How it began
Wilbur and Orville Wright had a passing interest in flight as boys, when their father gave them a toy helicopter powered by twisted rubber in 1878. They began serious study in 1896, prompted by the fatal crash of the glider pioneer Otto Lilienthal. On May 30, 1899, Wilbur wrote to the Smithsonian Institution asking for publications on aeronautics. A four-year program of research followed, and on December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, their first powered airplane flew for 12 seconds and covered 36 meters (120 feet) with Orville as pilot.
Before it existed
Before the Flyer, the brothers worked with kites and gliders. According to the National Air and Space Museum, they built and tested three full-sized gliders before attempting powered flight, and from 1900 until late 1903 their glider tests also built their skills as pilots. Earlier experimenters such as Otto Lilienthal had flown gliders, and Lilienthal's widely publicized death in a crash was what turned the Wrights toward the problem.
How it works
The Wright Flyer was an engine-powered, heavier-than-air aircraft. What set the Wrights' work apart was control. Their first United States patent, written in March 1903 before the first flight, did not claim the invention of a flying machine. It claimed a system of aerodynamic control that manipulated the machine's surfaces. The brothers also used a wind tunnel and flight testing as design tools while developing their aircraft.
What lasted
The National Air and Space Museum describes the Wrights' achievement as twofold: the first flight of an airplane, and the establishment of the foundation of aeronautical engineering, including the use of the wind tunnel and flight testing in design. Their system of aircraft controls made fixed-wing powered flight possible and is described as remaining standard on airplanes of all kinds.
Where it stands today
The original 1903 Wright Flyer is held in the collection of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, which presents it as the machine that opened the aerial age. The site of the flights, about four miles south of Kitty Hawk, is now known as Kill Devil Hills.
