The Wright brothers are the first known people to have flown an aircraft. Prior to them, people had only flown balloons and gliders. Since flying the first aircraft, there have been numerous advancements and developments in the aviation industry. This essay describes the Wright brothers’ lives, when and where they were born, and what their contributions to the aviation industry. Further, it also discusses the significance of those contributions.

Wilbur Wright was born on April 16, 1867, in Millville, Indiana while his brother Orville Wright was born on August 19, 1871, in Dayton, Ohio (Bradshaw and Wright). They were the sons of Milton Wright, who was a bishop of the United Brethren in Christ Church and Susan Catherine Koerner Wright (Bradshaw and Wright). They had two elder brothers Reuchlin, and Lorin and a younger sister Katherine (Kelly). The family had a family home in Dayton, and although the family frequently moved around with their father, due to the nature of his work, they kept returning to their house on 7 Hawthorn Street (Bradshaw and Wright). The Wright home provided an excellent atmosphere for the children’s academic and creative development. For instance, Bishop Wright instigated debates in which family members would defend one side and then switch to the other side (Kelly). In addition, the family home had two libraries; books on theology were in the bishops study room while downstairs there was another library with an extensive and varied collection of books (Bradshaw and Wright). Because of the reading culture introduced to the young Wright brothers, they developed an interest in the field of flight. While Orville and Wilbur were age 7 and 11, the bishop bought them a toy helicopter based on the invention of French aeronautical pioneer Alphonse Penaud (Kelly). In later years, the brothers admitted that this toy sparked their interest in flight mechanisms. During the next few years, the brothers tried to build one, but the bigger they made it, the less well it flew leaving the brothers discouraged and consequently their interest turned to kites. In the winter of 1885-1886, Wilbur was involved in a sporting accident that left him at home for the next four years (Bradshaw and Wright). He spent this period taking care of his sick mother as well as extensively reading in the family library. In 1889, the brothers designed and build a printing press and they began weekly and eventually daily newspapers (Bradshaw and Wright). A few years later the brothers began operating a bicycle shop and in 1896 started manufacturing their brand (Kelly). Coincidentally, in the same year, German aviator Otto Lilienthal died in a glider crash prompting French aviator Octave Chanute to collect data and bring together young aviation enthusiasts to experiment on the sand dunes of Lake Michigan (Bradshaw and Wright). This renewed the brothers’ interest in aviation, and they set out to learn everything they could, and later designed experiments on their own.

Primarily, the Wright brothers used funds saved from their bicycle business to start testing at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina where the winds were high to give aircrafts a lift off (Kelly). Initially, they sought to figure out how to design wings for the flight (Bradshaw and Wright). However, the brothers soon discovered that nobody would undertake to build an engine that would suit their needs, and so they embarked on building it themselves. Eventually, on December 17, 1903, the Wright brothers a historic airplane flight where Orville was the pilot and Wilbur ran at the wing tip (Bradshaw and Wright). This first flight recorded 120 feet in 12 seconds at a speed of 6.8 miles per hour over the ground (Bradshaw and Wright). The next step the brothers took was to encourage the government to invest in their project. In September 1908 while Wilbur was in France, Orville successfully demonstrated their plane, which was accepted by the government although it later crashed leaving a passenger dead, and Orville injured (Kelly). Despite this setback, in 1908 Orville made the world’s flight that lasted over an hour as a demonstration for the American army that subsequently made the Wright planes the first military planes in the world (Bradshaw and Wright). In 1909, Wilbur made a public flight in New York going round the Statue of Liberty, with 1 million viewers and established their fame in America (Bradshaw and Wright).

Over the years, the Wright brothers contributed immensely to the aviation industry. Primarily, for their planes to fly, they needed to solve three fundamental problems of flight. The first problem is generating an upward force greater than the weight of the plane. To solve the weight problem, brothers developed the wing theory, which they perfected over time (Whitten). Secondly, they needed to solve the problem of thrust to propel the plane forward, which they did by developing and manufacturing an engine to power the plane (Whitten). Finally, they needed to establish how to stabilize and direct the plane in the right direction. They solved this by incorporating controls with a stick controlling the climb and descent (Whitten). By solving these problems, the Wright brothers set the ground for the future of aviation in the world. Planes designed today rely heavily on the discoveries of the Wright brothers. The Wright brothers made the most significant impact on the aviation industry.

Works Cited

Bradshaw, Gary, and Steve Wright. ‘Wright Brothers: Wilbur And Orville Wright’. Wright-house.com. N.p., 2011. Web. 22 Apr. 2015.

Whitten, Chris. ‘Wright Brothers & Aviation History’. Aviationhistory.info. N.p., 2003. Web. 22 Apr. 2015.

Kelly, Fred. The Wright Brothers: A Biography. New York: Courier Corporation, 2012. Print.