A Celebration of Women offers this

Tribute to the Memory of a Great Mind:

WILBUR WRIGHT

Wilbur Wright was born on April 16, 1867 in Millville, Indiana

and died on May 30, 1912.

_{Wilbur Wright Image : cache.eb.com}

He was along his brother, Orville Wright, the first airplane builder and they created the first controlled, powered and heavier-than-air human flight.

His parents were Milton Wright and Susan Catherine Koerner and besides the two famous brothers they had five children.

One day after a trip his brother brought as a gift a small helicopter. The kids loved it and as they played daily with it after a while it broke. The brothers managed to create a new one. It was the winter of 1885 when he was playing hokey and he was struck in the face by mistake by a hockey stick. Since then he became a withdrawn boy. He even let go his plans of attending Yale. His spent his time helping his ill mother and reading in his father’s library. The brothers attended high school, but unfortunately they didn’t have degrees.

In 1884 the family decided to move to Dayton and they remained there until the 1870’s. A printing press was built by the two and Wilbur was an editor.

In 1892 another idea appeared: they brought to life a repair and sales shop for bicycles and after a period of time they even started producing bicycles. They started being fascinated by the aeronautical events of that time, which were numerous.

Using the work of Sir George Cayley, Chanute, Lilienthal, Leonardo da Vinci and Langley, they started to create an airplane and Will was considered the head of the team.

They were the inventors of “three axis-control”, this permitted the pilot to steer the aircraft effectively and to maintain its equilibrium.

In 1900, they had their first attempts to make a functional glider – of course it didn’t have a pilot. After three years they thought of introducing an engine to the glider.

At first, their patent application was rejected in 1903, but after one year it was accepted. If they wanted to get contracts from the United States Army and from French syndicate their flights in public had to be successful.

On August 8, 1908, Will flew at a horse racing track near the town of Le Mans, France for one minute and 48 seconds. He had several successes and conquered the audience. They had a legal war with Curtis, who sold a plane to the Aeronautic Society of New York. In the end their image had damages.

Wilbur worked side by side with his brother, Orville.

CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS:  memory.loc.gov/ammem/wrighthtml/wrighttime2.html