Aviation pioneer biography

Wilbur Wright (April 16, 1867–May 30, 1912) and Orville Wright (August 19, 1871–January 30, 1948) were the inventors of the first successful airplane. They first wrote to the Smithsonian Institution in May of 1899 to request information about publications on aeronautics. At this time, they were not the "Wright Brothers" who flew the first airplane; they were simply two brothers who owned a bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio.

The brothers manufactured and sold bicycles, but Wilbur was not satisfied with this.

Biography of Wilbur Wright, Aviation Pioneer - ThoughtCo

With his brother and business partner, Orville, he began working on an early interest of theirs, flight. Before their first successful flight on December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the brothers spent years working on the development of the airplane.

The brothers began by searching for information on aeronautics from their local library.

Once they had gone through all of the locally available information, Wilbur Wright wrote to the Smithsonian Institution on May 30, 1899 List of Famous Aviators - Biographies, Timelines, Trivia ... WYXUG