The Early History of the Airplane

Wilbur Wright, 1867 - 1912 Wilbur Wright was born on a small farm near Millville, Indiana on April 16, 1867. The family moved from Richmond, Indiana to Dayton in June of 1884, the month Wilbur was to have graduated from high school. Wilbur left Richmond without receiving his diploma, and returned to Central High School the next year for further studies in Greek and trigonometry.

During the winter of 1885-1886, Wilbur was hit with in the face with a bat while playing an ice-skating game. The injury at first did not seem serious. A few weeks later, he began to be affected with palpitations of the heart which kept Wilbur from attending a course in Yale College. For the next four years, Wilbur remained homebound, suffering perhaps as much from depression as from his vaguely-defined heart disorder.

It was during the years between 1900 and 1903 that the Wright Brothers developed the first working airplane. Their first two gliders had not worked as designed, and the Wrights were beginning a critical shift that would enable them to discover the reason. "The Wright Brothers Aeroplane" appeared in Century magazine in 1908, after Wilbur had made his flights in France.

Wilbur Wright died in 1912 at the age of 45.

030