This biplane had 40.3-foot span; 0.83-foot anhedral; 6.5-foot chord; 6.2-foot separation; 510 sq-foot area; 1/20 camber; 48 sq-foot double horizontal front rudder; 21 sq-foot twin movable vertical rear rudders; 21.1-foot overall length; and weighed 605 lb. The right wing was 4 inches longer to compensate for extra weight of engine.

This was the only aircraft the Wrights tried to preserve. Damaged by wind after 4th flight, they returned it to Dayton; Orville sent it to Science Museum in London in 1928; since 1949 the Smithsonian has displayed it as the world's first piloted powered airplane.

The plaque reads: "THE ORIGINAL WRIGHT BROTHERS AEROPLANE: The world's first power-driven, heavier-than-air machine in which man made free, controlled and sustained flight invented and built by Wilbur and Orville Wright flown by them at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina December 17, 1903 by original scientific research the Wright Brothers discovered the principles of human flight as inventors, builders, and flyers they further developed the aeroplane, taught man to fly, and opened the era of aviation."

References:

• McFarland, 1953, pp , 394-397, 1183, plates 60, 63-78.
•  McFarland, Marvin W. (ed) The papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright. McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, 1953, pp 394-397, 1183, plates 60, 63-78.

 [Submitted by Joe W. McDaniel]

The damage was quickly repaired, and Orville Wright made the first successful flight of 120 feet on December 17, 1903.

Today, the 1903 Flyer hangs in the Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution.
(Photo copyright Smithsonian Institution, used by permission.)