Orville Wright photograph   Save
Ohio Guide Photographs
Description: Original description reads: "Orville Wright. 1871 ---. Born, Dayton, Ohio. Co-inventor with his brother Wilbur of the airplane. Pilot of the first plane that flew. Recipient of honors from all parts of the world." Aviator Orville Wright was born on August 19, 1871, in Dayton, Ohio. His parents were Bishop Milton Wright and Susan Catharine Wright. Orville Wright was the Wrights' fourth child. He attended the local public schools with his siblings but never graduated from high school or attended college. Orville and his brother Wilbur went into business together and after designing and selling bicycles, began to experiment with airplane designs, first with gliders and eventually with powered flight. Their first successful flight of a powered airplane occurred at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on December 17, 1903. Orville Wright was one of the original members of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), which was founded in 1929. He served on NACA for a total of twenty-eight years. Today, NACA is known as the predecessor to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Wright received the first Daniel Guggenheim Medal for “great achievements in aeronautics” in April 1930. In the same month, he was also elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Orville Wright died in Dayton, Ohio, on January 30, 1948. He was seventy-six years old. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B09F06_001_001
Subjects: Wright, Orville, 1871-1948
Places: Dayton (Ohio); Montgomery County (Ohio)