Figures
Wilbur Wright
Also Known As The Wright Brothers An epithet for Wilbur and Orville Wright jointly, as they are most commonly referred to.
Citation Formats
General Reference
APA Style
BibTeX
American aviation pioneer who, with his brother Orville, designed, built and flew the Wright Flyer, achieving the first sustained, controlled, powered flight of a heavier-than-air aircraft at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on 17 December 1903. The brothers ran a bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio, whose tools and mechanical trades funded their early experiments.
Facts
Cross-Tradition Connections
Invented
Pioneered
Aviation, Modes Why this is disputed. The best documented and most widely credited claim: witnessed, photographed, with a surviving aircraft, and recognized by the Smithsonian Institution under a 1948 agreement. Held debated rather than attested because rival claims exist for Gustave Whitehead (1901) and Richard Pearse (1903); see those figures pioneered-by edges, both held Stance = variant, and the open question first-powered-flight-priority-dispute.
Sources
Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Pioneered: Aviation
The Wright brothers December 1903 flights are the best documented and most widely credited first powered, controlled flights, but two rival claims predate them: Gustave Whitehead is reported by the Bridgeport Herald to have flown under power in Connecticut in August 1901, and witnesses recalled Richard Pearse flying a powered machine in New Zealand on 31 March 1903, both more than eight months before the Wright Flyer. Neither rival claim has a surviving aircraft, an authenticated in flight photograph, or contemporaneous technical verification, which is why mainstream aviation history and the Smithsonian Institution continue to credit the Wrights; but the newspaper accounts and later witness affidavits mean the record is not as settled as a single credited first suggests.
A dissenting reading, from an independent laneWikipedia: Gustave Whitehead, Wikipedia
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.