The Wrights began to rebuild their aircraft in May of 1904, salvaging the engine, propellers, and hardware. The new Flyer 3 was designed to overcome the problems they had encountered in 1904. Both the elevator and the rudder were larger, giving the airplane more "authority" in pitch and yaw control. The brothers had also encountered problems with "side slips" -- the airplane tended to slide sideways in the air during a turn -- so they installed semi-circular "blinkers" between the elevator surfaces to  keep the airplane flying forward. And they had noticed the propellers tended to twist and flatten while they were spinning, reducing thrust. The prevent this, they attached tabs they called "little jokers" to the trailing edges of the blades.

They were back into the air again in late June, but still the Flyer was not right. They made eight flights in the new Flyer 3, the longest less than 20 seconds, and every flight ending with damage to the aircraft. On July 14, Orville smashed into the ground at over 30 miles per hour, crumpling the front elevator. The Flyer 3 bounced three times, throwing Orville out through the top wing. Wilbur found him dazed and confused, lying on what was left of the elevator. Orville was still in one piece, but this potentially fatal crash forced the brothers to take a long, hard look at their aircraft design. There was something woefully wrong with the elevator.

Its position, the brothers concluded, was much to close to the wings to provide effective control. It needed to be placed further out to give it more leverage. They rebuilt the Flyer again, enlarging the elevator once more and moving it from 7-1/2 feet to nearly 12 feet out from the wings. They also extended the rudder and made new "bent-end" propellers. The bent ends served the same function as the little jokers -- they prevented the spinning propellers from flattening and losing thrust.

Orville and Wilbur began to fly again in late August, and it was immediately apparent that the new, improved Flyer 3 was truly airworthy. In less that a week, they were flying multiple circuits around the prairie, landing without a single serious accident. On September 26, Wilbur flew for over 18 minutes, running the gas tank dry for the first time. Orville broke the half-hour mark on October 3.

Word began to spread that something extraordinary was going on at Huffman Prairie. On October 5 a small crowd of people -- including Torrence Huffman and Dave Beard -- gathered to watch Wilbur and Orville fly. The first flight in the morning was short, just 40 seconds -- the Flyer 3 rose gently into the air, made a 180-degree turn, and glided back to a safe landing.  But in the afternoon, Wilbur flew 30 circuits, remaining in the air for 39 minutes, covering over 24 miles, and landing only when he was out of gas. Not only had he made the longest flight in history, this one flight racked up more air time that all the flights of 1903 and 1904 put together.

The 1905 Wright Flyer 3 was the marvelous result of careful, painstaking   engineering. Built up in tiny increments, beginning with the Wright's kite experiments of 1899, it was the first flying machine capable of taking off and flying through the air under its own power; rising, descending, and turning in any direction under the control of a pilot; and landing -- without crashing -- in any suitable location.   In short, the Flyer 3 was the world's first practical airplane.

A close-up of the Flyer 3 in flight.

The restored 1905 Wright Flyer 3 rests in Carillon Park in Dayton, Ohio. If you'd like to take a virtual walk around the world's first practical flying machine, click HERE.