Orville Wright

Orville Wright was born on August 19, 1871, in Dayton, Ohio, to Milton Wright, a bishop in the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, and Catherine Wright. The family moved frequently due to Milton's church duties, settling permanently in Dayton by 1884. As children, the brothers were fascinated by flight, inspired by their father's gift of a toy helicopter in 1878 and studies of gliding experiments by Otto Lilienthal. Orville showed early mischief in school, dropping out after his junior year in 1889 to start a printing business, building his own press with Wilbur's help; they published local newspapers like the West Side News and The Tattler for Dayton's African American community. After their mother's death from tuberculosis in 1889, the brothers shifted to the bicycle boom, opening a shop in 1892 for sales, repairs, and manufacturing their own models, including Orville's self-oiling wheel hub invention by 1896. This business funded their aviation experiments starting in 1899, where they studied bird flight, built a wind tunnel, and developed 'wing warping' for control, testing gliders at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, from 1900–1902. On December 17, 1903, they achieved the first free, controlled, powered flight with their Wright Flyer, covering 852 feet in 59 seconds across four flights that day. Post-1903, the Wrights faced skepticism and patent battles but gained recognition through 1908 demonstrations: Wilbur in Europe and Orville in the U.S., securing contracts with the U.S. Army and France. Orville survived a 1908 crash injuring him and killing passenger Thomas Selfridge. Wilbur died of typhoid in 1912, after which Orville sold the company in 1915 but continued inventing, including automatic stabilizers for the U.S. Army. He lived quietly in Dayton, never marrying, and donated the original Flyer to the Smithsonian in 1948, dying later that year at age 76 from a heart attack.