GROWTH OF AN INDUSTRY
Cobblestone American History Magazine for Kids|November/December 2023
After their historic flight at Kitty Hawk in 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright returned to Dayton, Ohio. They spent the next few years making adjustments and building additional versions of their powered aircraft in their bicycle shop.
Robert Gluodenis
GROWTH OF AN INDUSTRY

Confident that they knew how to construct a reliable flying machine, the brothers turned their attention to finding practical applications for it. They believed that airplanes eventually would be useful for recreation and transportation. But they realized that the first useful employment of airplanes would be in military capacities. So, they wrote to the U.S. War Department with a proposal to sell their aircraft.

Wilbur and Orville negotiated a contract with the War Department. They promised to develop a plane that could seat two people, fly 40 miles per hour, remain in the air for one hour, and carry enough fuel to travel 125 miles. The two parties agreed on a price of $25,000. The War Department offered a bonus if the plane exceeded the requirements.

In the summer of 1908, the brothers headed to Fort Myer, Virginia, with their Flyer. They completed nine flight trials successfully. On the 10th test flight, however, one of the propellers cracked and broke. The aircraft crashed and was wrecked. Orville was gravely injured and was hospitalized for seven weeks. Worse, his passenger, Lieutenant Thomas E. Selfridge, was killed in the first aircraft casualty.

The War Department agreed to postpone the trials until the following summer. In June 1909, the brothers returned to Virginia with yet another version of their Flyer. The U.S. Signal Corps, part of the U.S. Army, was eager for the Wright brothers to succeed. It knew that European countries, such as France and Germany, were building aerial fleets. The Signal Corps wanted the United States to develop modern aeronautical equipment for the nation’s defense.

This story is from the November/December 2023 edition of Cobblestone American History Magazine for Kids.

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This story is from the November/December 2023 edition of Cobblestone American History Magazine for Kids.

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