Wright

A photograph of the Wright brothers, Wilbur and Orville, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, USA, on 17 December 1903, as their first powered glider takes off, piloted by Orville. The advances in flight that Wilbur and Orville made remained virtually unknown until 1905. The brothers hoped that aircraft would help to prevent war.

US inventors; brothers who pioneered piloted, powered flight. Inspired by Otto Lilienthal's gliding, they perfected their piloted glider in 1902. In 1903 they built a powered machine, a 12-hp 341-kg/750-lb plane, and became the first to make a successful powered flight, near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Orville flew 36.6 m/120 ft in 12 seconds; Wilbur, 260 m/852 ft in 59 seconds.

Both brothers became interested in flight at early ages. They devised a wing-control system and added a rudder and a balancing tail to existing gliders. By 1903 they had built and flown a power-driven plane; they received a patent in 1906 and in 1909 set up the American Wright Corp to produce planes for the War Department. After Wilbur's death Orville did research and served on the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics 1915-48.

Orville was born in Dayton, Ohio, and Wilbur in Indiana. They built their piloted glider while running a bicycle business in Dayton. In 1905 the Wrights offered their aeroplane design to the US War Department, though they did not exhibit the planes publicly until 1908-09, when they took them to Europe. From 1909 they manufactured aeroplanes, but Orville sold his interest in the Wright Company 1915, after Wilbur's death.

In 1899 the Wrights flew a large kite with controls for warping the wings to achieve control of direction and stability. These were the forerunners of ailerons. They then built a small wind tunnel and tested various wing designs and cambers, compiling the first accurate tables of lift and drag.

Wright

Town in Okaloosa County, northwest Florida; population (1990) 18,900. It is situated in the Florida Panhandle, 3 km/2 mi north of Fort Walton Beach. It is essentially a residential suburb, housing many military families from the neighbouring Eglin Air Force Base.