Designing and manufacturing bicycles themselves honed Orville and Wilbur’s natural mechanical abilities. Many of the tools they used to manufacture bicycles they would also use when building their gliders and flyers. In their bicycle shop in Dayton, they did much of their inventing and research. However, it was the Outer Banks of North Carolina that met their criteria for testing their inventions, with its privacy, steady winds, and wide-open non-vegetated spaces. It was here, in sparsely populated Kitty Hawk, they set up camp, giving them the freedom to experiment with and perfect their machines until they achieved success. At age 32, Orville piloted the first successful powered, controlled flight on December 17, 1903. The Wright brothers had changed the world.
After 1903, their attention was devoted solely to aviation. By 1908, they formed airplane companies in Europe and America and, by 1910, they had taught the world how to fly. They came back to Kitty Hawk for glide and flight practice, and on October 24, 1911, Orville established a new world soaring record at Kitty Hawk of nine minutes and forty-five seconds, a record that stood for ten years.
Legacy
In 1932, the Wright Memorial at Kitty Hawk at Kill Devil Hills was dedicated, the largest memorial to the brothers’ achievements. Orville was in attendance. He did not make a speech on this auspicious occasion, however, because unlike his brother Wilbur (who died of typhoid fever in 1912), Orville was not a comfortable public speaker. Orville, who had become a millionaire due to the brothers’ invention of the airplane, lived to age 76, having witnessed aircraft used in two world wars, the development of the jet engine, and man breaking the speed of sound. He died of a heart attack in Dayton on January 30, 1948, only 21 years before man first set foot on the moon."
Orville Wright, Wilbur Wright, Original Footage!!! First Flight Mlitary Airplane 1909
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtZ8MxuePno
FYI Col Carl Whicker SGT Gregory Lawritson SP5 Mark Kuzinski SGT (Join to see) SGT (Join to see) CWO3 (Join to see)] LTC (Join to see)SSG Robert Mark OdomSP5 Jesse Engel
SPC Matthew LambSSG Robert "Rob" Wentworth SPC Margaret Higgins Cynthia Croft LTC Hillary Luton Sgt Kelli Mays
Capt Rich BuckleyCW4 G.L. Smith COL (Join to see) Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen
Images:
1. The Wright brothers on the steps of their boyhood home at 7 Hawthorn St. in Dayton.
2. 1903 Wilbur Wright in his airplane at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina
3. 1897 newspaper ad for Wright Van Cleve bicycles. 'Van Cleves get there first,' was a play on words, but you had to know local history to get the joke. The Wright’s great-great-grandmother, Catherine Van Cleve, and her daughter Mary Van Cleve had been the first to step ashore from a boat of settlers that had traveled upriver in 1796 to the site where Dayton was built.
4. the Wright Brothers record breaking first powered flight that took place at Kitty Hawk on the Outer banks on the 17th December 1903.
Background from [https://www.nps.gov/people/orvillewright.htm]
"Quick Facts
PLACE OF BIRTH: Dayton, Ohio
DATE OF BIRTH: August 19, 1871
PLACE OF DEATH: Dayton, Ohio
DATE OF DEATH: January 30, 1948
PLACE OF BURIAL: Dayton, Ohio
CEMETERY NAME: Woodland Cemetery
Orville Wright, working with his brother Wilbur, made the first heavier-than-air, powered, controlled flight by man, leading the world into the aviation age.
Family Life
Orville was born to Milton and Susan Wright in Dayton, Ohio on August 19, 1871. Orville was the sixth child of seven, but two of his older siblings did not survive infancy. Those siblings that did survive were his 3 older brothers, Reuchlin, Lorin, and Wilbur, and he would have one younger sister, Katherine, born exactly three years after him in the very same room, in the family house in Dayton on 7 Hawthorne Street. He would become very close with Wilbur, as their scientific collaborations can attest, and he would also have a close relationship with Katharine. Their father Milton was a Bishop in the United Brethren Church, causing the family to relocate frequently, in addition to Milton often traveling for work. Despite this, it was a very loving, close-knit family. Their parents raised the children to be self-confident and to pursue whatever aroused their curiosity.
Education
Orville received his formal schooling in Iowa, Indiana, and Dayton, Ohio, where the family was finally able to settle for good in 1884. Orville, like his older brother Wilbur, was a good student favoring math and science classes, with mechanical inclinations and ambitions. Milton recalled young Orville as enthusiastic and a leader. Among other fun exploits, Orville promoted circuses for the area, and became famous in the community for his high quality kites he flew and sold, designing and building the kites himself. Orville found high school to be less than challenging, causing him to drop out in the 11th grade. However he and Wilbur would later be bestowed with honorary PhD degrees from Harvard, Yale, and other prominent schools for their invention of the airplane.
Occupation
For two summers while in high school, having worked for Dayton printers, he decided to start his own printing business with his friend Ed Sines. After eventually buying Ed Sines out as co-owner, he asked Wilbur to join him in the printing business. Soon the brothers began building their own printing presses. Orville was famous for making a press out of the folding tops of carriages, tombstones, and other spare parts. The Wright’s printing business stayed in operation until 1899, but after 1892 Ed Sines mostly ran the business. Wilbur and Orville formed the Wright Cycle Company in 1892 selling, repairing, and manufacturing bicycles. The bicycle business was a great success, allowing them the funding and time they would need for their pursuit of aviation.
Interest in Flight
Both Orville and Wilbur fondly recalled when, in 1878, their father brought home a toy helicopter powered by a rubber band. Designed by French aeronautical experimenter Alphonse Pénaud, this toy did not simply fall to the ground as expected. Rather it "flew across the room till it struck the ceiling, where it fluttered awhile, and finally sank to the floor." The delicate toy didn’t last long before it broke, but it truly caught the brothers’ attention; they tried to replicate the toy themselves. Orville later credited this childhood toy as being the object that sparked their original interest in flight.
The Wright’s fascination with flying increased due to two events in 1896; the death of Otto Lilienthal, the celebrated glider experimenter, in a flying accident, and the semi-successful unmanned launching of powered models by Samuel Langley. They continued their bicycle business for the next two years, but mastery of flight weighed heavy on their minds.
Pursuit of Flight
In 1899, Orville and Wilbur began reading all they could about flight, in addition to constantly observing birds and continuing their kite experiments. Designing and manufacturing bicycles themselves honed Orville and Wilbur’s natural mechanical abilities. Many of the tools they used to manufacture bicycles they would also use when building their gliders and flyers. In their bicycle shop in Dayton, they did much of their inventing and research. However, it was the Outer Banks of North Carolina that met their criteria for testing their inventions, with its privacy, steady winds, and wide-open non-vegetated spaces. It was here, in sparsely populated Kitty Hawk, they set up camp, giving them the freedom to experiment with and perfect their machines until they achieved success. At age 32, Orville piloted the first successful powered, controlled flight on December 17, 1903. The Wright brothers had changed the world.
After 1903, their attention was devoted solely to aviation. By 1908, they formed airplane companies in Europe and America and, by 1910, they had taught the world how to fly. They came back to Kitty Hawk for glide and flight practice, and on October 24, 1911, Orville established a new world soaring record at Kitty Hawk of nine minutes and forty-five seconds, a record that stood for ten years.
Legacy
In 1932, the Wright Memorial at Kitty Hawk at Kill Devil Hills was dedicated, the largest memorial to the brothers’ achievements. Orville was in attendance. He did not make a speech on this auspicious occasion, however, because unlike his brother Wilbur (who died of typhoid fever in 1912), Orville was not a comfortable public speaker. Orville, who had become a millionaire due to the brothers’ invention of the airplane, lived to age 76, having witnessed aircraft used in two world wars, the development of the jet engine, and man breaking the speed of sound. He died of a heart attack in Dayton on January 30, 1948, only 21 years before man first set foot on the moon."
Orville Wright, Wilbur Wright, Original Footage!!! First Flight Mlitary Airplane 1909
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtZ8MxuePno
FYI Col Carl Whicker SGT Gregory Lawritson SP5 Mark Kuzinski SGT (Join to see) SGT (Join to see) CWO3 (Join to see)] LTC (Join to see)SSG Robert Mark OdomSP5 Jesse Engel
SPC Matthew LambSSG Robert "Rob" Wentworth SPC Margaret Higgins Cynthia Croft LTC Hillary Luton Sgt Kelli Mays
Capt Rich BuckleyCW4 G.L. Smith COL (Join to see) Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen
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LTC Stephen F.
Wright Brothers Documentary: A Documentary On Wright Brothers
Wright Brothers Documentary: A Documentary On Wright Brothers The Wright brothers, Orville (August 19, 1871 – January 30, 1948) and Wilbur (April 16, 1867 – ...
Wright Brothers Documentary: A Documentary On Wright Brothers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQn5bH7zUWk
FYI SFC Terry Wilcox PO2 Roger Lafarlette SPC Nancy Greene SSG Franklin Briant 1stsgt Glenn BrackinJennifer Lee (Doerflinger) Hill SP6 Stephen RogersonSSgt Corwin Whicker CPT Paul Whitmer 1SG Steven Imerman SSG Samuel Kermon SP5 Geoffrey VannersonCol Casey "Radio" G. SFC John Lich Sgt Jackie JuliusSSG Michael NollSP5 Jeannie CarleSPC Chris Bayner-CwikTSgt David L.PO1 Robert George
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQn5bH7zUWk
FYI SFC Terry Wilcox PO2 Roger Lafarlette SPC Nancy Greene SSG Franklin Briant 1stsgt Glenn BrackinJennifer Lee (Doerflinger) Hill SP6 Stephen RogersonSSgt Corwin Whicker CPT Paul Whitmer 1SG Steven Imerman SSG Samuel Kermon SP5 Geoffrey VannersonCol Casey "Radio" G. SFC John Lich Sgt Jackie JuliusSSG Michael NollSP5 Jeannie CarleSPC Chris Bayner-CwikTSgt David L.PO1 Robert George
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I always think what courage it took to give that first plane a try. No aeronautical engineering degrees.
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Maj Marty Hogan thank you my friend for this awesome read and share.
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel SMSgt Minister Gerald A. "Doc" Thomas SGT (Join to see) SGT Philip Roncari SPC Margaret Higgins SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth SP5 Michael Rathbun CW5 Jack CardwellCOL Mikel J. Burroughs CPL Dave Hoover SFC Shirley Whitfield LTC Stephen F. SSG William Jones MSgt Ken "Airsoldier" Collins-Hardy Capt Dwayne Conyers 1SG Carl McAndrews Lt Col Charlie Brown PO1 Tony Holland SGT Jim Arnold
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