The contract for the sale of the world’s first airplane to the museum would include other provisions as well, safeguards against a reopening of the feud. The airplane, for example, was never to be exhibited outside the Washington area. A specified label, approved by a committee of Orville Wright’s old friends, was always to appear with the machine on exhibition. Finally, if the Smithsonian recognized any other aircraft as having been capable of powered, sustained, and controlled flight with a man on board before December 17, 1903, the executors of the estate would have the right to take possession of the machine once again. The Smithsonian signed.
The long feud came to an end on the morning of December 17, 1948. Eight hundred and fifty people attended the ceremony in the North Hall of the Smithsonian’s Arts and Industries Building. They sat in chairs ranged along the east wall, facing a temporary speakers’ platform—and the great, tattered flag that Francis Scott Key had seen still flying over Fort McHenry in the dawn’s early light of September 14, 1814.
The Star Spangled Banner was but one of the American icons crowded into this building. George Washington’s uniform, Thomas Jefferson’s writing desk, Benjamin Franklin’s stove, the oldest American locomotive, gowns worn by each First Lady since Martha Washington—precious physical reminders of two hundred years of American life were stuffed into every corner of the National Museum.
Visitors entered this cluttered treasure house through the North Hall, which housed the most popular single object in the museum, the Spirit of St. Louis. The silver Ryan monoplane had held the place of honor, suspended high above the central entrance doors, since its arrival at the Smithsonian in 1928. A month before the ceremony, workmen carefully moved the Spirit toward the rear of the hall to make room for a new centerpiece. Charles Lindbergh did not complain. When curator Paul Garber informed him of the impending move, Lindbergh remarked that he was honored to know that his machine would be sharing the hall with the world’s first airplane, the 1903 Wright Flyer.
The ceremony began promptly at 10:00 A.M., for timing was of some importance. Precisely fifty-five years before, just after ten o’clock on the morning of December 17, 1903, the Wright Flyer had rolled down a sixty-foot takeoff rail laid out on the sand flats some four miles south of the fishing village of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, and climbed into the air.
Alexander Wetmore opened the proceedings with a short welcoming speech, then he introduced the Honorable Fred Vinson, Chief Justice of the United States and chancellor of the Smithsonian Institution. Vinson in turn welcomed the guests and called Major General Luther D. Miller, Chief of Chaplains of the U.S. Air Force, to the podium to offer the invocation. Colonel Robert Landry, President Truman’s Air Force aide, read a greeting from the President, after which Sir Oliver Franks, British ambassador to the United States, made a few appropriate remarks.
Milton Wright, a nephew of the Wright brothers, then came forward to present the world’s first airplane to the National Museum. Vice-President Alben W. Barkeley accepted on behalf of the people of the United States with a speech which one of those present remembered as “poor, and poorly read.” The U.S. Air Force band concluded with “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The Wright Flyer had come home.29
Many of the guests who filed out of the historic North Hall after the ceremony planned to attend a black-tie dinner that evening at which the prestigious Collier Trophy would be awarded to Captain Charles Yeager, John Stack, Lawrence Bell, and other members of the NACA/Air Force/industry team which had conducted the first supersonic flight research program.
A few of the guests, it is to be hoped, paused to read the label on the world’s first airplane, hanging at long last where it had always belonged. It may have led them to wonder at the progress wrought in the forty-four short years separating Kitty Hawk from the sound barrier.
THE ORIGINAL WRIGHT BROTHERS AEROPLANE
THE WORLD’S FIRST POWER-DRIVEN,
HEAVIER-THAN-AIR MACHINE IN WHICH MAN
MADE FREE, CONTROLLED, AND SUSTAINED FLIGHT
INVENTED AND BUILT BY WILBUR AND ORVILLE WRIGHT
FLOWN BY THEM AT KITTY HAWK, NORTH CAROLINA
DECEMBER 17, 1903
BY ORIGINAL SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH THE WRIGHT BROTHERS
DISCOVERED THE PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN FLIGHT
AS INVENTORS, BUILDERS, AND FLYERS THEY
FURTHER DEVELOPED THE AEROPLANE,
TAUGHT MAN TO FLY, AND OPENED
THE ERA OF AVIATION
NOTES
PROLOGUE
1. Details of what occurred on May 25, 1910, are to be found in Milton Wright’s diary entry for that day, box 10, file 4, The Wright Brothers Collection, Wright State University Archives, Dayton, Ohio.
2. George Burba, “Orville Wright—A Sketch,” Dayton Daily News, January 4, 1909.
3. Ivonette Wright Miller, ed., Wright Reminiscences (Dayton, Ohio: Privately printed, 1978), p. 64.
4. Fred C. Kelly, ed., Miracle at Kitty Hawk: The Letters of Wilbur and Orville Wright (New York: Farrar, Straus & Young, 1951), p. 47.
5. Katharine Wright to Milton Wright, September 25, 1901, in ibid., p. 46.
6. New York Times, June 1, 1909.
7. Harry Harper, My Fifty Years in Flying (London: Associated Newspapers, 1956), p. 110.
8. Quoted in New York Times, June 1, 1909.
9. Milton Wright to the Editor of Who’s Who, October 4, 1908, in Miller, ed., Wright Reminiscences, p. 168.
10. Jess Gilbert, “A Tribute,” in ibid., p. 184.
11. Miller, ed., Wright Reminiscences, p. 62; see also John R. McMahon, The Wright Brothers: Fathers of Flight (New York: Little, Brown, 1930), p. 11.
12. Wilbur Wright to Octave Chanute, October 28, 1906, in Marvin W. McFarland, ed., The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1953), vol. 2, pp. 731–732.
CHAPTER 1
1. Milton Wright, undated manuscript, “Facts and Dates,” box 8, file 8, The Wright Brothers Collection, Wright State University Archives (cited hereafter as Wright Collection, WSU).
2. Milton Wright to Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt, November 29, 1899, box 14, file 7, WSU.
3. Milton Wright, undated manuscript (probably 1912), “Ancestors,” box 8, file 8, WSU.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.; Milton Wright, undated manuscript, “My Father’s Life,” box 8, file 8; and Milton Wright, manuscript dated February 1912, “My Grand Parents and Parents,” box 8, file 8, WSU; H. A. Thompson, Our Bishops (Day-ton, Ohio: United Brethren Publishing House, 1903), pp. 525–549; Paul Rodes Koontz and Walter Edwin Roush, The Bishops: Church of the United Brethren in Christ (Dayton, Ohio: Otterbein Press, 1950), vol. 2, pp. 60–75.
6. “Ancestors.”
7. Porter Wright to Dan Wright, assorted letters, box 11, file 6, WSU.
8. Asahel Wright to Dan Wright, January 3, 1827, box 11, file 6, WSU.
9. Asahel Wright to Dan Wright, Dec. 26, 1828, and February 20, 1829; copies in box 11, file 5, WSU. Originals in Dayton Collection, Montgomery County Public Library.
10. Sanford C. Cox, Recollections of the Early Settlement of the Wabash Valley (Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press, 1970), pp. 16, 25.
11. Indiana: A Guide to the Hoosier State (New York: Oxford University Press, 1941), p. 107.
12. “Ancestors.”
13. “My Grand Parents and Parents,” p. 6.
14. Ibid., p. 7; “My Father’s Life”; see other descriptions in manuscript and printed sources cited in note 5.
15. “My Grand Parents and Parents,” p. 7; see also Thompson, Our Bishops, p. 527; Koontz and Roush, The Bishops.
16. “My Grand Parents and Parents.”
17. Thompson, Our Bishops, p. 532.
18. “Ancestors.”
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid.; see also Thompson, Our Bishops; Koontz and Roush, The Bishops.
21. “Ancestors.”
22. Ibid.
23. Ibid.
24. Ibid.
25. Ibid.
> 26. On the history of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, see Daniel Berger, History of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ (Dayton, Ohio: United Brethren Publishing House, 1906); A. W. Drury, History of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ (Dayton, Ohio: United Brethren Publishing House, 1924); Paul H. Fetters, Trials and Triumphs (Hunting-ton, Ind.: Department of Church Services, 1984); Frank S. Mead, Handbook of Denomination in the U.S. (New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury, 1950); Robert T. Handy, A History of the Churches in the United States and Canada (New York: Oxford University Press, 1977); various issues of The United Brethren Yearbook also contain useful historical information. For Milton Wright’s White River Conference, see Augustus Cleland Wilmore, History of the White River Conference of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ (Dayton, Ohio: United Brethren Publishing House, 1925).
27. Milton Wright Teaching Certificates, box 8, file 8, WSU.
28. Milton Wright manuscript letter, January 7, 1916, box 8, file 8, WSU.
29. Ibid.
30. Milton Wright to William Wright, December 24, 1855, and March 17, 1853; box 8, file 9, WSU.
31. Milton Wright manuscript letter, January 16, 1916, box 8, file 8, WSU.
CHAPTER 2
1. The details of the Koerner-Fry (or Fryer) families fascinated Orville Wright, who shared his father’s enthusiasm for genealogy. His correspondence with W. E. Martin, a Leesburg, Va., lawyer, about his mother’s background and birthplace provide the basis for this section; box 12, file 11. See also Koerner Letters, box 12, files 8–10, Wright State University Archives (cited hereafter as WSU).
2. Orville Wright quoted in Fred C. Kelly, The Wright Brothers: A Biography Authorized by Orville Wright (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1943), p. 10.
3. H. A. Thompson, Our Bishops (Dayton, Ohio: United Brethren Publishing House, 1903), p. 529.
4. Jess B. Gilbert, “A Tribute,” in Ivonette Wright Miller, ed., Wright Reminiscences (Dayton, Ohio: Privately printed, 1978), pp. 183–184.
5. Milton Wright Diary, May 28, 1857, box 8, file 11, WSU (cited hereafter as Diary). The author has made use of a complete typed transcript of Milton Wright’s diary prepared for the Wright family by the Wright State University Archives.
6. Diary, June 19, 1857.
7. Milton Wright to William Wright, July 4, 1857, box 8, file 9, WSU; see also Diary, July 4, 1857.
8. Milton Wright to William Wright, July 4, 1857, box 8, file 9, WSU.
9. Diary, July 6–18, 1857; Milton Wright to Dan and Catherine Wright, August 11, 1857, box 8, file 9, WSU.
10. Diary, July 20, 1857.
11. Diary, August 2, 1857.
12. Ibid.
13. Diary, November 1859.
14. Diary, November 14, 1859.
15. Milton Wright to Wilbur Wright, July 4, 1908, box 6, The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (cited hereafter as Wright Papers, LC).
16. Milton Wright to Wilbur Wright, October 11, 1907, box 5, Wright Papers, LC.
17. Milton Wright, untitled notes inserted in Diary for 1859, WSU.
18. Ibid.
19. Milton Wright to William Wright, November 27, 1862, box 5, WSU.
20. Ibid.; Milton Wright, untitled notes inserted in Diary for 1859, WSU; Milton Wright to William Wright, October 22, 1863, box 5, WSU.
21. Assorted deeds and titles, box 97, Wright Papers, LC; Milton Wright, untitled notes inserted in Diary for 1859, WSU.
22. Ibid.
23. Thompson, Our Bishops, p. 532; Diary, special notes on 1861, added later to 1858 Diary.
24. Interview with Milton Wright entitled “Wilbur Wright Born in Henry County,” undated newspaper clipping, Wright Scrapbooks, 1909, Wright Papers, LC.
25. The Reform Leaflet (October 1881), vol. 1, no. 1, 2; see also April 1882; July 1882, WSU.
26. Thompson, Our Bishops, p. 549.
CHAPTER 3
1. A. W. Drury, History of the City of Dayton and Montgomery County, Ohio (Dayton, Ohio: S. J. Clarke Co., 1909), vol. 1, p. 574; Sam Bass Warner, Streetcar Suburbs: The Process of Growth in Boston, 1870–1900 (New York: Atheneum, 1970), and John W. Repps, The Making of Urban America: A History of City Planning in the United States (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1968), are the best studies of the development of streetcar suburbs like West Dayton. Other details rest in part on the work of Allan Fletcher, The Wright Brothers’ Home and Cycle Shop in Greenfield Village, a thesis in the University of Michigan Program in Museum Practice, June 30, 1972, and on discussions with curators of Greenfield Village, Dearborn, Mich.
2. Montgomery County Recorder’s Office, Deed Record J-4; Fletcher, Wright Brothers’ Home.
3. U.S. Census, 1890 and 1900, Ward 5, Enumeration District 54, National Archives.
4. The figures are the author’s estimates based on loose notes in M. Wright Diaries and assorted biographical materials, deeds, and legal documents; Wright Papers, boxes 96–98, LC.
5. For games and childhood life in West Dayton, see “Fox and Townball Were Early Sports,” Dayton Journal (June 16, 1909), and John R. McMahon, The Wright Brothers: Fathers of Flight (Boston: Little, Brown, 1930), p. 22.
6. Milton Wright to Reuchlin Wright, November 9, 1899, box 5, Wright Papers, LC.
7. Ibid.; McMahon, Wright Brothers, p. 24.
8. McMahon, Wright Brothers, p. 32.
9. Ivonette Wright Miller, “Ivonette Wright Miller’s Reminiscences,” in Miller, ed., Wright Reminiscences (Dayton, Ohio: Privately printed, 1978), pp. 3–4.
10. Wilbur Wright, Last Will and Testament, May 10, 1912, in Alfred Stokes Andrews, The Andrews, Clapp, Stokes, Wright, Van Cleve Genealogies (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.: Privately printed, 1984), p. 502.
11. Wilbur Wright, April 3, 1912, in Marvin W. McFarland, ed., The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1953), vol. 1, p. v.
12. McMahon, Wright Brothers, p. 21.
13. H. A. Thompson, Our Bishops (Dayton, Ohio: United Brethren Publishing House, 1903), p. 543.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid., pp. 545–546.
16. Ibid., pp. 542–543; see also Paul Rodes Koontz and Walter Edwin Roush, The Bishops: Church of the United Brethren in Christ (Dayton, Ohio: Otterbein Press, 1950), and Paul R. Fetters, Trials and Triumphs: A History of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ (Huntington, Ind.: Church of the United Brethren in Christ, Department of Church Services, 1984), pp. 237–238.
17. Fetters, Trials and Triumphs, pp. 237–238.
18. Information on the houses in Cedar Rapids and Adair is from Milton Wright’s Diary, passim, Wright State University Archives.
19. McMahon, Wright Brothers, p. 28.
20. Interview with Milton Wright, “Wilbur Wright Born in Henry County,” undated newspaper clipping, Wright Scrapbooks, 1909, Wright Papers, LC.
21. Fred C. Kelly, ed., Miracle at Kitty Hawk (New York: Farrar, Straus & Young, 1951), p. 3. Original in Wright Papers, LC.
CHAPTER 4
1. Milton Wright to Susan Wright, June 2, 1888, box 5, Wright Papers, Library of Congress.
2. Milton Wright to Katharine Wright, May 3, 1888, box 5, Wright Papers, LC.
3. Milton Wright to Katharine Wright, October 15, 1887, box 5, Wright Papers, LC.
4. Milton Wright to Susan Wright, September 11, 1888, box 5, Wright Papers, LC.
5. Fred C. Kelly, The Wright Brothers (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1943), p. 15.
6. Octave Chanute, Progress in Flying Machines (New York: The American Engineer and Railroad Journal, 1894), pp. 55–56. See also “Remarks by Milton Wright,” Smithsonian Institution Press Release, December 17, 1948, 28; Ivonette Wright Miller, ed., Wright Reminiscences (Dayton, Ohio: Privately printed, 1978), p. 4; Milton Wright to Reuchlin Wright, November 9, 1899, box 5, Wright Papers, LC; and C. H. Gibbs-Smith, Aviation: An Historical Survey (London: HMSO, 1970), pp. 46–47.
7. Orville Wright, Deposition, January 13, 1920, in Marvin W. McFarland, ed., The Papers o
f Wilbur and Orville Wright (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1953), vol. 1, p. 3.
8. Grace Boston, “Wright Boys Interested in Aviation When They Were School Boys in This City,” Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette (Sept. 19, 1928); “Remembering When Orville and Wilbur Wright Were Iowa Schoolboys,” undated article, Wright Scrapbooks, 1928, Wright Papers, LC.
9. “Remarks by Milton Wright.”
10. “Teacher Tells of Boys; They Caused No Trouble,” Dayton Herald, June 16, 1909.
11. Kelly, Wright Brothers, p. 1.
12. Ibid., p. 5.
13. Boston, “Wright Boys.”
14. “Teacher Tells of Boys.”
15. Milton Wright, Diaries, 1878, WSU.
16. Milton Wright to Wilbur Wright, October 3, 1907, box 6, Wright Papers, LC. Dr. Adrian J. Kinnane offers a similar interpretation of Reuchlin’s rebellion in “The Crucible of Flight.”
17. H. A. Thompson, Our Bishops (Dayton, Ohio: United Brethren Publishing House, 1903), p. 546. For an example of the bishop’s attitude toward politicians, see Milton Wright to Wilbur Wright, August 27, 1908, box 6, Wright Papers, LC.
18. Ibid.
19. Reform Leaflet, vol. 1, no. 1, box 8, file 4, WSU.
20. Thompson, Our Bishops, p. 544.
21. Lorin Wright to Susan Wright, October 31, 1882, box 5, Wright Papers, LC.
22. Ibid.; see also other letters, box 5.
23. Philomatheon Program, box 3, file 4, WSU.
24. Assorted report cards, box 3, file 3, WSU.
25. Interview with Milton Wright entitled “Wilbur Wright Born in Henry County,” undated newspaper clipping, Wright Scrapbooks, Wright Papers, LC.
26. Susan Wright to Milton Wright, June 20, 1884, box 8, file 10, WSU.
CHAPTER 5
1. A. W. Drury, History of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ (Dayton, Ohio: United Brethren Publishing House, 1924), p. 475.
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