WRIGHT BROTHERS
Aeroplane Company
No invention, no scientific discovery, no work of art, no human endeavor happens in an historical vacuum. There are always other factors -- cultural, political, personal -- that influence the outcome of a single event. So it was with the invention of the airplane. The Wright brothers were born just as the Scientific Method became a tremendous force for cultural change, and the world became an increasingly wonderful and terrible place because of it. When Wilbur and Orville were children, the abacus was the most advanced mathematical aid, influenza was an often-fatal disease, and the cannon was the most feared weapon of war. By the time Orville died, the first computers were just being built, antibiotics had begun to wipe out disease, and the atomic bomb made war unthinkable. Many of these advances influenced the development of the airplane -- and the airplane, in turn, influenced further advances.
Here is chronology that shows not just the story of the Wright brothers, but also the world they lived in and the important political, cultural, and scientific events that loomed large in their lives.
| Time | The Wright Story | The Bigger Picture |
| 1860
to 1869 |
1867 — Wilbur Wright is born near Millville, Indiana. |
1861 to 1865 -- The United States of
America is engulfed in a Civil War.
1864 -- Louis Pasteur develops the pasteurization process to kill bacteria. 1867 -- The Transcontinental Railroad spans America and Johann Straus writes the Blue Danube Waltz. |
| 1870
to 1879 |
1871 — Orville Wright is born in Dayton, Ohio. 1878 — Wright brothers build their first aircraft, a rubber-band powered helicopter they call a "bat." |
1872 --
Susan B. Anthony is arrested for voting and Yellowstone becomes the
first U.S. national park.
1876 -- Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone and Lt. Colonel George Custer makes his last stand against the Sioux at Little Bighorn. 1877 -- Nikolaus Otto invents the four-cycle internal combustion engine. 1878 -- A. A. Pope manufactures the first bicycles in America. |
| 1880
to 1889 |
1885 — A sports injury leads to health problems that prevent Wilbur from attending college. 1886 — Orville starts a printing business while he is still in high school. 1889 — Orville publishes a newspaper, the "West Side News," and Wilbur joins him as editor. The newspaper business does not profit and the Wrights return to printing to make a living. |
1880 -- Thomas Edison invents the
electric light and Rodin sculpts The Thinker.
1883 -- The first skyscraper is built in Chicago. 1884 -- Mark Twain publishes Huckleberry Finn. 1889 -- The Eiffel Tower is built in Paris. |
| 1890
to 1899 |
1893 — The Wright brothers begin to sell and repair bicycles. 1895 — The Wrights manufacture their own bicycles, the "St. Clair" and the "Van Cleve." The bike business is profitable. 1896 — The Wrights take an interest in the "flying problem" after hearing of the flight of Samuel Langley's unmanned "Aerodrome" and the death of glider pilot Otto Lilienthal. 1899 — Wilbur devises a revolutionary control system for aircraft and builds a kite to test it. |
1892 -- Tchaikovsky performs
The Nutcracker ballet.
1893 -- Karl Benz and Henry Ford build their first automobiles. 1895 -- Marconi transmits the first radio signals. 1896 -- The first modern Olympics are held in Athens, Greece. 1898 -- The United States goes to war with Spain, and Marie and Pierre Curie discover the first radioactive element, radium. |
| 1900
to 1909 |
1900 to 1902 — The Wright brothers fly gliders at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, refining their control system. At home in Dayton, Ohio, they build a wind tunnel and conduct research on wing shapes. 1903 — The Wright brothers make the first controlled, sustained powered flight at Kitty Hawk. Samuel Langley of the Smithsonian Institution also tries to fly a manned version of his Aerodrome and fails. 1904 to 1905 — The Wrights develop a practical airplane at Huffman Prairie near Dayton, Ohio. 1906 -- The U.S. Patent Office grants a patent to the Wright Brothers on their airplane control system. 1908 — The Wright brothers demonstrate a two-passenger airplane in Europe and America. 1909 — The Wrights begin to manufacture and sell airplanes. They launch patent suits against Glenn Curtiss and other airplane builders who are using their control system without permission. |
1900 -- Pablo Picasso begins to show his
paintings and Sigmund Freud writes The Interpretation of Dreams.
1901 -- The first successful submarine is launched in Britain. 1903 -- The first true film, The Great Train Robbery, premiers. It is 12 minutes long. 1905 -- Albert Einstein publishes the Special Theory of Relativity and the Niagra Movement -- later to become the NAACP -- is founded. 1908 -- The Ford Motor Company produces the first "Model T" automobile. 1909 -- Leo Baekeland develops "Bakelight," the first widely-used plastic, and Ernest Rutheford discovers the structure of the atom. |
| 1910
to 1919 |
1912 — Wilbur Wright dies of typhoid in Dayton, Ohio. 1914 -- U.S. courts decide in favors of the Wrights in their suits against Curtiss and others, and the' 1906 patent becomes the "grandfather" patent of the airplane. The Smithsonian Institution claims that Langley's Aerodrome was the first manned aircraft "capable of flight" and begins a bitter disagreement with Orville Wright. 1915 — Orville Wright sells his airplane- company for $1.5 million. |
1912 -- The passenger ship Titanic sinks.
1914 to 1918 -- World War I rages in Europe. 1914 -- The Panama Canal opens and Robert Goddard begins his first rocketry experiments. 1916 -- Jazz emerges a distinct form of American music. 1917 -- The October Revolution makes Russia the first socialist state. 1919 -- Women get the right to vote in the United States. |
| 1920
to 1929 |
1920 -- Orville is
appointed to the National Advisory Council on Aeronautics (NACA, the
forerunner of NASA). He remains an active participant for the rest of his
life.
1922 -- Orville develops the split flap, which is used to slow airplanes in a steep dive. It is his last aeronautical invention. 1926 -- Orville Wright sends the 1903 Flyer 1 to an English museum to call public attention to the wrong he feels is being done to his name by the Smithsonian. |
1925 -- John L. Baird transmits the first television images. 1927 -- Charles Lindbergh flies non-stop from New York to Paris in The Spirit of St. Louis. 1929 -- The stock market plunges, starting the "Great Depression," a worldwide economic crisis. |
| 1930
to 1939 |
1932 — The Wright Brothers Monument at Kitty Hawk is dedicated. 1938 — The Wright Bicycle Shop and Wright home are opened to the public at Henry Ford Museum/Greenfield Village. |
1930 -- Astronomer C. W. Tombaugh
discovers the planet Pluto.
1933 -- Adolph Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany. 1937 -- Amelia Earhart is lost while attempting to become the first woman to fly around the world. 1939 -- John Steinbeck writes The Grapes of Wrath and the first antibiotic medicines are developed. |
| 1940
to 1949 |
1943 -- The Smithsonian
Institution finally apologizes to Orville and recognizes the Wright
Brothers as the first to make a controlled, sustained powered flight.
Orville recalls the Flyer 1 from England, but it can't be shipped
home until World War 2 ends.
1948 — Orville Wright dies of a heart attack in Dayton, Ohio and the Wright brothers' first powered airplane, the 1903 Flyer 1, is enshrined at the Smithsonian Institution. |
1940 to 1945 -- World War 2 rages in
Europe, North Africa, and the Pacific Ocean.
1942 -- The first electronic computer is built in the U.S. 1945 -- First atomic bomb is detonated at Alamogordo, NM. 1947 -- Chuck Yeager breaks the sound barrier in the Bell X-1. |
