392 W952g Owl 2.95
Gardner 9 Jeanne (LeMonnier}
Sky pioneers. Harcourt,
Brace & World [1963]
$2.95
Gardner, Jeanne (LeMonnier)
Sky pioneers. Harcourt s
Brace & World. [19631
LlB^ny
SKY PIONEERS
Sky Pioneers
The Story of Wilbur and Orville Wright
JEANNE LEMONNIER GARDNER
Illustrated by Douglas Gorsline
HARCOURT, BRACE & WORLD, INC., NEW YORK
1963 by Jeanne LeMonnier Gardner
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be
reproduced in any form or by any mechanical means,
including mimeograph and tape recorder, without
permission in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 63-16033
Printed in the United States of America by The Murray Printing Company
first edition
For my mother and father
UNCOLN
3 .ok
4.-0* * *~ * ' ' r \ ' *
An* ~L-'< ^' ^inw
Sky Pioneers
The Story of Wilbur and
Orville Wright
Jeanne LeMonnier Gardner
From the time they were small, Wilbur
and Orville Wright built, tinkered, and
experimented with toys and machines,
and throughout their boyhood in Dayton,
Ohio, in the 1870's and 1880' s, they
were aided and encouraged by their
talented and imaginative mother.
In Sky Pioneers, Mrs. Gardner con
veys, with freshness, clarity, and authen
tic detail, the essence of the Wright
brothers' contributions to the age of
flight. Wilbur, consoling his younger
brother, whose homemade kite failed to
stay up and was quickly wrecked, by
devising a different one with a curved
frame to hold more wind ; Orville, dis
covering that he could win local bicycle
races by lowering his handlebars and
bending over to offer less wind resis-
tance-these are typical of the incidents
Mrs. Gardner uses to demonstrate the
constant experimentation and inventive
ness of Wilbur and Orville Wright. Here
is the fascinating and inspiring life story
of the two men whose genius and de
termination made possible, in 1903, a
milestone in aviation: powered flight.
It is a biography of unusual merit for
young readers.
i|llONEERS
Sultner- Welles
JEANNE LEMONNIER GARDNER
Born in Chicago to parents of French and Irish ancestry, Jeanne LeMonnier
Gardner's first schooling was in Western Springs and LaGrange in the state of
Illinois. Later a student at Denison University in Granville, Ohio, she gave up
her formal education during World War II to become an operations agent for
Trans World Airlines, which had lost many of its male employees in this
position to the war effort.
In 1946, Jeanne LeMonnier further added to her enthusiasm for aviation
by becoming a stewardess on the Latin American Division of Pan American
Airways and made countless flights to the picturesque and romantic cities of
Central America, the Caribbean, and South America. Two years later, her
interest in writing asserted itself, and she became a reporter for the Daily
Register-Mail of Galesburg, Illinois, soon after her marriage to Richard
Gardner, an alumnus of Knox College at Galesburg and a former Technical
Sergeant in the Army Air Force. After three years as a journalist, Mrs.
Gardner and her husband moved to Evanston, Illinois, and thence to New
York. The Gardners now have two children and live in a towered and gabled
Victorian cottage of the Hudson River Gothic variety in Irvington-on-Hudson.
Mrs. Gardner is a research assistant to the author, Carl Carmer, and Sky-
Pioneers is her first book.
ONE
Wilbur Wright walked swiftly along the path leading to the
schoolhouse. His younger brother, Orville, lagged behind,
zigzagging back and forth to crunch autumn leaves with his
feet. It was a September morning in the year 1 876 in the city
of Dayton, Ohio.
"Hurry up, Orv! We'll be late!" Wilbur said as his long
legs kept their steady marching pace. Wilbur was nine, four
years older than his brother.
Orville had stopped to watch a long-winged swallow fly into
the green-gold maple trees. "Wouldn't it be fun if we could fly
to school?" he said dreamily.
Wilbur slowed his steps. His sandy brows drew together in
a frown. "I wonder how it would feel to fly," he said.
Just as Orville caught up with Wilbur, they heard someone
call their names. "Orv! Will! Come here a minute. I want to
show you something." Orville's friend, Ed Sines, was calling
from the door of the Sines's barn. Orville ran toward Ed.
9
"You'll be late/' Wilbur warned him.
"I'll catch up," Orville said over his shoulder.
Ed led the way into the barn. "Look," he said, "my mother's
old sewing machine. She put it out here because it's broken."
Orville liked machines better than anything in the world.
"Maybe we can fix it !" he said. His blue eyes shone with excite
ment. "Once I helped my mother oil her sewing machine. I'll
show you how it works."
Ed watched wide-eyed as Orville explained the machine. The
time grew later and later. Suddenly Ed said, "Orv, won't your
mother scold you for not going to school?"
Orville gasped with surprise. "Oh! ... I hadn't meant to
stay so long. I wonder what my teacher will say!" A worried
look crossed his face. Then his eyes gleamed with mischief. "I
know what I'll do," he said. "I'll wait until school is over.
Then I'll go home. Maybe Mother won't know."
"I wish I were old enough to go to school," Ed said. "Is it
fun?"
"Sometimes," Orville said. "You'll find out when you go
next year."
The boys tinkered with the machine all morning. They put
drops of water in the oil holes. Orville attached a wire to the
foot pedal.
"If we can make it work, let's sew a tent," Ed said.
10
Orville nodded. "Sails for a boat, too." Orville had gone
sailing with his father once. He remembered how much he
had liked gliding across the water. As he worked on the sewing
machine, he forgot his worries about school.
On his way home later Orville worried again about staying
away from school. He knew it was wrong. He wondered if he
should tell his parents.
The house was quiet when he got home. "Were you late
this morning?" asked Wilbur, looking up from a book. Wilbur
was always reading. It was his favorite hobby.
"I have a secret," Orville said. "Promise not to tell? I
didn't go to school."
"You're going to catch it!" Wilbur said.
"Well, I was trying to fix a machine. Father says we should
learn by trying"
"But you can't learn everything from tinkering," Wilbur
said.
At supper that evening, Orville was not hungry.
"What's the matter, son?" asked Father. "Don't you feel
well?"
Orville looked across the table at Wilbur. Then he looked
at Father. He swallowed hard. "I played hooky, sir," he said.
"Can I play hooky, too?" asked their little sister, Katharine.
"Hooky means staying away from school," Wilbur said.
12
Orville told the family about trying to fix the sewing ma
chine. "It was so much fun that I forgot everything else," he
said. "But I won't stay away from school again."
Father and Mother smiled at each other. "It's good that
you have told us, Orv," Father said. "Truth is always the best.
And we're glad you understand that school is important."
Orville was happy his secret was out. Suddenly he was
hungry.
13
TWO
The Wright family lived in a plain white-shingled house on
Hawthorne Street. There was no running water in the house.
There was no electricity either. But that was not unusual in
1876.
The hoys pumped water from a well in the back yard. They
carried the water into the kitchen in pails. They chopped logs
piled in the woodshed to burn in the big cookstove. They
helped their mother fill the oil lamps.
Mother helped the boys, too. She helped them with their
hobbies, and she helped them learn to use wood-working tools.
"You must always measure carefully/' she told them whenever
they wanted to make something. She showed them how to
make drawings for models and experiments. Mrs. Wright's
father had been a wagonmaker. "How happy I was when he
allowed me to help him!" she told her sons. Now she shared
her knowledge with her children. Once she helped them to
make a sled. It was the fastest sled in the neighborhood. Often
14
she turned one of their broken toys into a new and different
plaything. The family was proud of her cleverness. Orville and
Wilbur's friends liked to play at their home because Mrs.
Wright never scolded if their hobbies and games made a mess
in her kitchen.
Mr. Wright was a minister and the editor of a church news
paper. He often went to other cities on church business. One
time he brought home with him a special present for the boys.
He held it hidden in his hands while they tried to guess what it
could be.
"Now watch closely, boys!" Father said. When he opened
his hands, the mystery present whirred up toward the ceiling.
It hovered in the air a second or two, then dropped to the
ground.
"What is it, Father?' 9 Wilbur asked as he ran to pick it up.
"It's a flying machine!" Orville said excitedly.
"Whoever heard of a flying machine?" said his older brother
scornfully. "There's no such thing!"
"Even so," said Father, "that's a good name for it."
The small toy was made of thin strips of bamboo covered
with tissue paper. There were wings at each end held in place
with rubber bands. The boys had never seen anything like it
before.
"What makes it fly?" Wilbur asked.
15
Father showed them how to twist the rubber bands to wind
it. They all took turns.
Even little Katharine had a turn. "Be careful, Katharine,"
Orville said. "Hold it gently or you will squash it."
It was not a strong toy. The boys had to glue it together
many times. Orville liked fixing it as much as he liked flying
it. At last it was too badly broken to be fixed any more.
"We'll make a new one," Wilbur said.
This was fun. They measured the broken strips of wood
and cut new pieces the same size. They cut pieces of tissue
paper and glued them to the thin sticks to make the wings.
When they had finished, the new flying toy looked almost like
the broken one. They were proud that it worked.
"Let's make a bigger one," Orville suggested later.
16
"Yes," Wilbur agreed, "and after that we'll make one still
bigger. We'll keep on making them bigger and bigger and
bigger until we make one big enough to ride on."
After days of trying, the boys gave up. Only a very small
model like the one Father had brought them would work.
As they grew older, the brothers went on doing things
together. Every year they had new ideas for things to make.
When Orville was ten, he wanted to make a kite. "Will you
help me?" he asked his brother.
Wilbur, who was fourteen, felt too grown up for kites, but
he agreed to help his younger brother. They worked together
all morning. After lunch they took the kite for a test.
"The wind is strong," Wilbur said. He held the kite high,
waiting to toss it into the air.
"Oh! Let me! Let me!" Orville said.
Orville ran down a hill with the kite.
"Faster!" Wilbur shouted. "Let out more string!"
A gust of wind caught the kite, and it began to rise. Then
suddenly it dove to the ground broken and torn.
"Oh, Will! Look at our kite," Orville said. "It's wrecked!"
"Never mind. We'll make a better one tomorrow," Wilbur
promised. "I have a new idea."
Wilbur bent the frame of the new kite to a greater curve.
17
"This way it should hold more wind," he said. When they
took it for a test, other boys were there flying kites.
"What a funny-looking kite the Wrights have!" teased the
boys. "It's crooked!"
But soon they stopped teasing. The new kite flew higher
than all the others. It stayed up longer, too.
"Hey, Orv," yelled one of the boys, "will you make me one
like it?"
"Me, too?" asked another. All the boys wanted one.
Still guiding the kite aloft, Orville moved nearer to where
Wilbur was standing. "We'll make them," he said to his friends
with excited pride, Then, with a mischievous smile at Wilbur,
he added, "Ten cents each, and that's only half the store
price!"
As the boys watched their kite glide high in the sky, Or
ville said with a sigh, "I wish we could be up there, too."
"Maybe some day we can," Wilbur answered.
19
THREE
Selling kites was only one way to earn money. Orville collected
scrap metal in his wagon and sold it at the junk yard. He raked
leaves and shoveled snow for neighbors. Once he and his friends
gave a circus and sold tickets.
Wilbur had a job folding newspapers. The work was easy
too easy for him. "There must be a better way to do a simple
job like this/' he thought to himself as he folded page after
page with his strong, slim hands. The more he thought about it,
the more determined he became to find a way to speed the work.
Soon he began spending his spare time at home inventing a
paper-folding machine. It grew into a strange-looking object
with wooden rollers, strings and gears, and a foot pedal to
supply the power. It was big, bulky, noisy. It worked.
When he was a senior in high school, Wilbur was hurt seri
ously in an ice-hockey game. He had to stay in bed for many
months. At first he was not even allowed to read. His illness
prevented his going to college that fall. This was a bitter dis-
20
appointment to him. Unlike Orville, who usually did his home
work in a hurry in order to have time for hobbies, Wilbur
enjoyed the hours he spent studying and reading. He had
looked forward to going to college.
Orville worked extra hard during his brother's long illness.
He did his own chores, and he did Wilbur's too. Often he read
to Wilbur. As the months passed, Orville began to talk excitedly
about a new hobby.
"I'm going to be a printer," Orville said. "I've been reading
about printing, and I've been practicing on a toy press Ed Sines
has. Some day I am going to have a real one."
One evening Mr. Wright talked to Wilbur about Orville's
new hobby. "Orv's in love with the printing business," Father
said, "and I would like to surprise him."
"How, Father?" Wilbur asked.
"Do you remember the little boat we made together several
years ago?"
Wilbur looked puzzled. "Yes," he said, "I remember it. It's
still out in the woodshed. But it leaks, and it's not worth fixing."
"Well," Father went on, "if you have no plans for it, I know
a man who wants it for its lumber. He will trade us a printing
press for it. It's only a very small press, but it's real."
"That's a fine idea, Father," Wilbur said. "A good trade,
too ! Orv will be surprised all right!"
21
Orville could hardly believe his eyes when Father brought
home the printing press. He spent every spare minute working
with it. Mother let him use an empty room upstairs. Soon
Orville and Ed Sines began printing a small newspaper, which
they sold to their eighth-grade classmates.
Because he wanted to learn more about the business, Orville
worked in a printing shop during the next two summer vaca
tions. He built another press at home. When he was nearly
seventeen, he experimented making a larger one. It was much
harder than he had thought it would be. Wilbur offered to help.
Although some of his ideas were unusual and different, they
worked!
"Where do you get such strange ideas?" Orville asked him.
Wilbur grinned at his younger brother. "I get most of them
from you!" he said with a look of merriment in his blue-gray
eyes.
The boys worked together as partners publishing a neigh
borhood newspaper, which they named The West Side News.
Wilbur was the editor. Orville was the printer.
Running a weekly paper was a man-sized job. They gathered
news items and sold advertisements to local businessmen. Wil
bur wrote most of the stories. He discovered that he liked
writing almost as much as he liked reading. Orville set the type
and ran the press. Puttering with the machinery was the part
he liked best about the newspaper business.
The people of Dayton liked The West Side News. Orville
and Wilbur kept the paper going for over a year. During that
time Orville finished his high-school studies.
"I'm not going to college/' he told his family. "I'd rather
work with Will in the print shop."
Mrs. Wright died that year. She had been proud of her sons.
Orville and Wilbur always remembered the encouragement she
had given them in each of their efforts. The memory of her
faith was to help them all their lives.
23
FOUR
Automobiles were unknown to the people of Dayton in 1892.
When they could not walk from one place to another, they
rode in trains or trolley cars or in horse-drawn carriages. Some
rode old-fashioned high-wheeled bicycles.
A new kind of bicycle became popular later that year. Its
two wheels were the same size. People called it "the safety."
Orville bought one of the new bikes. "Why don't you get
one, Wilbur? We could go places together."
"I could go, too," their sister Katharine said. "Many ladies
are riding bikes nowadays. That's why the fashions are chang
ing. Haven't you noticed how much shorter we are wearing our
skirts almost above our ankles?"
"Yes, I've noticed," Wilbur said. "And I notice many men
are riding bikes to their shops and offices. It seems as if every
one in Dayton is riding bikes."
In fact, people all over the United States were pedaling
bicycles over the streets and dusty roads. City people rode their
24
bikes to the country for picnics. Country folk rode to the cities
to see plays at the theaters and to dine in the restaurants. Young
and old men and women, boys and girls all rode bikes.
Races were popular, too.
Orville practiced for the bike races. He found that he could
ride faster by leaning low over the handlebars. He told Wilbur
about it.
"That's because the wind skims over the curve of your back.
It cuts down the wind resistance/' Wilbur explained. "Let's
try raising the seats and lowering the handlebars on our bikes.
That way we can ride faster into the wind without getting
tired."
"What on earth have you done to your bike, Orv?" asked
one of the other riders at the starting line of the races one
Saturday. "You look silly bent over so far."
"Wait and see!" Orville yelled as the whistle blew. The
racers started out pedaling as fast as their legs would move.
Orville kept pace with the rest of them. Halfway around the
track some of the riders began to lag behind. As they grew
tired, more and more of the riders were forced to slow their
pace. Orville won the race easily. As the other boys reached the
finish line, tired and puffing, they looked again at Orville's
bike. He told them about wind resistance. Some of them asked
him to change their bikes that way, too.
"Sure," Orville said. "Bring them to the print shop tomor
row. Will and I can fix them."
It wasn't long before Wilbur and Orville were as busy fixing
bicycles as they were running the printing shop.
"Why don't we open a bike repair shop?" Orville suggested
one day.
"We might as well," Wilbur said. "We're spending almost
as much time working on bikes as we are on the newspaper.
We could sell bicycles, too."
So they rented a small shop and hung out a large sign,
Wright Cycle Company. Now there were two stores in Dayton
26
with the Wrights' name. Ed Sines was hired to run the printing
shop for them.
As the months went by, more and more people bought
bicycles. The Wrights sold them, and they fixed them when
they were broken.
One afternoon Wilbur grumbled, "Orv, there isn't space
enough in this shop for another bike!"
Orville nodded in agreement. "We haven't enough time any
more for our work at the print shop." A look of mischief shone
in Orville's eyes. "Ed will buy our printing business if we want
to sell it," he said. "I'm willing, if you are."
"I figured you'd feel that way. Printing is too easy for you
now that the press doesn't need so much fixing," Wilbur teased.
The printing business was soon sold to Ed Sines, and the
Wright Cycle Company was moved to a larger shop. The
brothers believed that they could make a better bicycle than
those they were already selling. Soon they began to manufac
ture a bike of their own design. They called it the Van Cleve.
Besides being less expensive than other models, the Van Cleve
had special safety brakes.
Behind the shop the brothers built a shed for experiments.
"These old wheels should be good for something," Orville said
one morning, pointing to a pile of old bike parts stacked in a
corner. "I have an idea for some fun."
28
Using old parts and some pipe, they made a bicycle with
two seats and two sets of pedals and handlebars. It was called a
tandem.
"I declare/ 9 said one of their neighbors, laughing. "Look
at Orv and Will Wright whiz down the street on that two-
seater bike ! You never know what those boys will invent next !"
FIVE
"Listen to this," Wilbur said one evening while reading a
newspaper by the gas lamp in the parlor. "It says that a man
in Germany his name is Lilienthal has made some kind of
glider to fly on. It's made of light wood covered with cloth. I'd
sure like to see it."
"I'd like to try it!" Orville answered. "What fun that would
be!"
"It sounds dangerous to me," Katharine added softly, look
ing up from her sewing,
Orville and Wilbur were interested in any new invention.
They often borrowed books from the public library in order to
learn more about science and engineering. They wanted to
know what made every new invention work. After reading about
Mr. Lilienthal's glider, they read all they could find about fly
ing in books and magazines.
They found out that the idea of flying had been in the minds
of men for centuries. Inventors and dreamers had tried to fly.
30
Some had fastened large wings to their arms and jumped from
steep hillsides or rooftops. Most of these had been seriously
injured or killed.
Orville and Wilbur felt a sharp sadness when they later read
that Mr. Lilienthal had crashed and died trying to fly his glider.
"I wonder what went wrong," Wilbur said. After that he and
Orville talked more and more about flying. They read and
studied what other scientists and inventors had tried. They
learned that most of these men had given up, saying firmly that
flying was impossible.
"We could build a glider, Will," Orville said. "I know we
could."
"It would be fun to try, but it might cost a lot of money,"
Wilbur said. 'Those others who have tried had plenty of money
for buying materials."
31
Mayte that's why some of them failed," Orville argued
Maybe they were in a hurry to build their machines, knowing
they had money enough to keep on trying if they failed "
"Perhaps," Wilbur said, "but I'd need to know much more
about wind currents and air pressure before I'd be willing to
Mnld a glider. I wonder what we could learn from watching
the Birds. 6
At sunrise for the next few Sundays Wilbur and Orville
rode three miles on their bikes to a spot along the Miami River
32
called The Pinnacles. Here, where the river waters rush over
jagged rocks, they lay on the grassy shore, squinting into the
bright morning sunlight. Buzzards and hawks soared among the
towering rocks, seeking food near the shallow rapids.
"Watch that one!" Wilbur said, pointing to a diving hawk.
"Notice how he glides without seeming to move his wings?"
"I wish we knew his secret," Orville said.
The boys knew that a glider had to balance or it would crash.
This was the problem that had caused other inventors to fail.
It was this same problem that had caused LilienthaPs fatal
crash. Without balance control, a glider was at the mercy of
the wind. Some inventors had tried hinging wings to a frame.
Others had tried to balance by shifting their bodies from side
to side. Some others had even tried feather-covered wings tied
to their arms. None of these methods had worked.
The more Orville and Wilbur thought about balancing and
controlling a glider, the more challenging the problem became.
They talked about it, and they argued about it. Sometimes
Wilbur would convince Orville of a way to obtain balance,
only to end up arguing against his original idea.
Late one evening, while Wilbur was working alone at the
bike shop, a customer came in. "I'm glad you're still open,"
the man said. "I need an inner tube for this wheel."
Wilbur took a tube from a long box and handed it to the
man. The customer inspected the tube. While waiting, Wilbur
33
twisted the empty box in his hands. A strange feeling puzzled
him.
Wilbur stared at the box. He twisted it again. Suddenly he
saw what had puzzled him. It was not a problem at all. It was
the answer to one! The angle of the twisted box showed him an
34
answer to wing balance for a glider. The idea is now called
"wing warp."
Wilbur was so excited with his discovery that he hurried
the customer out of the shop impolitely. He could hardly wait
to get home and share his discovery with Orville.
35
Orville was as excited as his brother. "You've done it, Will !"
he said. 'This is the answer! One end of the wing can be raised
and the other lowered to keep the wind from upsetting the
glider. Now we can make one!"
"Not so fast!" Wilbur said. "First we will have to make a
giant kite to see if the idea works/'
A group of small boys followed Wilbur when he took the
huge kite for a test. They were curious, and they wondered why
a grown man would want to fly a kite. Wilbur was thirty-two
now, and his sandy hair was beginning to thin on top of his
head.
"Gee, Mr. Wright, that sure is a big kite! Why does it have
two wings and all those wires?" asked one of the boys.
Wilbur liked children. "It's an experiment," he said. "Let's
see if it will fly."
Afterward Wilbur decided to tease Orville, who had stayed
to tend the bike shop. Wilbur drooped his shoulders and walked
into the shop, pretending to be sad and discouraged. He did not
say a word.
Orville glanced at his brother and quickly clasped his hands
together. "Now we can build our glider!" he said. "It worked!"
"How did you know?" Wilbur asked with surprise.
"It's easy," Orville said. "You forgot to wipe the grin off
your face."
36
SIX
The shed behind the bike shop was busier than ever now. Wil
bur and Orville often worked late at night building the glider.
"Riding on this will be the best of all sports!" Orville said
anxiously. "Where shall we test it?"
Wilbur scratched his thinning hair. He thought a moment.
"We need a place where the wind is strong and steady "
" a place without trees/' Orville broke in.
"Yes with sandy ground for soft landings," Wilbur added.
"I'll write to the United States Weather Bureau. They can tell
us."
The answer from the Weather Bureau named several windy
places. The nearest one was a fishing village on an Atlantic
Coast island off North Carolina. It was called Kitty Hawk.
Wilbur wrote a letter to the weather station there to find out
more about Kitty Hawk. The postmaster, William Tate, an
swered that it was: "a stretch of sandy land one mile by five
with a bare hill in center 80 feet high, not a tree or bush any
where to break the evenness of the wind current."
37
This made the Wrights sure that Kitty Hawk was the best
place for testing their glider. They packed the glider parts into
big crates. Wilbur started off early in September, 1 900. Orville
stayed behind to finish work at the bike shop.
"I'll meet you at Kitty Hawk as soon as you have a camp
ready!" Orville called as the train pulled out of the Dayton
station.
When Wilbur got off the train at Elizabeth City, North
Carolina, he asked a man where to get the boat for Kitty Hawk.
"Kitty Hawk? Never heard of it!" the man answered.
SEVEN
Wilbur was disappointed to find that he had missed by one day
the weekly boat to Kitty Hawk.
At the waterfront he met an old sea captain, Israel Perry,
who owned a dirty flat-bottomed schooner.
"So you want to go to Kitty Hawk, eh?" Captain Perry
said. "That's a lonely place nothing there but a weather
station and a post office. Well, climb aboard and stow your
gear. I'll take you."
Wilbur looked thoughtfully over the choppy waters toward
Albemarle Sound. Then he stared long and hard at the battered
boat tied up at the wharf. "It doesn't look safe," he thought.
"But I can't waste six days waiting for the regular boat. I'll take
a chance."
By afternoon, the howling winds had lashed the water to
white foam. The leaky boat tossed and smacked in the rough
waves of the Sound.
"We'll have to head into the North River until it quiets
39
down," Captain Perry finally shouted over the noise of the
storm. After they had anchored In the quiet river waters, the
captain said, "Let's have something to eat while we wait this
out."
Wilbur smacked his lips and followed the captain to the
schooner's small galley. He was hungry. Then as they entered
the crowded cooking area, his stomach turned upside down.
Everything was dirty and greasy.
"No thanks, Captain/' Wilbur gulped politely. "I'm not
hungry."
When they finally landed at Kitty Hawk, Wilhur went directly
to the home of the postmaster, William Tate.
"Land sakes!" said Mrs. Tate when she learned that Wilbur
had spent two days on the boat with nothing to eat. "That's
only a short trip on the regular boat. You must be starved!"
In a few minutes she set before Wilbur a steaming plate of
ham and eggs.
"Thank you, Mrs. Tate. This is mighty kind of you," Wilbur
said. He told Mr. and Mrs. Tate about the glider. They liked
him. He was well-mannered and thoughtful. But flying was a
crazy idea! Could such a sensible young man be serious about
it?
Wilbur stayed with the Tales until he had finished setting
up camp. He dragged supplies half a mile over the wind-swept
sands. He pitched the tent at a spot where a few trees gave
shade from the hot sun. It was hard work hauling the crates of
tools and glider parts. His muscles were sore from carrying
water and food supplies.
"I thought camping was supposed to be fun," he groaned as
he slapped at a pesky mosquito.
After Orville arrived they worked together assembling the
41
glider. Wilbur borrowed Mrs. Tale's sewing machine. He
stitched yards and yards of white sateen for the wing coverings.
When they had finished putting it together, the glider looked
like a big box kite with wings. It weighed fifty-two pounds and
had cost about fifteen dollars to make.
At first Orville and Wilbur flew the glider as if it were a
kite, controlling it with long ropes. In gusty winds it bobbed
wildly like a bucking bronco.
"You're not really going to try to ride on that thing, are
you?" Mr. Tate asked them.
"That's why we came to Kitty Hawk, Mr. Tate/' Orville
said. "Tomorrow we're going over to Kill Devil Hill to try it
without the ropes."
Next day the Wrights carried the glider four miles over the
42
sand to the highest hill on the island. Mr. Tate went along to
help.
"This is the real test, Will," Orville said as they made ready
for the first glide.
From the top of the sandy dune the brothers took turns
alone. Because the glider remained close to the soft, sandy
hillside, there was little chance of a serious crash, but the speed
of their flights was about twenty miles an hour fast traveling
for the year 1900. The glider stayed in the air only a few sec
onds on each of these downhill flights before one wing would
touch the ground and force them to land. It could scarcely be
called flying. But these experiments gave Orville and Wilbur a
chance to test their ideas of balance. It was exciting to ride on
their big flying kite, even though the rides were short and close
to the earth.
"It doesn't stay up as long as we had hoped it would,"
Orville said after they had taken turns making several trips.
"But we can balance it in the air," Wilbur said. "No one
else has been able to do that before."
"I didn't expect that thing to hold you up for a split second,"
said Mr. Tate. "I am surprised that you even got it off the
ground."
"We'll think of a way to keep it up longer," Wilbur said.
"We'll be back next year."
43
EIGHT
At home again in Dayton, Wilbur and Orville plunged into
plans for a new glider. Wilbur wrote a letter to a famous engi
neer, telling about their glider experiments. This man was
Octave Chanute. He was interested in flying, too, and he had
written a book telling about the flying experiments of inventors
all over the world. Wilbur and Orville had read and studied
Mr. Chanute's book. They had disagreed with all the ideas it
told about. But they thought Mr. Chanute might be interested
in their experiments.
In July, 1 90 1 , the brothers went back to Kitty Hawk with a
larger glider. This time they built a wooden shed to shelter it.
Mr. Chanute came to their camp to see the experiments.
Although the new glider flew longer distances than the first
one, Orville and Wilbur were disappointed with it. It did not
have the lifting power they had expected.
During one of Wilbur's rides the glider stalled in the air.
"Watch out!" Orville screamed from below. His warning
45
alerted Wilbur to the danger. This was how Mr. Lilienthal had
crashed ! Orville held his breath while Wilbur inched his weight
forward to level the machine. Then he turned the rudder con
trol and steered the glider to a safe landing.
"That was a narrow escape," Orville said, "but it proves
that our control system works."
Even though these experiments had set new distance records
for gliding, both brothers were discouraged. Until now they had
thought of flying as a hobby. The trips to Kitty Hawk had been
their vacations. The experiments had been sporting and fun.
Now the fun was over. Gliding with the wind was only a first
step. What they really wanted to do was fly without regard to
the wind. There would be many problems to solve. The fun
would change to hard work and long hours of study.
One of the most important problems to be studied was air
pressure. Older scientists had made charts of air pressures. The
charts were printed in science books and were used by teachers
and scientists in many experiments. Orville and Wilbur were
sure that these charts were wrong. But how could they prove it?
Mr. Chanute told them to keep trying. "You have already
set new gliding records," he said. "Your experiments are more
promising than any others."
As they were packing to go back to Dayton, Wilbur said in
a discouraged voice, "I don't think man will fly for a thousand
years."
46
But Wilbur and Orville did not give up. Every day after
they had finished work at the bike shop, they checked over notes
and charts they had made of their glider tests. They began to
trust their own ideas more than ever.
That fall Wilbur was invited by Mr. Chanute to speak in
Chicago at a meeting of engineers. Wilbur was terrified by the
idea. "I'm only a bicycle mechanic, Orv. Fd feel silly making
a speech before all those college men."
"You can't disappoint Mr. Chanute," Orville said.
"All right," Wilbur agreed at last. "But Fm going to tell
those engineers that we think the air pressure figures in the
textbooks are wrong."
That worried Orville. "Maybe Will and I are mistaken," he
thought to himself. "Maybe those old charts are right after all.
It would make us look silly if we were wrong."
Orville went to work on an idea and devised a small wind
tunnel to measure air pressure. He had time for only a few
tests, but it was time enough to prove that the textbooks held
mistakes. Later he and Wilbur made a better wind tunnel.
Then, after many experiments, they made careful notes telling
exactly how much air pressure was needed to lift surfaces curved
at different angles. Now there was no question about the old
measurements. They were wrong, and Orville and Wilbur were
48
right ! No wonder no one had ever before been successful with
flight trials.
Late in August, 1902, Orville and Wilbur went to Kitty
Hawk again. Now they had a new glider. Its measurements were
based on the new air-pressure figures they had discovered
through their wind-tunnel experiments. By the time their "vaca
tion" was over, they had made almost a thousand flights. The
long hours of practice had made them good glider pilots. They
had made important changes to improve the glider's balance
and control. No longer did it wobble or nose-dive. Now they
were satisfied with it.
"All it needs is a motor," Wilbur said.
"Let's get back to the bike shop and earn the money to come
back next year," Orville said. "Our glider is ready for a motor,
and we are ready to fly!"
49
NINE
In 1903 most people thought flying was a fool's dream. They
made fun of automobiles then, too, and called them "rich men's
toys."
Except for Katharine and Father, only one other person in
Dayton knew of the brothers' flying experiments during their
Kitty Hawk vacations. This was Charlie Taylor, chief mechanic
at the bike shop.
When Orville and Wilbur could not find the right kind of
motor for their glider, it was Charlie who suggested, "Why not
make one?"
With Charlie's help, an engine was planned and made.
Finally, after many arguments, the brothers agreed on a design
for propellers.
Late in September they returned to Kitty Hawk. First they
repaired storm damage to their camp. They made the shed
larger so they had enough space inside for cooking and for
sleeping. It took them another three weeks to assemble their
50
six-hundred-pound flying machine. In between times, they
made practice flights on their 1902 glider.
There were many problems. The propeller shafts broke off
when they first started the motor, and they had to make new
ones. The plane's wings had to be made stronger. The weather
was bad.
"Will we ever be ready for a test?" Orville asked impatiently.
"We must be sure of everything" Wilbur said.
Orville knew his brother was right. They had worked so hard
and so long. Riding a strange new machine into the air was
dangerous. A man could be killed if it failed.
On December 14 everything was ready at last. A coin was
tossed to see who would have first chance. Wilbur won the toss
and climbed Into the pilot's position, flat on his stomach, on
the bottom wing. The motor roared and shook as he guided the
plane down the greased wooden track built for the take-off. The
machine began to rise slightly into the air, but it nosed into
the soft sand three seconds later.
"Are you all right, Will?" Orville called anxiously.
"Fm all right," Wilbur answered, "but Fm afraid part of
the machine is wrecked,"
The brothers were too honest to call this a successful test.
They were disappointed, but they were not discouraged. They
could fix the machine and try again.
Three days later December 17, 1903 they were ready
for another try. The wind was tricky and cold. Icy puddles
dotted the sand. "I wish we had warmer clothes," Wilbur said
as he hugged his overcoat to his sides. Three men from the
weather station came over to watch and to help. Mr. W. C.
Brinkley turned up from a neighboring village, and so did
seventeen-year-old Johnny Moore, who had nothing better to
do that day.
It was Orville's turn to try. He warmed up the motor. Then
he climbed into position. Carefully he unhooked the wire that
held the machine to the starting track. The noisy machine
started forward very slowly.
Wilbur ran along beside the machine, holding the wing tip
to steady it. It began to go faster and rose into the air a few
inches. It rose higher and then dipped toward the ground.
Orville's heart pounded as he worked the controls to bring the
nose up. Within seconds he was about ten feet off the ground.
Tense and anxious, Wilbur and the others watched.
Orville did not have time to think about being afraid. He
was busier than he had ever been before. Both of his hands
and both of his feet were busy working the controls. For twelve
seconds he kept the wobbly machine in the air against a gusty
wind. Then he landed it safely.
The flight was short, but that did not matter. What counted
was that the machine had lifted from level ground and traveled
through the air under its own power for a distance of 1 20 feet!
For hundreds of years men had dreamed of flying. And now,
two young men bicycle mechanics from Ohio had conquered
the air!
54
After it was over, Orville and Wilbur proudly shook hands.
It was a solemn moment. Then they grinned at each other and
laughed and jumped up and down like small boys. They slapped
each other on the back and talked excitedly at the same time.
"We did it, Orv!" Wilbur shouted. "We really did it!"
"I didn't have time to think about it in the air/' Orville said.
"But I'd have frozen to death if I hadn't been so busy."
"Too bad Will Tate wasn't here to see it," said Mr. Brinkley.
"He kept telling us you boys weren't crackpots. He said you
were real scientific. Guess maybe he was right."
TEN
Aviation history began that wintry December 1 7 .
Wilbur and Orville made three more flights that morning.
On the last test Wilbur flew a distance of over 800 feet. The
plane stayed up for 59 seconds against a strong wind.
That afternoon they hiked four miles to the weather station
to telegraph the good news to Father. "Inform press," their
wire ended.
But the newspapers even the Dayton Journal paid no
attention to the story. Only one editor understood how im
portant it was. His paper, the Virginia-Pilot, made headlines
of the news. Below the headline were these words: "No Balloon
Attached to Aid It."
Other newspaper editors merely laughed. Hadn't they just
printed stories saying flight was impossible? Nine days earlier
their papers had told about a famous inventor who had tried to
fly and failed. Afterward, the scientists had all agreed that a
power machine could never be made to fly. Why should anyone
56
believe that two bicycle mechanics had done what a great scien
tist could not do? It must be a joke.
Wilbur and Orville, of course, kept on flying. During the
next few years they made new and better airplanes. They
changed the controls so that the pilot could sit up. They made
space for a passenger. They added a bigger fuel tank, a stronger
landing gear, a more powerful engine.
Several years went by before Orville and Wilbur became
famous. Even the United States Government had not been
interested in their invention. When foreign governments wanted
it, Washington officials finally decided to see what these Wright
brothers had done.
"Why didn't we know of this before?" they asked then.
"Such a machine will be important to the War Department."
Wilbur and Orville had known all along that their machine
was important to science. They knew it would be needed in
times of war. And they hoped it would be useful in peacetime,
too. They were glad their own country had finally taken an
interest in their invention.
They did not know then, of course, that one day the skies
would be filled with planes carrying passengers and cargo all
over the world. They never dreamed of jetcraft and spaceships.
Orville and Wilbur were the pioneers of the aviation indus
try, and they stayed in that business for the rest of their lives.
58
Wilbur lived only a short time longer. He experienced only
some of the joys of the fame he and Orville had earned. In the
spring of 1912 he died of typhoid fever.
Then Orville worked on alone. It was never the same with
out Wilbur, and often Orville's thoughts went back to long ago.
He remembered the tiny flying toy that Father had brought
home from a trip. That had been the real beginning of their
invention. He remembered the kite their friends had teased
them about. He remembered the printing business and the
bicycle shop. All of these had taught them to be good mechanics.
They had done all the important things together working
together, dreaming together.
Orville wished Wilbur could have seen the monument honor
ing them in Dayton. The last two lines of its inscription said:
66 As scientists Wilbur and Orville Wright Discovered the
Secret of Flight. As Inventors, Builders and Flyers, they
Brought Aviation to the World/'
Orville was seventy-six years old when he died in 1948.
Before his death a newspaper reporter had asked him: "Mr.
Wright, who did the most to invent the airplane you, or
Wilbur?"
Orville smiled. "Neither," he said. "We always worked
together. We did our best work together."
59
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Dos Passes, John. The Big Money. New York: Random House,
Eraser, Chelsea. Famous American Flyers. New York: Thomas
Y. Crowell, 1941.
Freudenthal, E. E. Flight into History: The Wright Brothers
and the Air Age. Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma
Press, 1949.
Hylander, C. J. American Inventors. New York: The Mac-
millan Company, 1934.
Kelly, Fred C. The Wright Brothers. New York: Harcourt,
Brace & World, 1 943 .
Kelly, Fred C. "Bicycle Craze of Early i poo's," American
Heritage., December, 1956, pp. 68-73.
Lord, Walter. The Good If ears: From 1900 to the First World
War. New York: Harper & Row, 1960.
McMahon, John R. The Wright Brothers: Fathers of Flight.
Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1930.
Meynell, Laurence. First Men to Fly. London: T. Werner
Laurie Limited, 1955.
61
Ohio Guide, The. (American Guide Series, Sponsored by The
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society.) New
York: Oxford University Press, 1940.
Powell, William S. "First Flight," American Heritage, Decem
ber, 1 95 3, PP. 4-43-
Wright, Orville. How We Invented the Airplane. Edited and
with commentary by Fred C. Kelly. New York: David Mc
Kay Company, 1953.
Wright, Orville and Wilbur. Miracle at Kitty Hawk: Letters of
Wilbur and Orville Wright. Edited by Fred C. Kelly. New
York: Farrar, Straus & Company, 195 1.
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