For our Museum Guide, click on the glider above.
History

Where do you
 wish to go?


Home



To find specific information, consult our Museum Guide.

Meanwhile:
How about a
 little music?
We have a selection of tunes that were popular during the first days of aviation, performed by Sue Keller, courtesy the Ragtime Press:

Alexander's Ragtime Band
Irving Berlin 1911
Aviation Rag
Mark Janza 1905
Maple Leaf Rag
Scott Joplin 1909
St. Louis Rag
Tom Turpin 1903
Waiting for the Robert E. Lee
Gilbert/Muir 1912

Welcome to our History Wing. In this wing, you'll find:

The Wright Story is a biography of Wilbur and Orville Wright, from Wilbur's birth in 1867 to Orville death in 1948. Along with their story, we've included many of their own writings, eyewitness accounts, and the remembrances of the people who knew them.

The Wright Story

An Unusual Childhood
The Bishop's Kids
The Wright Family
Wright Genealogy
Special Advantages
How It All Began
Settling in Dayton
Death & Depression
Career Choices
Printing & Popcorn
Wright & Wright
Good News, Bad News
The Bicycle Craze
Just Like Flying
Inventing the Airplane
Eyes on the Skies
An Inkling of An Idea
More Info, Please
A Warped Experiment
1899 Kite
Kitty Hawk
Off on an Adventure
1900 Glider
Not Within 1000 Years
1901 Glider
Through a Tunnel
Wagging It's Tail
1902 Glider
Propellers-R-Us
1903 Engine
1903 Propellers
The French Connection
The Darkest Hour
1903 Flyer 1
December 17, 1903
Orville's Diary 12-17-03
Jonahed
1904 Flyer 2
A Little More Oomph
A Practical Airplane
1905 Flyer 3
The Real McCoy
The Wrights Fly Again
The Box Experiment
Making a Box
Twisting the Box
The Airplane Business
A Long Twilight

Click on the pictures to enlarge them.
1904 Flyer, Will, Orv, on ground at HP.jpg (14144 bytes)
Wilbur and Orville Wright getting the Flyer 2 ready to fly at Huffman Prairie, near Dayton, Ohio in 1904.
A History of the Airplane traces the history of the fixed-wing aircraft, from its conception in 1799 to the first truly stable aircraft that emerged just before the beginning of World War I.

History of the Airplane

The Century Before
The First Airplanes
Powering Up
Pilots & Chauffeurs
The Road to Kitty Hawk
The Century After
A Machine of Practical Utility
Doers and Dreamers
Wannabees

Antoinnete at Rheims.GIF (51306 bytes)
A scene from the Rheims "Aviation Week"of 1909, the first major air show, with an impressive 38 planes on display. (Only 23 of them got off the ground, but it was still impressive.)
Just the Facts provides a quick and easy way to look up specific information on the Wright Brothers and early aviation history.

Just the Facts

The Wright Family
Wright Genealogy
Kites & Gliders
1899 Kite
1900 Glider
1901 Glider
1902 Glider
1911 Glider
Wright Airplanes
1903 Flyer 1
1904 Flyer 2
1905 Flyer 3
The Real McCoy
The Wrights Fly Again
1907-1909 Wright Model A
1909 Military Flyer
1909-1910 Model A-B
1910-1911 Wright Model B
1909-1911 Wright Model EX
1910 Wright Model R
1912 Wright Model C
1912 Wright Model D
1913 Wright Model CH
1913 Wright Model E
1913-1914 Wright Model G
Engines & Propellers
Wright Engines
1903 Engine
1903 Propellers
1904 Engine
1904 Test Engine
1905 Engine & Propellers
1906-1912 Vertical-4 Engine
1911-1915 Vertical-6 Engine
Model B Schematics.gif (36053 bytes)
Three-view engineering drawing of the Wright Model B, the first airplane to be mass-produced in 1910.

Back to the top

Like all good scholars, we don't pretend to have all the answers, and we're constantly searching for new information or ways to make our exhibits better and more accurate. We also welcome Wright scholars and enthusiasts who would like to participate. If you have information that we should include, or want to add to what's already here, please write. Address your comments to mailto:[email protected].
Last updated: December 29, 1999.