| Wilbur Wright, born in 1867, and Orville Wright, born four | | | | propeller width, the modified, more ambitious design |
| yeas later in 1871, had been two of five children and | | | | featured white pine wing spars with spruce; a longer, |
| would ultimately be credited with invention of the | | | | 40-foot wingspan; reduced wing camber; a larger, |
| airplane. Although their predecessors, among them Sir | | | | aft-relocated fuel tank; and an almost 300-pound gross |
| George Cayley, Jean-Marie Le Brie, Clement Ader, | | | | weight. Take offs had been achieved with a |
| Otto Lillienthal, Octave Chanute, and Samuel Pierpoint | | | | 250-foot-long wooden launch rail, considered the |
| Langley, had attempted to conquer flight, it had been | | | | world's second runway after that of Kitty Hawk. |
| the Wright Brothers themselves who had been the | | | | Because projected winds had failed to produce |
| first to successfully fly a controlled, powered, | | | | sufficient airspeed in which to become airborne, a |
| heavier-than-air aircraft on December 17, 1903 at Kitty | | | | 1,200- to 1,600-pound catapult, erected on September |
| Hawk, North Carolina, in the form of the Wright Flyer | | | | 4, 1904, generated the required 28-mph rotation speed. |
| because they had applied a systematic approach to | | | | Of the 105 mostly-short flights conducted in 1904, the |
| solving the technological and aerodynamic problems | | | | longest had covered three miles and remained aloft |
| associated with flight, focusing on three parameters: | | | | for five minutes and eight seconds. Between 1910 and |
| 1. Lift | | | | 1916, the Wright Company operated a flying school |
| 2. Propulsion | | | | here, training more than 100 of the world's first pilots |
| 3. Balance and control | | | | for the Wright Exhibition Team and the military. In 1917, |
| The original Wright Flyer is currently displayed in the | | | | the US Army Signal Corps purchased the field, along |
| National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian | | | | with 2,000 adjacent acres, and renamed it Wilbur |
| Institution in Washington, D.C. | | | | Wright Field, subsequently establishing Wright-Patterson |
| Bishop Milton Wright, Wilbur and Orville's father, had | | | | Air Force Base in 1948. |
| once stated, "neither could have mastered the problem | | | | Today, Huffman Prairie Flying Field, the world's first |
| alone. As inseparable twins, they are indispensable to | | | | "airport," remains exactly the way it had been during |
| each other." | | | | the Wright Brothers' test flights, with a replica of the |
| Dayton itself, which is served by Dayton International | | | | Wrights' 1905 hangar (again the world's first), a replica |
| Airport or can alternatively be accessed by flying to | | | | of their catapult system, and National Park Service |
| Cincinnati followed by a 45-minute northerly drive on | | | | interpretive signs. The nearby Huffman Prairie Flying |
| Interstate 75 or flying to Columbus followed by a | | | | Field Interpretive Center offers exhibits which focus on |
| 90-minute westerly drive on Interstate 70, comprises | | | | the 1904-1905 experimental flights, the 1910-1916 flying |
| the National Aviation Heritage Area, whose self-guided | | | | school, and the history of the Wright-Patterson Air |
| "Aviation Trail" includes 13 aviation-related sights. | | | | Force Base. |
| One of the most important of these is the Wright | | | | The Wright Flyer III, yet another important Aviation Trail |
| Cycle Company. By late 1892, the joint | | | | sight, is located in Carillon Historical Park, a 65-acre |
| Wilbur-and-Orville printing venture, hitherto highly | | | | outdoor museum opened in 1950 whose 24 attractions |
| successful, had begun to diminish in importance, and | | | | deal with invention, settlement, industry, and |
| interest turned to the bicycle. Both brothers had, after | | | | transportation. The aircraft, seven feet longer than the |
| all, been mechanics and excellent riders and, with | | | | Wright Flyer II and the third design evolution after the |
| sufficient funding, opened a bicycle sales shop on | | | | original Wright Flyer, for the first time featured |
| West Third Street in Dayton. With increasing demand, | | | | decoupled wing-warping and rudder controls, the |
| and the emerging need for repairs and servicing, they | | | | former the initial method of banking along the |
| moved to several successively larger shops, ultimately | | | | longitudinal axis which had been later achieved with |
| designing their own bicycle brand, the Van Cleve, thus | | | | ailerons. With its three axes of flight-pitch, roll, and |
| forming the Wright Cycle Company. | | | | yaw-thus independently controllable by September of |
| The bicycle, however, had proved to be the first step | | | | 1905, the design, with larger horizontal and vertical |
| to the airplane. Both had been mechanically based and | | | | stabilizers and upward-curving skids, had eliminated |
| the Wright Brothers adopted bicycle technology to | | | | turn-induced stall tendencies and had been able to |
| aeronautical design, by analyzing their control method | | | | perform a wide range of aerial maneuvers, including |
| commonality. It had been in the back of just such a | | | | banks, circles, and figure-eights. With an endurance |
| bicycle shop where the world's first aircraft had taken | | | | exceeding 30 minutes, it provided the training aircraft in |
| shape. | | | | which countless others had learned to fly. |
| The brick Wright Cycle shop located at 22 South | | | | A 1908 modification entailed the installation of a more |
| William Street next to the Hoover Block, one of only | | | | power engine, reconfigured controls, and, for the first |
| two original Wright Brothers buildings still standing in | | | | time, passenger provision on the lower wing surface. |
| their original locations in the West Side neighborhood | | | | The Wright Flyer III, housed in Carillon Historical Park's |
| where the Wrights had lived, worked, and invented the | | | | Wright Hall, had been restored under the personal |
| airplane, and a National Historic Landmark, had been | | | | direction of Orville Wright. |
| occupied between 1895 and 1897. Today, the building | | | | The National Museum of the United States Air Force, |
| features the original wood plank floors, a workshop, | | | | adjacent to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and the |
| several Wright Van Cleve bicycles, and interactive | | | | largest sight on the Aviation Trail, is the world's largest |
| displays demonstrating bicycle technology application | | | | and oldest military aviation museum, and features more |
| toward the airplane and balance comparatives | | | | than 300 aircraft and 6,000 historical artifacts housed in |
| between the two. | | | | 17 acres of indoor display hangars spanning the history |
| Another significant Wright Brothers sight on the | | | | of aviation from its Wright Brothers inception to the |
| Aviation Trail is Huffman Prairie Flying Field. Although | | | | current stealth aircraft technology. The facility contains |
| initial flight experimentations had occurred in North | | | | an atrium entrance, an IMAX theater, a gift shop, a |
| Carolina, it had quickly become unfeasible to continue | | | | bookstore, a cafe, the National Aviation Hall of Fame, |
| flying from there for three primary reasons: | | | | an outdoor Air Park and Memorial Park, and seven |
| 1. The distance between North Carolina and Ohio to | | | | galleries: Early Years, Air Power, Modern Flight, Cold |
| repair one of many numerous parts in the more | | | | War, Missile/Space, Presidential Aircraft, and Research |
| fully-equipped Dayton workshop had become | | | | and Development/Flight Test Aircraft. Significant |
| prohibitive. | | | | exhibits, to name only a scant few, include the North |
| 2. The sand on Kill Devil Hill would ultimately damage | | | | American XB-70 Valkyrie, the Wright 1909 Military |
| the engine. | | | | Flyer, the Bleriot Monoplane, the Curtiss JN-4D Jenny, |
| 3. Correct wind direction, tantamount to flight, often | | | | the Nieuport 28, the Sopwith Camel, the Fokker D.VII, |
| failed to materialize, resulting in countless days of | | | | the de Havilland DH.4, the North American B-25B |
| inactivity. | | | | Mitchell, the Consolidated B-24D Liberator, the Boeing |
| In order to remedy the deficiencies, the Wrights | | | | B-17G Flying Fortress, the Boeing B-52D Stratofortress, |
| received permission to use an 84-acre cow pasture | | | | the Convair B-36J Peacemaker, the Boeing WB-50D |
| nine miles northeast of Dayton called "Huffman Prairie" | | | | Superfortress, the Boeing RB-47H Stratojet, and the |
| whose layer of clay and frost heaves obviated tree | | | | Lockheed SR-71A Blackbird. |
| growth, yet provided a surface soft enough to cushion | | | | For an airline industry employee, a visit to Dayton, |
| hard landings. | | | | "Birthplace of Aviation," seems an obligation. After all, |
| It had been from this field that they had tested the | | | | without it, there would have been no airline industry in |
| successor to the original Wright Flyer, the Wright Flyer | | | | which to work... |
| II. Powered by a larger, 15-16 hp engine with increased | | | | |