Orville Wright was born on August 19, 1871 in Dayton, Ohio, USA and died on January 30, 1948. Together with his brother, Wilbur, he was the first airplane builder. The brothers created the first controlled, powered and heavier-than-air human flight.

Biography and Career :

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 Since then he became a withdrawn boy.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.

Orville's first flight lasted 12 seconds and had 36.5 meters. He was responsible with the public shows near Washington in the United States. On September 9, 1908 his flight was 62 minutes and 15 seconds long and the success registered was huge. As well as his brother, he did a very good job and the audience was fascinated. 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.
_{Orville Wright Image : open-site.org}

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Tags: 1871, ohio, 1948, airplane, builder, flight, 1908	[edit tags]

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Category: Scientists  - ( Scientists Archive)

Date Added: 17 August '07

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