The Wright Brothers: Wilbur And Orville Wright

Wilbur and Orville Wright were born into a close and caring family of seven people in the late 1860 's. Their father, Milton Wright, who was a bishop in the Church of the United Brethren, was also quite strict, stood by his wife, and their mother, Susan Wright, the daughter of a skilled carriage maker, who was mechanically skilled and taught the children how to build things from young ages. Despite living a normal childhood, neither Wilbur nor Orville Wright finished high school. Wilbur and Orville were much closer than most siblings although they still had small fights. Of their relationship, Wilbur even said "From the time we were little children, my brother, Orville, and myself lived together, played together, worked together, and, in fact, thought together. We usually owned all of our toys in common, talked over our thoughts and aspirations so that nearly everything that was done in our lives had been the result of conversations, suggestions, and discussions between us."¹ In 1887 their father, Milton, brought home a rubber band powered flyer which despite many personal thoughts wouldn’t fall to the ground immediately, rather it would sputter through the air for a while before slowly coming to a stop on the ground. Later Orville described that toy as what sparked him and his brother’s interests.²

In doing this they went through many trial and error situations trying to get everything right.¹ The Brothers had been tinkering with the idea of flight on and off since their childhood. They were mechanically inclined young men who were inspired by the efforts of other inventors.² The Wright Brothers were persistent in inventing the Flyer through the difficulties of designing a light-weight engine, flying the Flyer for the first time, and improving it so that it would fly for more than thirty minutes rather than ten