Orville Wright (1871 - 1948) was an American inventor and aviation pioneer who, together with his elder brother Wilbur, designed and built the first successful powered airplane. On 17 December 1903, near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville piloted the first sustained, controlled flight of a heavier-than-air machine. [1] The brothers' work on aerodynamics and three-axis control laid the technical foundations of modern aeronautics. [3]
Early life
Orville Wright was born on 19 August 1871 in Dayton, Ohio, one of several children of Milton Wright, a bishop of the United Brethren Church, and Susan Koerner Wright. [1] Neither Orville nor his older brother Wilbur completed formal secondary schooling, but both were mechanically gifted and shared a lifelong partnership. In the 1890s they ran a printing business and then opened a bicycle sales and repair shop in Dayton, work that gave them practical experience with lightweight structures, gearing and balance. [2]
The invention of the airplane
Inspired by reports of the German glider pioneer Otto Lilienthal, the brothers began serious study of flight around 1899. They concluded that the central unsolved problem was control, and they devised a system of wing-warping that, combined with a movable rudder and elevator, allowed a pilot to balance and steer the craft about three axes. [3] To test their ideas they built a small wind tunnel and gathered their own data on lift and drag, correcting errors in existing tables. After several seasons of glider trials at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, they added a lightweight petrol engine and propellers of their own design.
On 17 December 1903, at Kill Devil Hills near Kitty Hawk, Orville made the first flight, remaining airborne for about twelve seconds. The brothers made three more flights that day, the longest by Wilbur covering roughly 260 metres. [1] It was the first time a powered, heavier-than-air machine had taken off under its own power, flown under control, and landed at a point as high as its start.
Business and later career
The Wrights continued to refine their aircraft at Huffman Prairie near Dayton, and in 1909 they founded the Wright Company to manufacture and license their machines. [2] The invention brought fame but also years of patent litigation over the wing-warping concept. Wilbur died of typhoid fever in 1912, and in 1915 Orville sold his interest in the company. [1]
Later life and legacy
In his later decades Orville remained an elder statesman of aviation, serving on advisory bodies including the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. He received numerous honours, among them the Collier Trophy and the Daniel Guggenheim Medal, and he was later inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. [2] Orville Wright died in Dayton on 30 January 1948, having lived to see aircraft grow from a fragile experiment into a decisive instrument of transport and war. The brothers are widely credited with founding the science of practical aeronautical engineering. [3]
