The Wright Brothers

Main Characters:

Orville and Wilbur Wright; their father, Bishop Milton Wright; Henri Farman; Santos-Dumont; Octave Chanute; Dan Tate

Overall Theme:

Two bicycle repairmen embark on their dream to fly.  With no formal training as either scientists or engineers, they study Lilienthal’s diagrams for his glider and learn from experience the keys to controlled flight.

Summary:

As young boys, Wilbur and Orville Wright are full of ideas, enthusiasm and dreams.  Above their bicycle repair shop they discover how birds are able to balance by tilting their wings – wing warping.  They want to make a glider to do the same thing.  “You have a dream, you should do it,” their father encourages them.

After writing to the “center of knowledge for flight’” Octave Chanute, they learn the best place to glide is Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.   They tell Chanute about wing warping and make him promise not to tell anyone until they can perfect it.

Their first attempts are unsuccessful, however, as they realize that Lilienthal’s figures were incorrect.  Wilbur and Orville begin experimenting with the figures.  Meanwhile, others are beginning to take flight, but only in the beginning stages.

Finally, Wilbur and Orville manage a controlled flight.  All they need to do is add an engine.  Chanute lets the wing-warping idea slip when he is challenged, but the Wright brothers are not worried – the rest of the world doesn’t know how it works.

After a 59 second flight, Wilbur and Orville take Santos-Durmont, the French flyer, up on his challenge to show the world they can fly in France and on August 8,1908 the Wright brothers demonstrate to the world the power of controlled flight.

Background:

In a time when many scientists were tackling the question of flight, the Wright brothers were able to seize the opportunity to chase after their dream.  Who would have thought that bicycle repairmen would possess the knowledge of aviation?  That must have been the impression of the world when they first heard of the Wright brothers.

Wilbur and Orville could have easily given up after several unsuccessful attempts; however, they knew they could do it.  With Orville’s ideas and Wilbur’s judgments, they were determined to complete the project they had started.  Through perseverance and accomplishment, the Wright brothers became historical figures in aviation as the first to achieve controlled flight.