Wilbur – Orville Wright
By admin@amolgulhane.in In ScientistsWilbur – Orville Wright

Wilbur and Orville enjoyed flying kites and loved watching birds fly. They always wondered whether it was possible for human beings to do the same. In this regard, they went through many books and also collected information they could lay their hands on. Orville loved to read the newspaper. This led him to be a newsperson at the young age. At 17, he independently published his newspaper. He was the writer, editor and printer of this newspaper. Soon it became quite popular and he asked Wilbur to join him as busy, but got ample opportunity to go through reading materials. They had a dream and it was to soar in the sky. Meanwhile, their mother Susan passed away in 1889. In 1890, they came across the news of a German named Otto Lilienthal who had flown a glider. A glider has no engine, but the pilot balanced the aircraft by changing positions. This news encouraged the Wright Brothers to pursue making of their dream machine.
In 1892, the brothers opened a bicycle shop. Profits from the print shop and the bicycle shop eventually were to fund the Wright brothers’ aeronautical experiments. Through trial and error they succeeded in their experiments and formed the basic principles of flying. They created a small air-tunnel in their bicycle store. They had developed more than 100 types of aircrafts wings. They checked each of them and selected the best pair. They also observed that the birds controlled their movements in air by bending the farthest ends of their wings. So, they changed their wing design to aileron. They built their first glider and flew it as per their expectations. Thereafter, they built a lightweight four-cylinder, petrol driven engine with 12 horsepower. They wrapped velvet over a two-wing wooden structure and built an aircraft with 43 feet (approximately 9.3 metres) long wings.
The Wright Brothers had become famous all over the world. A company contracted them to make aircraft. With money pouring in, they had become rich and famous. December 17, 1903 was a memorable day for the Wright Brothers at 10.35 a.m. they took off on their maiden flight. It became the most memorable day of their lives when they wrote their names in history. The event was celebrated the world over. They had become rich and prosperous, but they were not content. Business did not hold them back. They wanted to experiment more. They restarted their research. Meanwhile, Wilbur died of typhoid on May 30, 1912. Around the same time the house they were building was complete. The grieving family had to move in without Wilbur. On April 3, 1917, their father passed away at the age of 89. Orville Wright was now president of the company. He had become an expert in flying aircraft. He died on January 30, 1948, at the age of 77, in a Dayton hospital. The Wright Brothers became the first human beings to take to wings and because of their persistent efforts reached their goal and the world honoured them with many awards.
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