Wright family

Wilbur Wright (b. 1867) and Orville Wright (b. 1871) became famous for inventing the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight on 17 December 1903. However, before their aeronautical fame, the brothers ran a printing business, then a bicycle repair shop and later manufactured their own bicycles. Wilbur died in 1912, Orville in 1948.

The Wright brothers were famous inventors, but were also a product of late 19th century Midwestern America. Both of their parents came from farm families of modest financial means. Their father, Milton, was born in Rush County, Indiana in 1828. Their mother, Susan Catherine Koerner, was born in Loudon County, Virginia in 1831.

The first paternal ancestor of the Wrights to come to America was Samuel Wright, who came to Massachusetts Colony in the 1630's. He became a deacon in the Puritan community of Springfield. Milton, who had a lifelong interest in genealogy, was proud to trace his ancestry to Deacon Samuel. Samuel's great-great-grandson, Dan Wright, came to Ohio in 1814 with his wife and six children, Porter, Asahel, Dan Jr. Sarah, Elizabeth and Samuel, and settled in Centerville. Young Dan, Milton's father, married a Centerville girl, Catherine Reeder in 1818. Catherine was the daughter of Margaret Van Cleve Reeder, said to have been the first white woman to set foot in Dayton. Margaret's brother Benjamin was one of Dayton's first settlers (1796). In 1821, Dan Jr. moved with his wife and two infant sons to Rush County, Indiana, where Milton was born. The elder Dan and his wife remained in the Dayton area for the rest of their lives, living with Asahel on a farm near Phoneton in Bethel Township.

Milton became an ordained minister of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ in 1856. Susan, who moved with her family to Union County, Indiana when she was 1 1/2 years old, met Milton in 1853 at Hartsville College, a United Brethren institution. They were married on November 24, 1859. Milton moved with his family to Dayton, Ohio in June, 1869 after his election as editor of the United Brethren newspaper, The Religious Telescope. He was elected a bishop in 1877. Milton and Susan lived in Dayton for the rest of their lives except for the period 1878-1884, when Milton was assigned elsewhere (1878 to 1881, Cedar Rapids, Iowa and 1881 to 1884, Richmond, Ind.). Susan died from tuberculosis in 1889 at the age of fifty-eight. Milton died much later, in 1917, at the age of eighty-eight.

Milton transmitted to his children a strong sense of moral rectitude and the importance of family; his love for family genealogy was passed on to Orville. Susan inherited a great deal of mechanical aptitude from her father, John Koerner. She was also extremely shy. Both of these traits were evident in Orville.

Wilbur Wright was born April 16, 1867 near Millville, Indiana, in Henry County, about 25 miles west of Richmond. Orville Wright was born August 19, 1871 at 7 Hawthorn Street in West Dayton, about a mile from downtown Dayton. The Wright family lived at this address for over forty years, from 1871 to 1914, except for the period 1878-1884. Other children born to Milton and Susan Wright were sons Reuchlin (b. 1861) and Lorin (b. 1862), and daughter Katharine (b.1874). Twins Otis and Ida (b. 1870) died in infancy. Wilbur and Orville lived in Dayton until their deaths.

Wilbur attended high school in Richmond. Although he completed all the course requirements for graduation, he did not receive his diploma because he did not apply for it. Orville attended high school for three full years in Dayton and was in the same class as the poet, Paul Laurence Dunbar, but did not return for his senior year and never graduated, opting to leave school to enter the printing business.

Orville had an early interest in printing, and with his friend and neighbor, Edwin Sines, published his first newspaper, The Weekly Midget, in 1886 at the age of fifteen. It was discontinued after one issue, but Orville remained in the printing business until 1899. In 1889, Orville bought out Sines, who continued to work as an employee. In April, 1889 Wilbur joined Orville to form Wright and Wright Printers, which operated at several different locations in West Dayton. For Wilbur it signaled the emergence from a four-year period of withdrawal and periodic depression, a time which he spent in reading, introspection, and nursing his tubercular mother who, by 1886, had become an invalid.

The Wright brothers became interested in bicycles in 1892 when the cycling craze was sweeping America. Originally, cycling was a recreational pursuit, but their mechanical aptitude in constructing printing presses carried over into repairing bicycles, and they decided to go into the bicycle repair and, eventually, the bicycle construction business, while maintaining their printing shop. From 1892 to 1916 their bicycle shop, which eventually became the Wright Cycle Company, had six different locations. It was during this time, starting in 1896, that the Wright brothers began to consider seriously the possibility of human flight.

In August, 1896, Orville contracted typhoid fever. Although he remained seriously ill for several months, he did survive. During this time, recent work of men such as Otto Lilienthal and Octave Chanute on manned gliders and Samuel Pierpoint Langley on unmanned powered flying machines were in the news. By 1896, all three of these men had designed successful gliders or machinery, which captured the public imagination and also began to draw the serious attention of the scientific world.

In 1899, Wilbur began to think seriously of doing experiments in aeronautics. This was still a largely discredited subject and many libraries did not carry books on it. Accordingly Wilbur wrote to the Smithsonian Institution requesting copies of any papers on the subject which they might have and a list of other works in English which might be available. From the information he thus obtained Wilbur realized that control and stability were the most critical unsolved problems and decided that experimenting with first unmanned and then manned gliders was the best path to follow. He also concluded that pilot control of a manned machine would be the safest and best option for practical powered flight. His insight into how birds controlled their flight by altering the aerodynamic characteristics of their wings led to his breakthrough "wing-warping" concept. It is evident that Wilbur was the first of the two brothers to show interest in the problem of powered flight, but from 1900 on, when the brothers began their experiments with gliders at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, it is clear that Wilbur and Orville were equal partners and conducted themselves as a team in their dealings with competitors, customers, reporters and the general public. It is also clear that Orville's talents as a designer and builder of devices and machinery was a perfect complement to Wilbur's insight and grasp of the "big picture," and that one could not have succeeded without the other.

From 1900 to 1902, Orville and Wilbur constructed and experimented with three gliders at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Wilbur chose this location because of its high average wind speed and its relative seclusion. At the end of 1902, they began planning a powered flying machine, which was shipped to Kitty Hawk in 1903. After renovating the 1902 glider and conducting additional experiments with it, they assembled their 1903 machine and on December 17, at Big Kill Devil Hills, they achieved the world's first manned powered flight. The first flight, by Orville, covered a little over 120 feet and lasted 12 seconds.

In the years 1904 and 1905, Orville and Wilbur built two more Wright "Fliers", the more successful being the 1905 Wright Flyer, for which significant improvements in pitch and elevator control made it the first practical airplane, capable of taking off, flying for an extended period and landing safely on a consistent basis. Their experimental flights were now occurring at Huffman Prairie-Simms Station, about eight miles east of Dayton and part of what is now Patterson Field of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. It was also during 1904 that they contacted an attorney to file a patent application for their flying machine. Having kept their work rather low profile from the beginning, they became even more protective about their invention, avoiding publicity and refusing to distribute photographs or technical information. This policy probably delayed acceptance of their invention by potential buyers and journalists and government officials remained skeptical.

In 1904, the brothers contacted the U.S. War Department offering to provide all their accumulated engineering data and to sell the license to use their patent. The response from the War Department was negative. This was understandable in view of the recent failure of Langley's Aerodrome (December 1903) and the fact that the Wrights offered no proof of their claims. But Orville and Wilbur refused to deal any further with the War Department and turned to England as a potential buyer. Their refusal to demonstrate their claims also led to a stalemate with the English . Even after the patent was granted in 1906, the brothers announced that they would not publicly test their flying machine until they had found a buyer. During 1907, they spent several months in Europe negotiating unsuccessfully with the French and German governments. In December, 1907, The U.S. Signal Corps advertised for bids on a military heavier-than-air flying machine. The Wrights submitted a bid, which was accepted, and the first formal U.S. Army airplane contract was signed on February 10, 1908.

Now the Wrights could lift their self-imposed moratorium on flying. Later that year they returned to Kitty Hawk to resume flying, using their 1905 Flyer modified with a larger engine and erect seating for the pilot and one passenger. Wilbur returned to France for demonstration flights while Orville worked on preparing the U.S. Army airplane. On September 17, 1908, Orville was severely injured and his passenger killed in a crash during trials of the aircraft for the Army at Fort Myer, Virginia. The accident ultimately left Orville with chronic sciatica that made traveling in automobiles and airplanes uncomfortable.

Wilbur, joined by Orville and sister Katharine, continued demonstration flights in France and Italy into early 1909. In March, the Wrights entered into a contract with the Short Brothers of England, who were balloon manufacturers, to build six Wright Flyers, using Wright plans, to sell to English customers. This successful tour of Europe made the Wright brothers famous, and upon their return to America in May, they were treated as heroes. They had finally achieved the fame and honor due them. Wilbur and Orville would have preferred a quiet homecoming with family and friends when they arrived in Dayton on May 13. The first priority was to correct the problem with the Flyer used in the Fort Myer tests and to prepare for a resumption of the trials. But they could not avoid their status as hometown heroes, and a gala two-day homecoming celebration was held July 17-18. The next day they left for Washington, DC to resume the Fort Myer trials, which were successfully concluded on July 30. On August 2, the Army agreed to purchase the Wright airplane.

August, 1909 also marked the initiation of a long patent war with Glen Hammond Curtiss, who earlier that year had formed the Curtiss-Herring Company with Augustus Herring and built a successful airplane with a control system that the Wrights felt was an infringement on their patent. Other patent suits followed against foreign aviators and aircraft manufacturers. They were also defendants in two rather frivolous patent litigations brought against them. From 1910 to 1912, the various patent battles dominated the Wright brothers' time, as they were determined to establish their position as the inventors of the airplane and to stop competitors from infringing on their patent. In November, 1909, the Wright Company was incorporated, with Wilbur as president and Orville as one of two vice-presidents. The other vice-president was Andrew Freedman, a New York financier. The manufacturing facility would be in Dayton. Ground was broken in January, 1910 for a factory in Dayton, which was completed in November. Initially this factory produced about two airplanes a month, with Wilbur and Orville in charge of production. The business end was left to an employee (factory manager). In 1911, a second factory was built adjacent to the first. These eventually became a part of the Delco Products Company.

Other significant events which occurred in 1910 include the establishment in March of the Wright Exhibition Company (an exhibition flying business) which operated until November, 1911, the establishment of the Wright School of Aviation and the selection by Wilbur of Montgomery, Alabama as a site for the School during the winter months. This later became the location of Maxwell Air Force Base. The training of pilots in Dayton was done at the Huffman Prairie-Simms Station site. On May 25, Orville took his father for his first airplane ride, at the age of 82. On the same day, Wilbur and Orville flew together for the first and only time, with Orville piloting. In June, the first Wright Model B airplane was completed. The planes built before 1908 and based on the 1905 Flyer design were considered by the Wrights as their "Model A," although they never formally designated them as such. In July, they installed and conducted experiments with wheels instead of skids, for the first time, on a Model B. Wilbur spent a good part of 1911, from March to August, attending to business matters in Europe. It was a stressful and discouraging trip, involving mismanagement by their licensees in France and Germany and ongoing patent litigation. It was becoming clear, however, that the lead in flight technology had passed from the Wright Company to other manufactures, in particular the French. Wilbur felt that this was due to the enormous amount of time they had been compelled to devote since 1906, to protecting their patents and the commercial value of their invention. Had they been able to sell their flying machine to governments, as they originally intended, they might have had more time for the research required to improve their invention. In the first three months of 1912, Wilbur was constantly on the road pursuing their several lawsuits. In late April he fell ill while on a trip to Boston. Upon his return to Dayton on May 2, he developed a fever. Eventually it was diagnosed as typhoid. Unlike Orville in 1896, Wilbur did not survive it. He died on May 30, 1912.

Orville felt that the stress and fatigue which Wilbur had undergone during the patent litigation had contributed to the illness which killed him and he became even more determined to carry on the fight. In February, 1913, he left with Katharine to visit the Wright business interests in Europe. While in Europe, the presiding judge in the Wright vs. Curtiss suit, made his decision upholding the Wright position. Curtiss appealed to the Federal Appeals Court, which would take almost a year to render its decision.

Orville and Katharine returned to Dayton in March of 1913, just before the great flood of March 25-27. The flood caused considerable damage to the first floor of their home and to the bicycle shop, but fortunately did little damage to the glass plate negatives of the Wrights' early aviation work, to the records of their experiments, and to the remnants of the 1903 Flyer stored in crates.

Under the terms of the incorporation of the Wright Company Orville succeeded Wilbur, as president upon the latter's death. By temperament and personality, Orville was unsuited to such a position. He intensely disliked public speaking, was uncomfortable with strangers, and had difficulty bringing himself to put anything in writing. There is no doubt that as engineers and inventors, Orville and Wilbur were each essential to their joint success. Both men had expressed that they were happier when left alone to pursue their research and engineering efforts. When it came to management and administration, Wilbur at least was able to do the job, even if he didn't like. He seemed to be more driven than Orville, perhaps more ambitious. He was the writer and the speechmaker; he was the one who initiated all the lawsuits; he was the one who barnstormed in Europe trying to negotiate contracts and licensing agreements.

Orville did not seem to have any great ambition to expand the company. His lack of drive may have been due in part to the loss of his brother. Only the ongoing court battle with Glenn H. Curtiss seemed to attract his attention. The negative impact of this suit on the company was to impede technical advances in the design of aircraft. The standard production model in 1913, the Model C, had fallen into disfavor with the U.S. Army because of a high number of fatal crashes involving its pilots. There were suspicions that a major design flaw was present. Orville rejected this notion and thought that the automatic stabilizer system on which he had been working for several years would reduce pilot error. He obtained a patent for his "automatic pilot" in October 1913 and demonstrated it publicly on December 31. Although his device worked it was never widely used, because about the same time an engineer for the Curtiss Company was devising a gyroscopic automatic pilot. The gyroscope-based system became and still is the standard automatic navigation system for aircraft.

In January, 1914, the good news came that the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the decision in favor of the Wrights in the case of Wright vs. Curtiss. Glenn Hammond Curtiss had infringed on the Wright patent. The board of directors of the Wright Company was excited about the prospects of establishing a legal monopoly on the basis of this decision. But it was not to be. Orville refused to take action that would drive Curtiss and other companies out of business or cause them to be bought up. Orville was apparently satisfied with winning the suit. He announced that all companies, with the possible exception of Curtiss, could continue doing business as long as they paid a twenty percent royalty to the Wright Company on every flying machine sold. Curtiss realized that this offer would not be available to him. He looked for and found a legal loophole with which he was able to circumvent the Appellate Court's decision. This meant the Wright Company would have to bring suit all over again.

Quick legal action on the basis of the original ruling might still have forced Curtiss out of business; Orville hesitated, frustrating the directors even further. At this point, in the early spring of 1914, the Wright Company found itself lagging behind Curtiss' Company in the production and design of new aircraft. In contrast to Curtiss, Orville had no desire for personal or corporate power, and showed little interest in managing a research and development program which could bring the Wright Company up to its competition.

Orville's response to the situation was to proceed quietly to buy up most of the shares in his company. Once in control, he brought suit against the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company in November, 1914, and also filed a new patent incorporating changes since the previous one was issued in 1906. With these steps, Orville wanted to demonstrate the continuing value of the Wright patents.

Orville then proceeded to put the Wright Company up for sale. Negotiations took several months, but in October, 1915, the sale was completed to a group of New York financiers. During the period 1914-1915, Orville proved to be an astute businessman. His sale of the company solved several problems. It released him of a responsibility which he neither wanted nor enjoyed. It left the company still viable and with some hope of being competitive. Finally, the sale enabled Orville to live comfortably for the rest of his life without the involvement in corporate and patent wars. Under the terms of the sale he stayed on for one year as a consulting engineer, but after that he had no further connection with the firm.

One will never know what the history of the Wright Company would have been had Wilbur lived. He might have enjoyed playing the corporate game, or at least accepted the challenge. Unlike Orville, he appeared to enjoy associating with the New York financial backers that constituted the majority of the board.

The history of the Wright Company after its sale is of an effort to keep up with advances in aircraft technology. In 1916, it merged with the Glenn L. Martin Company and the Simplex Automobile Company to form the Wright-Martin Company. In 1917, operations were transferred out of Dayton to the Simplex plant in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Wright-Martin became profitable as an engine rather than an aircraft company. Glen Martin left the company in 1917, and in 1919 it reorganized again as the Wright Aeronautical Company, which became the most successful aircraft engine company in the U.S. during the next decade.

The Wright Company continued to pursue the patent suit with Curtiss after Orville left, but was never able to resolve it. The chaos created by competing rivals with conflicting patent claims had a negative effect on the U.S. aeronautics industry, so maybe the establishment of an aviation monopoly, as the Wright Company directors had desired in 1914, would have been good for the industry. In any case, the U.S. government intervened in 1917 and pressured the manufacturers to form a Manufacturers Aircraft Association whose members entered into cross-licensing agreements. Wright-Martin and Curtiss, the principal patent holders, each received a cash settlement for agreeing to resolve their differences. The patent wars were over. In 1929, The Wright Aeronautical Company and the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company merged to form Curtiss-Wright, one of the largest aircraft and engine companies in America.

For Orville, the patent war died in 1914 when he felt vindicated by the appellate court decision. But in August, 1915 a new controversy arose between Orville and the Smithsonian Institution when the latter published in its 1914 annual report a statement to the effect that the Aerodrome of Samuel P. Langley was "the first aeroplane capable of sustained free flight with a man." This controversy was to continue until 1943.

In August, 1914, the Wright family (Orville, Katharine and father Milton) moved from 7 Hawthorn's Street to a new home in the southern suburb of Oakwood. They named their new home, a colonial mansion, Hawthorn Hill. Orville supervised its construction and designed the utility systems himself. Orville lived there until his death in 1948.

Also in 1914, Orville became a founding member of the Engineers' Club of Dayton. Other founders included inventors/entrepreneurs Edward A. Deeds and Charles F. Kettering. Kettering invented the automobile self-starter and ignition system, and he and Deeds co- founded the Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company (DELCO). Deeds, Kettering and the Harold Talbotts (Sr. and Jr.) established the Dayton Airplane Company in March 1917 after the Wright-Martin Company left Dayton, with Orville as consulting engineer. Reorganized a few weeks later as the Dayton-Wright Company; it was awarded contracts for the production of 4,000 warplanes and 400 trainers. With America's entry into World War I, Orville was commissioned a major in the Signal Officers Reserve Corps, but was allowed to stay in Dayton and work for the Dayton-Wright Company. To fulfill its contracts the company had to build the 4,000 warplanes using an existing British aircraft, the De 'Havilland-4 (DH-4), modified to accommodate an American-built Liberty Engine. As a public relations gesture, Orville flew one of his 1911 machines in formation with the first DH-4 to roll off the production line. This was in May 1918, and was the last time he would pilot an airplane. The war record of the Dayton-built DH-4 was mixed. By war's end it was being referred to as a "flying coffin."

In addition to the DH-4 project, Orville had another project, called the Kettering Bug. This was a flying bomb, which could be flown to targets behind enemy lines. This project was still under development when the war ended.

Orville retained his connection with Dayton-Wright after the war. In 1919, the company was purchased by General Motors, who continued to operate it until 1923, when it was shut down. Orville's last patent was for the split flap, a device designed to increase lift and enable a pilot to perform a steep dive at lower speed. A Navy Bureau of Aeronautics report in 1922 described the split flap as being of no value, but navy fliers found this device to be very useful in dive-bomber raids during World War II.

In 1916, Orville had begun construction of a one-story building at 15 N. Broadway, which was to be his personal laboratory. It was completed in December of that year, at which time the Wright Cycle Company went out of existence and the Wright Aeronautical Laboratory was born. It was scarcely a block away from 1127 W. Third Street, where the bicycle shop had been located since 1908. Orville had no further ties with American industry after the closing of Dayton-Wright in 1923, but he continued to go to his laboratory daily, working on whatever interested him at the time, right up until his death.

Although Orville's active role in aviation diminished after the early 1920's, he served for many years on various aeronautical boards and committees, chief among them being the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) from 1920 to 1948, and the Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics for the five years it existed (1926-1930). He also had the time to enjoy the activities, which had always been dear to him: his family, especially his nieces and nephews; the pursuit of family genealogy in the tradition of his father; his fascination with gadgetry of all kinds.

In 1916 he had received a request from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the loan of the original 1903 Flyer to display at the Institute later that year. Those parts that still existed were unpacked from crates stored in a shed behind the Wright Cycle Shop. It was reconstructed and new parts added where necessary, and was displayed at MIT in June, 1916 and at the Pan-American Aeronautical Exhibition in New York in February, 1917. From 1918 to 1925 it was stored in Dayton. Because of his feud with the Smithsonian over its claim that Langley's Aerodrome could have flown in 1903, Orville was unwilling to give the 1903 Flyer to the Institution, or to allow it to be displayed permanently anywhere in America. In 1925 he announced that it would be on indefinite loan to the Science Museum of London. It was shipped there in 1928.

In the summer of 1926, Katharine announced her engagement to Henry J. Haskell. This was a complete surprise to Orville. Katharine and Henry were married in November 1926 in Oberlin, Ohio. Orville did not attend the wedding. The Haskells moved to Kansas City soon after the wedding. Orville was estranged from his sister until he visited her on her deathbed in March of 1929. Katharine's body was returned to Dayton for burial in the Wright family plot. After Katharine's marriage Orville lived at Hawthorn Hill alone except for the Wright family housekeeper of many years, Carrie Grumbach. The oldest brother, Reuchlin, had died in 1920 in Kansas; while brother Lorin lived in Dayton until his death in 1939.

The U.S. Army established Wilbur Wright Field in 1917 as a base for the training of combat pilots. It contained the original Huffman Prairie-Simms Station flying field used by Orville and Wilbur since 1904 for test flights and also by their Wright Exhibition Company and the Wright School of Aviation. In April, 1926, Orville and Katharine attended the groundbreaking ceremonies for a new U.S. Army facility to be called Wright Air Field, located about two miles away. In 1927, Wright Air Field replaced old McCook Field in Dayton. In 1931, Wilbur Wright Field was renamed Patterson Field, in honor of Lt. Frank Stuart Patterson, who was killed there in 1918 when the DH-4 he was flight- testing crashed. He was the nephew of Dayton industrialist John H. Patterson, founder of the National Cash Register Company. After World War II, Wright Air Field and Patterson Field were combined under one command to form Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

Honors and recognition continued to be received by Orville and, posthumously, by Wilbur. Among these were the Wright Memorial at Kill Devil Hills, Kitty Hawk, dedicated in November, 1932 and the Wright Memorial on Wright Brothers Memorial Hill, now part of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, dedicated in August, 1940. In 1936 Henry Ford purchased the last building used by the brothers for their bicycle shop, and also the house at 7 Hawthorn Street, and moved them to his Greenfield Village museum near Detroit. The dedication there occurred in April, 1938. Finally, on October 24, 1942, the Smithsonian Institution brochure The 1914 Test of the Langley "Aerodrome" was published, containing apologies and retractions of former statements claiming the 1903 Aerodrome was "the first airplane capable of sustained free flight with a man." This marked the end of the Smithsonian-Wright controversy. So not only had Orville Wright become a living legend, he had also lived to see his final vindication by the Smithsonian.

In December, 1943, Orville wrote to the Director of the Science Museum of London, informing him that he would request the return of the 1903 Flyer once the war was over and it could be transported safely across the Atlantic. The machine at that time was in storage for the duration of the war. But Orville made no public announcement of this, nor did the Science Museum, so officially, at least; the situation had not changed.

After the war, the Flyer was removed from storage, but the Science Museum requested that its return be postponed until an accurate replica had been made. Meanwhile, early in 1947, Edward A. Deeds, then board chairman of the National Cash Register Company, told Orville that he was planning a historical park and wanted to include one of the Fliers. Orville suggested a restoration of the original 1905 Flyer. He had brought back to Dayton the engine and transmission of the Flyer after the crash at Kitty Hawk in 1908. The airplane had been left at Kill Devil Hills, and in 1911 Orville had given what was left of it to the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where it was still in storage in 1947. Orville was able to re-acquire these parts, and supervised the reconstruction of the Flyer.

The 1905 Flyer was unveiled at Carillon Historical Park in 1950, but Orville did not live to see the day. He had suffered a mild heart attack in October 1947 and a second one in January, 1948 at his Laboratory. He died in the hospital three days later, on January 30, 1948, at the age of seventy-six. The funeral was held on February 7, and Orville was buried at Woodland Cemetery next to Wilbur.

At Orville's' death there had still been no official announcement about the return of the 1903 Flyer. But his will included the stipulation that this machine remain in London unless the will was amended by a subsequent letter from him indicating a change of heart. His executors were able to obtain a copy of the 1943 letter Orville had written to the Science Museum. The existence of this letter was announced immediately, whereupon the Smithsonian opened discussions with the heirs and the British government for the return of the airplane. On December 17, 1948, forty-five years to the day after the first flight at Kitty Hawk, the 1903 Flyer was formally presented to the Smithsonian Institution.

One may ask what it was about the Wright brothers which has so fascinated the world. After all they were not men of wealth or high station. And while they were certainly intelligent and well educated, they had no special training in science and engineering, and neither of them had a high school diploma. When they began their work in aeronautics, they had no friends in high political places, neither in Washington nor elsewhere, and they were not part of America's financial or intellectual elite. But this is precisely why they captured the world's imagination. They were so ordinary. True, they were individuals of high moral character and possessed a strong sense of loyalty to friends and family. True, they had simple, devout parents who taught them to value hard work and perseverance. But when one adds Wilbur's vision and insight and Orville's mechanical genius, these outwardly ordinary men together achieved something truly extraordinary.

From the guide to the Wright Brothers Collection, 1814-1996, 1852-1945, (Dayton Metro Library)