Wright Brothers Research Sites

The following sites either contain original material on the Wright Brothers, valuable research materials, or both.

To Fly Is Everything
This is the largest and best of the Wright Brothers sites, including a complete, original narrative of the story of the invention of the airplane, all 301 Wright photos from the Library of Congress collection, a computer simulation of Wright wind tunnel, brief biographies on all early aviators, and brief descriptions of early airplanes. It's largely the work of Gary Bradshaw, who has our gratitude and admiration for his pioneering work in virtual museums.
http://invention.psychology.msstate.edu/air_main.shtml

To Fly is Everything has many useful and interesting sections, but among the most useful are its bibliography and digital library:

• Airplane Invention Bibliography
  Recommended reading on the Wright Brothers
  http://invention.psychology.msstate.edu/Tale_of_Airplane/
  AirBib.html
• Digital Library of the Invention of the Airplane
  Whole documents with illustrations; including:

• Cayley, Sir George, On Aerial Navigation, Nicholson's Journal, November,1809; February, March 1810.
•  Chanute-Wright Correspondence: 1900 - 1901
•   Chanute-Mouillard Correspondence, 1890-1897
• Chanute, Octave, Address To International Conference On Aerial Navigation, 1883
•  Chanute, Octave, Progress in Flying Machines, 1894
• Means, James (Editor), The Aeronautical Annuals, 1895, 1896, 1897
•  Wright, Orville, How We Made the First Flight, 1913
•  Wright, Wilbur, Some Aeronautical Experiments, Western Society of Engineers, September 18,1901
•  Wright, Wilbur, What Mouillard Did, Aero Club of America Bulletin: May, 1912.
•  Wright, Wilbur and Orville, The Wright Brothers A�roplane, Century Magazine, September, 1908.
   Wright, Wilbur and Orville,  U.S. Patent No. 821,393, awarded to, May 22,1906.

All of these and more can be found at:
http://invention.psychology.msstate.edu/library/library.html

Franklin Institute Flights of Inspiration
Possibly the best research site we've seen for young people. You can learn about aeronautics by following the adventure of the Wright brothers as they struggled to invent the airplane. Includes some dynamite animations of the Wright wind tunnel, as well as clear, exciting descriptions of the tools the Wright used in their research. 
http://www.fi.edu/flights

• Teacher's Zone
  Franklin Institute's web site also includes a section where they have gathered an astounding array of aviation education materials, sources, and links from both the United States and Britain.
  http://www.fi.edu/flights/teacher/index.html

AIAA 1903 Wright Flyer Project
A detailed description of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics' project to build, test, and fly a reproduction of the 1903 Wright Flyer I. Many photos, lots of links.
http://www.wrightflyer.org/

• Wind Tunnel Tests
  The results of the AIAA's wind tunnel tests on the 1903 Flyer.
  http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/aero/wright/teachers/
  angles/data.html

American Memory/Library of Congress
Allows you to search original historical documents online. Includes many letters, diaries, and other writings from pioneer aviators, including the Wright Brothers.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/finder.html

First Flight
Information on the Wright Brothers and Sir George Cayley. Includes simulators of several early aircraft, including the 1903 Wright Flyer I.
http://firstflight.open.ac.uk/

The Gander Academy: The Wright Brothers
Canada's Gander Aviation Academy maintains a large web site of web-based aviation resources. Their page of Wright Brothers links is one of the best we've seen.
http://www.stemnet.nf.ca/CITE/wright.htm

Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village
Includes brief narratives on the Wright brothers family members, The Wright Brothers' printing and bicycle businesses; the invention of the airplane, a chronology of their life, and a short bibliography.
http://www.hfmgv.org/histories/wright/wrights.html

Octave Chanute Pages
Focuses on Chanute's contributions to early aeronautics, his experiments with gliders in the Indiana Dunes, and his association with the Wright brothers. Chanute, a respected engineer, served as an important sounding board for the brothers as they perfected their invention.
http://www.crown.net/~sspicer/chanute/chan_ind.html

Otto Lilienthal Museum
Writings and aircraft designs of Otto Lilienthal, the first successful glider pilot and the man whose death inspired the Wrights to begin their own work in aviation. The German version contains more photography.
http://hawaii.psychology.msstate.edu/LilienthalMuseum/
Lilmuseum.html (English)
http://home.t-online.de/home/LilienthalMuseum/index.htm (German)

Public Broadcasting System
The are three Wright Brothers documents on the PBS web site, all of which can be downloaded as either html or text files.

• The complete text transcript of the 1996 video, "The Wright Stuff, " by WGBH Boston for the program The American Experience.
  http://pbs.org/wgbh/pages/amex/wright/
  transcript.html
• A description of how the program was made
  http://pbs.org/wgbh/pages/amex/wright/about.html
• Interviews of historians and scholars (John Gillikin, Joseph Corn) talking about the Wrights
  http://pbs.org/wgbh/pages/amex/wright/wrights.html

Wright Flyer Online
Part of NASA's "Aero Design Team" web site with lots of information on the Wright Brothers and Wright airplanes. Includes contests for young people, special events, games, even a comic book version of the Wright story.
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/aero/wright/

• Lecture on the Wright Brothers
  An online lecture by Steve Shackleford, with slides, about the work of the Wright Brothers. Requires RealMedia software, lasts about 1-1/2 hours.
  http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/aero/wright/background/
  wrbrohist.html
• The Origins of the First Airplane
  Excellent overview of the Wright Brothers experimental work and their scientific methods written by F.E.C. Culick.
  http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/aero/wright/background/
  origin.html
• Timeline
  Compares what the Wrights were doing with what was happening elsewhere in the world at the same time.
  http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/aero/wright/background/timeline/
  timeline_core.html

Dayton, Ohio Wright Brothers Sites

These sites belong to Wright-related museums and historical sites in their home town of Dayton, Ohio.

Carillon Historical Park
Brochureware; includes short narrative with photos and a brief tour of the park. This is an extremely important historical site -- The first practical airplane, the Wright Flyer III, is here. This is the airplane in which the Wrights learned to fly!
http://www.carillonpark.org/

• The page on the Wright brothers is here:
  http://www.carillonpark.org/wrightbrospage.htm

Dayton and Montgomery County Public Library
Great online exhibition featuring some seldom-seen Wright Brothers photos, postcards, scrapbooks, and other materials. Lots to explore!
http://home.dayton.lib.oh.us/archives/WBCollection/WBExhibit.html

Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park
Brochureware with a few photos.
http://www.nps.gov/daav/

Inventing Flight
Brochureware on the doings for the 2003 Centennial of Flight in Dayton, Ohio.
http://www.inventingflight.org/

United States Air Force Museum
A brief summary of aviation history; photos of early Wright Brothers' flights.
http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/early_years/ey.htm

Wright B Flyer, Inc.
Brochureware with a short by interesting narrative, several photos (both historical and contemporary), and a map
http://www.dayton.com/wrightb/

Wright State University Libraries
The Wright Brothers Collection at Paul Laurence Dunbar Library is one of the largest sources of Wright Brothers and early aviation information in the world, if not the largest. Furthermore, they are making a Herculean effort to make much of their collection available to students and scholars on the web. Start with their home page at:
http://www.libraries.wright.edu/special/

• Or you can go straight for their Wright Brothers Collection. Here you'll find biographical sketches, Wright genealogical materials, a complete catalog of the materials in the archives, and links to other Internet resources:
  http://www.libraries.wright.edu/special/wright_brothers/
• If you want to view photos of the Wright brothers and early aviation, Wright State offers a truly awesome collection in a searchable database:
  http://www.libraries.wright.edu/special/wright_brothers/dmc.html
• They also have an extensive bibliography, including one of the most extensive listing of books on the Wright brothers for young people:
  http://www.libraries.wright.edu/special/wright_brothers/bibliography.html
  

Other Related Wright Brothers Sites

Many of the following sites belong to museums and historical sites outside of Dayton, Ohio, associated with the Wright Brothers. Others have small amounts of original  research materials.

1903 Wright Flyer (RC)
A radio-controlled model of the 1903 Wright Flyer. A link tells you where to get engineering drawings.
http://www.alumni.caltech.edu/~johnlatz/WrtFlyer/model.html

1910 Los Angeles International Air Meet
Event-by-event, airplane-by-airplane description of the first air meet west of the Mississippi.
http://archives.csudh.edu/airmeet/

Aero-Web
Offers the complete text of Orville Wright's 1908 article for Century Magazine, "How We Made the First Flight."
http://www.aero-web.org/history/wright/wright.htm

AIAA Evolution of Flight
Looking for a good overview of the 100-year history of flight? Want it specific to your country? This site has a dynamite "History of Flight" section. Also check out their "Click and Learn" page.  You can learn how to make an edible (that's right -- edible) Wright Flyer. Guess what we'll be eating for dessert at aviation banquets for the next three years.
 http://www.flight100.org. 

Air Museum Site Locator
Locator for museums and aircraft types, included Wright aircraft
http://aeroweb.brooklyn.cuny.edu/

Airplane Catapults of the Wright Brothers and Dr. Samuel Langley
A short history of launch catapults, beginning with a comparison of Wright and Langley designs.
http://www.nzp.com/1000airplane.html

Arrow Recovery Project
These folks are restoring one of the most beautiful delta-wing jets, the Avro Arrow, which they recovered from the bottom of Lake Ontario. To generate support for their project, they offer a wonderful service -- aviation links organized by topic! This makes it much easier to find the information you're after.
http://www.avroarrow.org/links/themeindex.html

Aviation Links
Lists aviation museums in the United States and Canada, and offers many useful aviation links.
http://www.netc.net.au/airworld/alinks.html

Bibliography of Wright Brothers
Lists the titles of 8 books on the Wright Brothers.
http://carlisle-www.army.mil/usamhi/refBibs/air/wright.htm

Centennial of Flight
A work in progress, this is the website that the U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission is building. Most of the information that has been posted so far has to do with the organization, hopes, and plans of the Commission itself. They promise information on the Wright Brothers and the history of aviation at some later date.
http://www.centennialofflight.gov

The Early Birds
Dedicated to the preservation of pioneer aviation history, this ambitious group is building a website to tell the story of the "Early Birds" -- those pioneer aviators who soloed before World War 1. Although it's just in its beginning stages, there's a good deal of information here already that's worth your while.
http://earlybirds.org/index.html

• Pioneer Aircraft Plans
  Includes 3-views of many common pioneer-era aircraft. The drawings are small, but detailed enough to make small models.
  http://earlybirds.org/menu.html

First Flight Centennial Foundation
The First Flight Centennial Foundation was originally the fund-raising arm for the First Flight Centennial Commission (below). Political infighting has obscured it's role somewhat and it now seems to be concentrating on improving the Wright Monument and museum buildings at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.  Offers information about events at or nearby the Wright Brothers National Memorial.
http://www.firstflightcentennial.org/

First Flight Centennial Commission
If you want to know what's going on in North Carolina for the upcoming Centennial of Flight, this is clear, informative, and easy to navigate. If you are a student doing research on the Wright Brothers of the history of aviation, check out the "First Flight" and "Milestones of Flight" pages.  The historical info is short, but to the point. These will probably show up in  lot of term papers over the next few years.
http://www.firstflightnc.com

First Flight Society
One of aviation's oldest societies, originally organized to preserve the site of the Wright brother's work in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Their site offers a history of the Wright's inventive work from 1899 to 1903.
http://www.firstflight.org/

Inventors Hall of Fame
Offers a short entry on Wilbur and Orville Wright.
http://www.invent.org/book/book-text/110.html

Listing of Planned Events for the Centennial of Flight
Just what it sounds like -- a list of the events that are planned for 2003 by  various organizations. If you are planning an air show or other event, be sure to ping the webmaster at this site. http://sites.netscape.net/meyersjacobsen/
flightcentennial2003celebrations

London Science Museum
A short history of flight and descriptions of aircraft on display, including a reproduction of the 1903 Wright Flyer I.
http://www.nmsi.ac.uk/on-line/flight/

National Air & Space Museum
The NASM displays three Wright aircraft -- the 1903 Wright Flyer I, the 1909 Wright Military Flyer, and the 1911 "Vin Fiz." Each has a separate page on the NASM site, including a photo and specs.

• 1903 Wright Flyer I:
    http://www.nasm.edu/galleries/gal100/wright1903.html
• 1909 Wright Military Flyer: http://www.nasm.edu/galleries/gal107/gal107.html#WRIGHT
• 1911 "Vin Fiz": 
  http://www.nasm.edu/nasm/aero/aircraft/wrightex.htm

National Aeronautic Association's Katharine Wright Memorial Award
An award for women's contributions to aeronautics. Contains a description of the award and a list of recipients.
http://www.naa.ycg.org/kath.htm

National Public Radio
NPR has several news segments related to the Wright brothers that you can listen to over the Internet. They are:

• The Wright Brothers First Glider Flight
  http://search.npr.org/cf/cmn/cmnps05fm.cfm?SegID=112864
• The Metallurgy of the Wright Brothers Engine
  http://search.npr.org/cf/cmn/cmnps05fm.cfm?SegID=6088
• The Dispute Between Ohio and North Carolina
  http://search.npr.org/cf/cmn/cmnps05fm.cfm?SegID=30489

Those Magnificent Men and Their Flying Machines
Photographs of Wright aircraft, lots of links to other aviation sites.
http://www.ozemail.com.au/~flying/wright.html

The Time Life 100
Bill Gates writes about Wilbur and Orville!
http://www.pathfinder.com/time/time100/scientist/profile/
wright.html

U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission
This is the skeleton for a good web site, but there's not much here yet. Sometime in the future, they will offer a calendar of events for Centennial of Flight celebrations, along with historical information.
http://centennialofflight.gov/

Virtual Aviation Museum
Descriptions and links to hundreds of types of aircraft through the world.
http://www18.pair.com/tvam/html/about.htm

VMRL Model of 1903 Wright Flyer
VRML file of the Flyer, available to download.
http://www.ocnus.com/models/Vehicles/

Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy
Description of an award given yearly by the National Aeronautic Association, and a list of recipients.
http://www.naa.ycg.org/wright.htm

Wright Brothers National Memorial
Information about the museum and historical site at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
http://www.nps.gov/wrbr/

History of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio
Very short history, starting with the Wrights at Huffman Prairie.
http://www.beneco.com/Beneco/Wright-Patterson/History.htm