Other Wright Brothers' Sites

This is the links site of the AIAA Wright Flyer Website. Please take this opportunity to browse our site and learn about our efforts to recreate mankind's first powered, controlled flight.

Celebrating the Centennial of Flight

AIAA Evolution of Flight Campaign

In commemoration of the approaching 100th anniversary of flight, AIAA launched the Evolution of Flight, a campaign to recognize the achievements of the men and women who challenged history and invented the future while changing life on Earth. Through the campaign, AIAA and its partners, will celebrate the legacy of flight, encourage new talent, and define and promote the next 100 years of aerospace innovation.

The First Flight Centennial Foundation

The Foundation invites you to join us in celebrating the upcoming centennial and exploring the countless ways in which aviation has changed our world. Learn about our partnership with the National Park Service to improve Wright Brothers National Memorial, upcoming centennial events and more.

The First Flight Centennial Foundation - buy tickets to attend the event!

Visitor access to Wright Brothers National Memorial during the five-day First Flight Centennial Celebration is limited to those holding tickets (including children under 12 who are not charged). Visitors must purchase tickets prior to their arrival at the park.

The Centennial of Flight - The Future of Flight!

The Centennial of Flight Commission was created by the U.S. Congress in 1999 to serve as a national and international source of information about activities to commemorate the centennial of the Wright Brothers' first powered flight on the sands at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on December 17, 1903. There will be much centennial excitement in 2003 in both North Carolina and Dayton, Ohio, home place of the Wright brothers. In addition to these celebrations, we anticipate numerous historical and educational projects about aviation and aeronautics that will be an important legacy of the centennial of powered flight.

Air Force Centennial of Flight 1903-2003

The U.S. Air Force Centennial of Flight Office was established by the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force to research, plan and coordinate the Air Force's participation in the national celebration being coordinated by the U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission. The Commission was created by Congress to coordinate the celebration of the 100th anniversary of powered flight, and will promote activities, such as those being planned by the Air Force, through a national awareness campaign, Centennial of Flight: Born of Dreams - Inspired by Freedom.

Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) - Centenary of the Wright brothers' first flight

The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), the world's air sports federation, was founded in 1905. It is a non-governmental and non-profit making international organisation with the basic aim of furthering aeronautical and astronautical activities worldwide. FAI wishes to pay tribute to this feat which marked the beginning of an extraordinary human and technological era for mankind.

Inventing Flight 2003

Nearly 100 years ago, two brothers put Dayton, Ohio on the map - and mankind in the air. Inventing Flight: Dayton 2003 invites you to celebrate the innovative spirit of the Wright Brothers, who expanded the boundaries of human experience with the creation of powered flight.

The Aviation Worlds Fair 2003

The year 2003 will mark the 100th anniversary of manned flight. Orville and Wilbur Wright's historic flight took place on December 17, 1903. To honor this and the many other milestones of flight, The Aviation World's Fair will transform the Newport News-Williamsburg International Airport in Hampton Roads, Virginia, USA into the grandest, global aviation showcase the world has ever seen.

First Flight Anniversary - December 17, 2003

Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the First Powered Flights

The First Flight Centennial Foundation

Founded in North Carolina to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers' first flight, the Foundation is spearheading an effort to preserve and protect the monument to the Wrights at Kitty Hawk, and to have the US Mint produce a commemorative coin for the Centennial.

North Carolina's First Flight Centennial Commission

The commission was created by the State of North Carolina to remind the world what a magnificent achievement the first flight was, to help us all understand what flight has meant to the world, and to commemorate that achievement in North Carolina, the United States, and throughout the world.

Chicago Centennial of Flight Commission

This one may leave you scratching your head for a bit, trying to figure out the Chicago connection to the Wright Brothers. If you don't already know about Octave Chanute, his friendship with the Wrights, and the Conference on Aerial Naviation in 1893 organized by Chanute, read "The Chicago Connection" on this site.

Festival of Flight

For 11 days, May 16-26, 2003, Fayetteville, North Carolina, will present a series of aviation related events worthy of the 100 year anniversary of the Wright Brothers' momentous achievement at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in 1903. Festival of Flight will be the largest public centennial event in North Carolina featuring a weekend arts festival, a two-day military air show at Pope AFB, a general aviation air show at Grannis Field and a seven-day exposition with aviation displays and interactive exhibits, all of which will culminate with a spectacular Memorial Day celebration.

WorldFlight 2003

The North Carolina Department of Transportation's Aviation Division is planning WorldFlight 2003. During May and June 2003, airports and communities across the state will host aviation-themed events that showcase their heritage and honor 100 years of aviation achievements.

NASA Langley Research Center - Commemorating the Centennial of Powered Flight

This web site links to other sites with more information about the Wright Brothers, other aeronautical pioneers, and the history of flight, as well as NASA accomplishments and goals. This site also provides information on events and activities at NASA Langley Research Center and other locations prior to and during the centennial of flight celebration.

News-Record (Piedmont Triad, NC): First In Flight - Countdown to Takeoff

A very nice site from the local newspaper. Includes Quicktime movies of a tour of the memorial by the National Parks Service, and of a tribute to the Wright Brothers by Bill Gates.

Wright Airplane Replicas

Technical Drawings and Blueprints of the Wright Flyer

During the 1985 restoration of the Wright 1903 Flyer, the NASM restoration team completely disassembled the aircraft and measured each component. Finding a number of inaccuracies in existing sets of drawings of the Flyer, NASM commissioned a new set of 50 drawings of the airframe and engine. These drawings are available from the NASM Archives Division as a set, or individually; each drawing measures 24 X 36 inches (60.9 X 91.4 cm).

AIAA Wright Flyer Project

The first and oldest group dedicated to rediscovering the genius of the Wrights by researching, documenting, and constructing replicas of the Wright Brothers' aircraft.

Wright B Flyer Corporation

A non-profit (or not-for-profit?) organization which built, maintains, and flies a replica of the Wright B Flyer. The Wright B Flyer flies at local air shows, including the Dayton Air Show, and also offers rides.

First Flight

Peter Whalley is a multimedia researcher at the Open University in the U.K., and has been working on a flight simulation of the Wright Brother's first flight. Data for the sim will be from some of the subscale wind tunnel tests and published by Frederick J. Hooven in Smithsonian and Scientific American

Utah State University Wright Flyer

In celebration of the 100th Anniversary of powered flight, Utah State University's (USU) Aeronautics Laboratory and the Space Dynamics Laboratory (SDL) are constructing a modified replica of the Wright Flyer using state-of-the-art composite materials in a unique blending of the historic and the present. Following a community celebration with associated activities, the Flyer will travel along a historic route for display during the 100th Anniversary ceremonies.

The Wright Redux Association

The Wright Redux Association, based in Glen Ellyn, IL, is on a mission to reproduce the 1903 Wright Flyer.

Minnesota Wright Flyer Project

A small group of individuals have been commissioned by the state of Minnesota to build a full-size reproduction of the 1903 Wright Flyer. This website will display the construction photos. Also, other interesting construction and historical information will be provided.

Wright State 1903 Wright Flyer Project

The full-scale replica of the 1903 Wright Flyer suspended in the atrium of the Paul Laurence Dunbar Library was conceived and built by a dedicated group of volunteer model makers, mechanics, engineers, woodworkers, and seamstresses under the leadership of Howard R. DuFour. It began as a dream some eighteen years ago when Howard DuFour became fascinated with the construction of the engine that powered the 1903 Wright Flyer.

The University of Liverpool Flight Science & Techology Research Group, Wright Flyer Project

This project is aimed at the construction and evaluation of high-fidelity simulations of the family of Wright Brothers aircraft between 1900 and 1909, particularly the first Wright Flyer of 1903. This project is about a reverse engineering of the Wright Flyers from a flight control standpoint.

The Wright Brothers Journey of Invention

Located in Adelaide, South Austrailia, John Delaney has a 35 year involvement within the aircraft industry and following a serious work accident he was forced to retire. Fortunately John was unable to remain removed from the industry entirely and decided to embark on a project that many others had decided not to attempt, a full scale, flying re-creation of the 1903 Flyer.

Propelling the Wright Flyer into the 21st Century

Fluent Inc. carried out a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) study of the Wright Flyer in association with the Los Angeles Branch of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) to re-evaluate the original 1903 Wright Flyer aircraft with modern technologies not available to the Wright Brothers 100 years ago. To contribute to the AIAA-LA's safety analysis of the replica, Fluent modeled the airflow around the aircraft's propellers for a range of flight conditions, to reveal some of their aerodynamic secrets.

Wright Brothers' History

How We Made The First Flight By Orville Wright

I think the title says it all...

Wilbur and Orville Wright Register of Papers

Reading original material written by Wilbur and Orville is a real treat. Both brothers were gifted writers and stated their ideas with eloquence and often a good deal of humor. Visit a growing collection of articles written by the Wrights, and also check out the Registry of the Wright papers produced by the Library of Congress.

Wright Brothers Collection

Wright State University special collection and archive

Wright Brothers' letters to the Smithsonian

Wilbur Wright and Orville Wright first wrote to the Smithsonian Institution asking for Smithsonian publications on aeronautics and suggestions for other readings. At this time Samuel P. Langley was Secretary of the Smithsonian, and he had done an extensive amout of aeronautical research. He was also working on building the first airplane. Secretary Langley was devastated when the Wright Brothers beat him with their first successful flight in 1903.

Special Collections in the Library of Congress: Photographs Taken by the Wright Brothers...

Among the materials acquired by the Library of Congress were 303 glass plate negatives, most taken by the Wright brothers themselves between 1896 and 1911 to document their successes and failures with their new flying machines. The collection provides an excellent pictorial record of the Wright brothers laboratory, engines, models, experimental planes, runways, flights, and even their accidents. The collection also contains individual portraits and group pictures of the Wright brothers and their family and friends, as well as many shots of landscapes, buildings, and towns. Ed note: While I appreciate going directly to the source material, my personal inclination is that Psychology of Invention - Attempts at flight is a better site for most people, and is in fact referenced by the LoC.

The Wright Brothers Aeronautical Engineering Collection @ The Franklin Institute

Orville instructed that, upon his death, The Franklin Institute should receive his collection of airfoils and devices. The Franklin Institute was the first scientific organization to give the Wright brothers credit and ranking for achieving sustained powered flight. Today, The Franklin Institute Science Museum has the largest collection of artifacts from the Wright brothers' workshop. Efforts are underway to provide online access to the entire collection.

Psychology of Invention - Attempts at flight

Excellent archive of the photographs of the Wright Brothers and their early airplanes, scanned from the originals held by the Library of Congress

Wright Brothers Collection at the Dayton Metro Library

The Dayton and Montgomery County Public Library has produced an important Internet exhibit of some of their extraordinary collection of Wright brothers materials.Valuable for the casual visitor and the serious researcher alike, the web collection offers rare and unique materials that illuminate the Wrights' place in aviation history and in the hearts and minds of their fellow Daytonians.
Links to the contents of the collection here

Wright Brothers: The Recovered Legacy

Seen here for the first time in over forty years are rare photographs of the Wright brothers early experiments in flight. The photographs were taken by Octave Chanute in 1901-1902. This site has been removed by the Library of Congress: 7/22/02

Kitty Hawk - Kill Devil Hills Wright Brothers Photographs

Another archive of the Library of Congress photos, specifically those taken in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

The Origins of the First Powered, Man-Carrying Airplane

The Wright brothers' "Flyer'' of 1903 was not just a lucky effort by two bicycle mechanics from Dayton but the outcome of an intensive program of research, engineering and testing.

Wright Brothers History: The Tale of the Airplane

The story of the invention of the airplane is a Puritan fairy tale. It is the story of how two honest, straightforward, hard-working Americans accomplished something fantastic and magical -- creating a craft of stick and fabric that mounted the air like the chariots of the gods, opening the skies to all humankind. Their success came so suddenly and from such an unexpected quarter that their contemporaries could not believe the Wrights had done what they claimed. After all, if prominent scientists and engineers the world over had been confounded in their efforts to invent the airplane, how could two common men from rustic America have succeeded?

December 17, 1903. The Day Man First Flew

A reprint of a pamphlet from the US Department of the Interior for distribution at the Kill Devils Hill Memorial. It is a brief but thorough overview as I've seen of the details of Dec 17th.

Wright Brothers Stores by Dr. Stimson

WrightStories.Com was developed to share true stories relating to the Wright Brothers, many from the perspective of one who regularly saw Orville Wright. These stories are dedicated to school children, historians - anyone with an interest in or love of adventure, excitement, courage, patience, perseverance, and true history.

Wilbur Wright: Le Mans 1908-2008 (in French)

After refining their designs to a point of being useful machines, the Wright's took their airplane to Europe. This is the story of Wilbur's visits to Le Mans, France.

Wright Brothers Documentaries

PBS: The American Experience, The Wright Stuff

PBS did a program on the Wrights, I think in 1996 but don't quote me. If you want to buy a copy, or find out more about it, this is the place. Kudos to WGBH, Boston.

PBS: Chasing the Sun

More recently, PBS did a second program dedicated to the development of the aviation industry. This page is dedicated to the Wright Brothers, but you can use it to surf the rest of the site too. Kudos to KCET in Los Angeles, CA.

NPR: Inventing Airplanes

This is not a very flattering view of the Wright Brothers, but it does raise some valid critisms (ed.)
Orville and Wilbur Wright are credited with building the first airplane, but they weren't the first to fly one before an audience. A rival inventor named Glenn Curtiss holds that claim to fame, and a number of other aviation-related firsts. While the Wrights kept much of their work secret, Curtiss had a much more open approach to his process of invention. And he was the target of lawsuits by the Wright brothers.

Wright Brothers Memorials

Wright Brothers National Memorial

Information from the National Park Service regarding the Wright Brothers Memorial at Kill Devil Hill, N.C.

Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park

Information from the National Park Service to commemorate the legacy of three exceptional men - Wilbur Wright, Orville Wright, and Paul Laurence Dunbar - and their work in the Miami Valley.

Museums and Exhibits

The Smithsonian Gallery 100 - Wright Brothers 1903 Flyer

A small site giving details on the Flyer as displayed in the Museum.

National Air and Space Museum - Behind the Scenes

Slides and explanations of the restoration work performed on the original Wright Flyer in 1985.

The National Science Museum, London, UK

Althought the Wrights are now generally regarded as the first to produce a controllable heavier-than-air machine that sustained flight, during the early half of the 20th Century, the Smithsonian Institution claimed that the design produced by Samuel P. Langley, then the head of the Smithsonian, was "capable" of flight. Because of this, Oriville refused to display the Flyer in the Smithsonian, instead choosing the Science Museum in London from 1928-1948. Guess what? They're on the web!

The Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village

Did you know that both the Wright Brothers' childhood home and the Wright Bicycle shop still exist, but not in Ohio? In 1937, Henry Ford had both buildings moved from Dayton to Dearborn, Michigan.

Wright Brothers Aeroplane Company & Museum of Pioneer Aviation

A "virtual museum": they have no buildings, no exhibits, no airplanes; nothing but information posted on their website. Most of the facts are here, but you may have to dig a bit to get to them.

USAF Museum - Pre-WWI History

Compared to the above archive of photos on the Wright's, this site seems very limited in scope. Its value is putting the Wrights in context with other events and inventors in aviation at the time.

College Park Aviation Museum

The College Park Airport Museum commemorates the early history of aviation at the "oldest continuously operating airport in the world" and early home of the Wright Brothers and many other aviation pioneers.

Owls Head Transportation Museum, Owls Head, Maine

Not just airplanes! This site describes the extensive collection of early aircraft (powered and unpowered), bicycles, motorcycles, and automobiles. And, I have it on reasonable authority that Owls Head will soon have an exhibit focused on what lead up to the 1903 Wright flight, and what followed.

Early Flight Pioneers

The Octave Chanute Pages

Octave Chanute - this Chicago engineer was the 'elder statesman' of aeronautical experiments in 1900. His glider experiments at Miller Beach in 1896 produced the most influential and significant glider of the pre-Wright era.

Who was Octave Chanute? Octave Chanute Aerospace Museum

The Wright brothers acknowledged Chanute's key role as a mentor, saying that his research and continual inspiration paved the way for their success. Chanute corresponded with them for many years and even visited their camp at Kitty Hawk during their flight experiments. Today, Octave Chanute Aerospace Museum displays and preserves the proud history of Chanute Air Force Base, the United States Air Force, and Illinois aviation.

The Curtiss Wright Company

The Curtiss Wright Corporation was formed in 1929 with the merger of the Wright Aeronautical Corporation, (originally the Wright Company started by the Wright brothers themselves in 1909) and the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company.

Mario Calderara - First Italian Pilot

The Wright Brothers began a correspondence with a young Italian aviation enthusiast. Four years later, Mario had both designed his own flying machine and had taken training from Wilbur Wright...

Print Books

On Great White Wings: The Wright Brothers and the Race for Flight

Critics Review From The Library Journal
The airplane, the first great invention of the 20th century, will be 100 years old in 2003. Through meticulous and methodical research, brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright solved three major interrelated problems of flight the wing design, propulsion, and stability to achieve controlled powered flight in 1903. In a thrilling, very readable book, with over 200 photographs and illustrations, they show how the brothers designed the Flyer and improved on subsequent models, competed with other aviators, and pursued legal battles over patent rights to certain designs.

Scale and R/C Model Kits

Technical Drawings and Blueprints of the Wright Flyer

Arizona Model Crafters

I have to admit to a little trepidation about supplying this link. Every other site on this page is non-profit, educational, or government sponsored. AZ Model Crafters sells scale model kits of the 1903 Wright Flyer. While we don't begrudge anyone the ability to make a living, this site was never intended to promote any commercial endevor. The AIAA Wright Flyer Project has no affiliation with AZ Model Crafters and we supply this link as a service only. If anyone decides to purchase one of these kits, please contact us to let us know of your experience.

Easy Built Models Laser Cut Wright Flyer

As above, the AIAA Wright Flyer Project neither supports nor receives support from this link, and we make no claim as to the accuracy or suitability of the replica. But, here is another R/C house offering a scale model (1/20th) of the 1903 Wright Flyer.

Dare Design 1903 Wright Flyer

As above, the AIAA Wright Flyer Project neither supports nor receives support from this link, etc... Electric powered laser cut model, 1/12th scale.

Hasegawa 1/16th scale 1903 Wright Flyer

As above, the AIAA Wright Flyer Project neither supports nor receives support from this link, etc... Hasegawa has a reputation for producing highly accurate and finely detailed kits, requiring a commensurate level of builder skill.

Miscellaneous Links

Flights of Inspiration

"Flights of Inspiration" was created by The Franklin Institute Science Museum and the Science Museum, London as an educational tool for some of the first great feats of flight.

NASA: Re-Living the Wright Way

Run by the Glenn Research Center in Ohio (home of the Wright Brothers), this site is targeted to teachers and students beginning to discover the process the Wrights took in developing their airplanes.

The Coast Guard's Role in the Wright Brothers' Flight

Yes, the USCG played a role in getting the Flyer airborne on December 17, 1903. But it was not as official as you might think...