Wright Model B

The Wright Model B is an early American aircraft built by the Wright Company, the manufacturing firm founded by Wilbur and Orville Wright, entering production in 1910 as the first Wright aircraft built in quantity for both military and civilian sale rather than constructed individually as earlier Wright designs had been. Built without the forward elevator that had characterized the Wright brothers' earlier Flyer designs, moving the horizontal stabilizing surface to the tail in a more conventional arrangement, the Model B was easier to fly and more stable than its predecessors, and the United States Army purchased several examples as some of its first military aircraft. The type was also used extensively for exhibition flying and pilot training at the Wright Company's own flying schools.