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Wright brothers
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Orville and Wilbur Wright Wilbur Wright Orville Wright Wright glider Wright glider first flight by Orville Wright, December 17, 1903 Wright flyer, 1905 Orville Wright
Orville Wright: flight of the first military airplane, 1909
Wilbur Wright wearing a flat cap, suit, and tie, looking slightly to the side in a black and white portrait.
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Wilbur Wright and Orville Wright summary
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Orville and Wilbur Wright
Orville and Wilbur Wright Orville Wright (left) and Wilbur Wright, c. 1910.

Wright brothers

American aviators
Written by
Tom D. Crouch
Curator Emeritus, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian, Washington, D.C. Author of The Bishop's Boys: A Life of Wilbur and Orville Wright and many others.
Tom D. Crouch
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Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
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History

Wright brothers, were American inventors and aviation pioneers who achieved the first powered, sustained, and controlled airplane flight (1903). Wilbur Wright (April 16, 1867, near Millville, Indiana, U.S.—May 30, 1912, Dayton, Ohio) and his brother Orville Wright (August 19, 1871, Dayton—January 30, 1948, Dayton) also built and flew the first fully practical airplane (1905). (Read Orville Wright’s 1929 biography of his brother, Wilbur.) Wilbur and Orville were the sons of Milton Wright, an ordained minister...

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