Wright Model EX

The Wright Model EX was a scaled-down, single-seat exhibition biplane derived from the Model B and built by the Wright Company from 1911. Two were made, and it was the first Wright design manufactured entirely at the company's new Dayton factory. It was a three-bay unstaggered biplane with a 35 horsepower four-cylinder pusher engine driving two propellers by chain, a twin-rudder tail on an open truss, and long skids fitted with dual wheels. One example, the Vin Fiz Flyer, was bought by Calbraith Perry Rodgers, who named it for the grape soft drink of his sponsor, the Armour company. He left Sheepshead Bay, New York, on 17 September 1911 and reached Long Beach, California, on 10 December, the first crossing of the United States by air, with 75 stops, 16 crashes and under 84 hours of flying time. The Smithsonian acquired the aircraft in 1934, and it is now held by the National Air and Space Museum.