Early Lives
This brother was born April 16, 1867.
Who is Wilbur Wright?
This German pioneer's fatal 1896 glider crash deeply motivated the Wrights.
Who is Otto Lilienthal?
This control method was inspired by birds and a twisted bicycle inner-tube box.
What is wing warping?
This brother piloted the first successful powered flight on Dec. 17, 1903.
Who is Orville Wright?
This disease killed Wilbur in 1912 at age 45.
What is typhoid fever?
Their father was a bishop of this profession; the family settled in Dayton in 1884.
What is a churchman/bishop? (or “What is a minister?”)
In 1878 their father brought home this French-invented rubber-band toy that sparked their aviation interest.
What is a rubber-band-powered helicopter/flying toy (by Alphonse Pénaud)?
The brothers tested wing warping with this 5-foot-wingspan device in 1899.
What is a biplane kite?
The first successful flight lasted this many seconds and covered about this distance.
What is 12 seconds and 120 feet?
In 1909 the brothers formed this company (Wilbur as president).
What is the Wright Company?
Neither brother graduated from this level of school; Orville left early to start a printing business.
What is high school?
This mentor visited the Wrights at Kitty Hawk yearly from 1901-1903 but never saw a powered flight.
Who is Octave Chanute?
After manufacturers failed them, this mechanic built their 12-hp engine in about six weeks.
Who is Charlie Taylor?
Wilbur's longest flight of the day covered this distance in this many seconds.
What is 852 feet in 59 seconds?
Public flights here in 1908 silenced European critics who had accused the Wrights of bluffing.
What is France?
Their mother died of this disease on July 4, 1889.
What is tuberculosis?
Wilbur wrote to this institution in May 1899 requesting aeronautics publications.
Who is Octave Chanute?
The brothers tested about this many model wings in a wind tunnel and found longer, narrower ones better.
What is 200?
Orville's telegraph after the flights mentioned a longest time of this many seconds (slightly understating the actual 59).
What is 57 seconds?
In 1910 they moved the horizontal elevator to the rear on this $5,000 model for better high-speed control.
What is the Model B?
After a 1885 hockey accident, Wilbur stayed home to care for his ill mother and assist his father with these matters.
What are church matters?
After 1901 results Wilbur pessimistically said man would not fly within this many years.
What is a thousand years?
The 1903 Flyer used these highly efficient twin devices that the brothers designed themselves because no formulas existed.
What are propellers (twin pusher propellers)?
The successful flights took place on this date with this many witnesses present, in freezing conditions against a strong wind.
What is December 17, 1903, with five witnesses?
A 1909 short silent film of Wilbur flying marked the first use of this type of photography from a heavier-than-air aircraft.
What is motion-picture aerial photography?