Wilbur Wright 1867–1912
Orville Wright 1871–1948
Invented the Airplane
Have you been on an airplane? Did you ever wonder who built it? The first airplane was made by two brothers named Orville and Wilbur Wright. The Wright brothers were from Ohio. They became interested in flying when they were boys and their father gave them a toy helicopter.
The brothers went into business together when they grew up. They had a bicycle shop. They used the back room of their bicycle shop to create their flying machine.
On a December morning in 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright tested their airplane on a quiet beach near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. They flew it four times. On the fourth flight, Wilbur traveled 856 feet in 59 seconds. He took off, flew, and landed. The Wrights' flying machine was the first one in history that really worked! For hundreds of years, people had tried to invent a machine that would let them fly. The Wright brothers did it and their invention changed the world.
Critical Thinking
We use airplanes to travel. In what other ways has the Wright brothers' invention been used?