The Wright brothers

By facebooker_524254320

  • Wilbur Wright born

    Wilbur Wright born
    Wilbur Wright born to Reverend Milton Wright and Susan Catherine Koerner Wright near Milville, Indiana. He is their third child; his older siblings are Reuchlin (b. 1861) and Lorin (b. 1862).

  • Orville Wright born

    Orville Wright born
    1871
    August 19

    Orville Wright born.

  • first interest in flight

    Upon his return from a church business trip, Bishop Milton Wright brings home a toy Penaud helicopter. The toy inspires Wilbur and Orville's first interest in flight.

  • bicycles

    Wright brothers begin to manufacture their own brand of bicycles-- first the Van Cleve and the "Wright Special," and later the less expensive St. Clair

  • experiments

    experiments
    October
    Wrights begin their experiments, flying their glider as a kite and as a man-carrying glider. About a dozen free flights are made although total time in the air is only about two minutes. They stay until October 23.

  • first flight

    December 14
    Wilbur makes the first, but unsuccessful, attempt to fly a powered machine from slope of Big Kill Devil Hill. Machine stalls after 31/2 seconds in the air and lands 105 feet below.

  • First successful flight

    First successful flight
    December 17
    Wilbur and Orville make the first free, controlled, and sustained flights in a power-driven, heavier-than-air machine. Three men from the Kill Devil Life Saving Station and two from Nags Head witness the four trial flights. First trial is made by Orville at 10:35 A.M., stays twelve seconds in the air, and flies 120 feet. John T. Daniels photographs the first flight with Orville's camera. Wilbur makes the longest flight in the fourth trial, fifty-nine seconds in the air and 852 feet.