Wilbur and Orville always seemed to be building something. They were brought up to it by their mother, Susan Koerner Wright. Her father, John Koerner, was a skilled carriage maker and taught his daughter to work with tools. She made many of her her own home appliances, as well as toys for her children. More important, she passed these skills to her children. The Wright brothers built their first flying machine, a rubber band-powered helicopter, when Orv was 8 years old and Will was 12. Later, Orville made kites and sold them to his friends. Wilbur invented a machine that folded the United Brethren newspaper his father published. Together they made furniture, printing presses, bicycles, gliders, and airplanes. Their lives seemed to revolve around their workshop.
It's no wonder that the Wright story seems to attract people who like to work with their hands. And because of that, any Wright Brothers Museum worth the price of admission needs a "hand on" section, a place where folks can get down and dirty with aviation history. In this virtual workshop, we'll provide plans and walk you through some aeronautical adventures. Just choose a project that interests you from the left-hand column and click on it.
The workshop in which Will and Orv built their first airplanes now rests at the Henry Ford Museum just outside of Detroit, Michigan.
Another one of their workshops was recently restored at 22 South Williams
Street in Dayton, Ohio. This is where they where building bicycles in 1896 when they first
became seriously interested in flight.
We also have a real workshop, by the way. And we're conducting an expedition in aviation archaeology to recreate some of the Wright's early aircraft just and Wilbur and Orville would have done. This, we hope, will help to fill in some of the blank pages in the history of the invention of the airplane.
Already, we've completed three aircraft:
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The 1878 Wright "Bat," the rubber band-powered helicopter the Wright bother made when they were children. |
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The 1899 Wright Kite, their first experimental aircraft with which the Wright tested a revolutionary control system for aircraft. |
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The 1902 Wright Glider, the first aircraft to have 3-axis control -- roll, pitch, and yaw. This is the aircraft on which the Wright's based their patent and, as such, is the granddaddy of all that flies. By the way, this is a touring aircraft -- we've engineered it so that is can be transported inexpensively and set up in any 20-foot by 40-foot space. |
Additionally, we've developed these projects:
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The inner tube box that inspired Wilbur and Orville. Make the box, then relive the experiment that launched the age of aviation! |
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A 2/3-Scale 1899 Wright Kite, designed to be much easier to build than the original. |
We'll have plans for them up on this site shortly. Currently, we've just begun work on a flying reproduction of the 1905 Wright Flyer 3, which we hope to finish by the summer of 2001and begin flight testing.
Our replica of the 1878 Wight Bat, made in our own
workshop.
Our replica of the 1899 Wright Kite, soaring
during the 100th anniversary of the Wright brother's kite experiment.
We've just completed this replica of the 1902 Wright
Glider -- and it's on tour!