Maddy+Burke

Maddy Burke Group 84 10/14/09

__The Wright Brothers__

Wilbur and Orville Wright were the inventors of the first machine that ever flew, the airplane. Wilbur and Orville were very close brothers. They did everything together. Neither of them married nor had children. Also they both left high school before graduating and getting a diploma. They learnt more by teaching themselves. Wilbur was born on a farm near Millville, Indiana on April 16, 1867. Orville was born in Daytona on August 19, 1871 in a house on Hawthorne Street where the family finally settled. Wilbur was four years older and 1.5 inches taller than Orville. They had two younger brothers named Revchlin and Lorin. They also had a younger sister named Katherine. Wilbur was very serious and always dressed in nice clothes. Even while working in the bicycle shop Wilbur would have a suit on under his apron. Wilbur was more likely to see the project of the airplane through. However, Orville was full of ideas and enthusiasm. He was a dreamer. Wilbur had the idea of the airplane, but it was Orville’s enthusiasm that carried the project along. Wilbur was a tall bald man with bird-like features. Orville had a lot of hair and he was known for his bushy mustache. Wilbur died in 1912 of typhoid fever. Orville was very depressed after Wilbur died, and he stopped making airplanes. Orville amused himself with small meaningless experiments. Orville died on his front porch from a heart attack, while amusing himself by tinkering with his doorbell, in 1948. Wilbur and Orville had to have experience and inspiration to invent something as important as the airplane. Since they were boys, they enjoyed working with tools and making up mechanical projects. Their dad was newspaper writer. In their early years they helped their dad write his newspaper. They started their own school newspaper in high school. Their mother, like them, also enjoyed working with her hands. Orville and Wilbur would go to her if they needed help on a mechanical project, so their mother gave them a little bit of mechanical experience and partly inspired them. Bicycles were popular during that time, so in 1892 Wilbur and Orville opened up a bicycle repair and sale shop together. This helped them learn and practice the skills and techniques in basic mechanics. The shop was called Wright Cycle and they did pretty good business. Wilbur and Orville’s biggest inspiration was Otto Lilienthal. He was one of the great glider pilots of the nation. Otto Lilienthal first attracted their attention to projects involving flight. However, it wasn’t until Otto Lilienthal’s death in 1896 when they actually started experimenting with gliders and studying flight. Little did they know of how famous that they would become because of these great experiments and discoveries. On December 17, 1903, people looked up into the sky and were amazed with what they saw, the world’s first flying machine! There was a propeller in the front, but no seats for any passengers or pilots. How did they fly the machine? If you wanted to fly on that plane you had to lie down flat on your stomach and hold on for dear life as you try and steer the machine. Orville and Wilbur’s first flight lasted twelve seconds. In those twelve seconds they flew 120 feet. At first they experimented with kites and gliders. Also, Wilbur studied buzzards flying and saw that you had to operate at 3 axes in order to fly. In 1900 they set up a campsite in the dunes in Kitty Hawk to do their experiments with gliders. In that same year they built their first glider. It failed to fly. In 1902 they built their third glider. This glider beat all records of glider flight! After they made this glider they started to focus on a new project, inventing the world’s first airplane. No manufacturing company would make an engine that would meet the specifications that they needed, so they built their own engine. They built and engine with twelve horsepower, and it had four cylinders. They built their plane in the bike shop. They made their first, and the world’s first flight on December 17, 1903. It lasted twelve seconds and they flew 120 feet. Orville flew the plane the first time. They made three flights on the first day. Their longest flight on that day was made by Wilbur, and it was 59 seconds. In those 59 seconds he flew 852 feet. Wilbur and Orville made their flights in a field called Huffman Prairie. Wilbur and Orville’s first circling flight lasted 1 minute and 36 seconds. On May 22, 1906 Wilbur and Orville got a patent for their machine, so that no one else could sell them. In 1908 they started up the American Wright Company, where they built and sold airplanes. The government eventually had them build an airplane. When they flew this airplane it crashed. One passenger was killed, and Orville was injured. This was the first plane crash. Orville and Wilbur made 105 flights all together. However it totaled out that they one spent 45 minutes of their life in the air. Today one flight is longer than 45 minutes. Wilbur and Orville were great inventors. They invented a better way of transportation and proved that you can do anything if you set your mind to it.

Encyclopedia Author's name: not given Title of article: Wright Brothers Title of Encyclopedia: World Book Place of Publication: Chicago Publishing Company: World Book Inc. Year of Publication: 2005

Book Author's name: Freedman, Russel Title of Book: The Wright Brothers Place of Publication: New York Publishing Company: Scholastic Inc. Year of Publication: 1991

Online Periodical Author's name: not given Title of Article: Wright Brothers Title of Original Publication: Encyclopedia of World Biography Publishing Company: Gale Year of Publication: 1998 Date accessed: 9/30/09 : www.galenet.galegroup.com/>

Encyclopedia Author's name: not given Title of Encyclopedia: Compton's Title of Article: Wright, Wilbur and Orville Place of Publication: U.S.A Publishing Company: Encyclopedia Britannica Inc. Year of Publication: 2005

Online Periodical Author's name: not given Title of Article: Wright Brothers Title of Encyclopedia: World Book or Grolier Date accessed: 10/2/09 Publishing Company: World Book Inc.or Grolier online Year of Publication: 2009 URL: www.worldbookonline.com/>