The Wright brothers are known around the world as the inventors of the airplane. But few people know Wilbur and Orville invented the airplane in Dayton, Ohio--their hometown--not in North Carolina, where they tested it. Efforts to preserve historic places in the Dayton region where the Wright brothers lived and worked are paying off. Today, you can stroll the Wright brothers' neighborhood, see the original 1905 Wright Flyer III and walk the prairie where they flew it. A project to restore the Wright brothers' factory--the first American factory built to produce airplanes--will complete the picture. In this book, author Timothy R. Gaffney uses historical research and today's aviation heritage sites to retell the story of the Wright brothers from a hometown perspective.

In December 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright made history by embarking on the first controlled airplane flight among the dunes of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, thus opening up an era of aviation throughout the world. This title is part of the "Milestones in American History" series.

Hallowed skies blanket Dayton, Ohio, a city once known as the "Cradle of Aviation"--and with good reason. It was in Dayton that two brothers became the unlikely creators of the world's first airplane, but that is just the start of the story. Dayton Aviation: The Wright Brothers to McCook Field examines Dayton's civil and military aviation history from its start with the Wright Brothers to the founding of Wright and Patterson Fields in the 1930s, a period that saw the construction of the world's first airport, the Huffman Flying Prairie. Dayton was home to the first airplane factory and, later, the world's largest aircraft factory. The city introduced the world to crop dusting, landing lights, free-fall parachutes, pressurized cabins, night aerial photography, the first private-cabin plane, and the first strategic bomber. In downtown Dayton, office workers could look out windows and watch history unfold as pilots broke one world record after another in the skies over the city. Dayton was, and still is, the airplane capital of the world. These images, captured by the founding fathers of aviation, show that from 1904 through the 1930s, if it was happening in the air, it was happening in Dayton.

Orville and Wilbur Wright are two Americans credited with designing and constructing the world’s first successful airplane, as well as making the first controlled, motor-powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight. While their first flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina on December 17, 1912 was short (only 12 seconds) their impact on history would be long-lasting. Their breakthrough was not flight itself but control of flight. That control allowed for flight for mankind, and what they received a patent for (three-axis control, or left-right, forward-back and up-down) has become the standard on all fixed-wing aircrafts. Their inquisitive minds led them to build their own wind tunnel, which allowed them to study such sciences as lift and wind currents. Despite their breakthrough, they did not enjoy the revelry that may be expected from their monumental invention. They faced skepticism in Europe, problems with their patent and lawsuits. Their business ventures faced issues, and the friendships that the brothers had forged with others in the industry suffered. Even today, their status as inventors of the airplane has come under scrutiny, being subject to counter-claims by various parties. While questions may persist as to who invented what first, the contribution of the Wright brothers to the field of aviation cannot be understated. It was after their invention (and their various demonstrations of it) that the aviation field truly got off the ground. Author Don Harris, gives the reader a brief introduction to the brothers who gave birth to flight in this eBook.

OHIO: Home of the Wright Brothers - Birthplace of Aviation is the genealogical chronicle of an Ohio pioneer family and the invention of the airplane. The book follows the ancestry of the Wright brothers from the Revolutionary War in 1776, through the settling of the Northwest Territory in 1790, Ohio statehood in 1803, the development of the National Trail through the 1830s, the Civil War in the 1860s, and on through the lives of Wilbur and Orville Wright as they invent the airplane. The lives of Milton and Susan Wright, the parents of the Wright brothers, are followed from the early 1800s on through the years when they raise their children in Dayton, Ohio in the aura of Ohio's heyday as the home of presidents. The 790 page volume includes 40 plus illustrated maps, over two dozen family letters, and numerous official documents which amplify and detail the story of the Wright ancestors in Ohio.

Fresh from successful flights before royalty in Europe, and soon after thrilling hundreds of thousands of people by flying around the Statue of Liberty, in the fall of 1909 Wilbur and Orville Wright decided the time was right to begin manufacturing their airplanes for sale. Backed by Wall Street tycoons, including August Belmont, Cornelius Vanderbilt III, and Andrew Freedman, the brothers formed the Wright Company. The Wright Company trained hundreds of early aviators at its flight schools, including Roy Brown, the Canadian pilot credited with shooting down Manfred von Richtofen—the “Red Baron”—during the First World War; and Hap Arnold, the commander of the U.S. Army Air Forces during the Second World War. Pilots with the company’s exhibition department thrilled crowds at events from Winnipeg to Boston, Corpus Christi to Colorado Springs. Cal Rodgers flew a Wright Company airplane in pursuit of the $50,000 Hearst Aviation Prize in 1911. But all was not well in Dayton, a city that hummed with industry, producing cash registers, railroad cars, and many other products. The brothers found it hard to transition from running their own bicycle business to being corporate executives responsible for other people’s money. Their dogged pursuit of enforcement of their 1906 patent—especially against Glenn Curtiss and his company—helped hold back the development of the U.S. aviation industry. When Orville Wright sold the company in 1915, more than three years after his brother’s death, he was a comfortable man—but his company had built only 120 airplanes at its Dayton factory and Wright Company products were not in the U.S. arsenal as war continued in Europe. Edward Roach provides a fascinating window into the legendary Wright Company, its place in Dayton, its management struggles, and its effects on early U.S. aviation.

Describes the Wright brothers of Dayton, Ohio and the events that lead to the world's first successful flight of a man-carrying, power-driven, heavier-than-air machine. The Wright brothers' first flight occurred on Dec. 17, 1903 and lasted just 12 seconds at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.