Model A

In turn-of-the-century America, there were bicycle shops on virtually every street corner. However, in one there were wings being built as well as wheels. Wilbur and Orville Wright opened their bicycle business in Ohio, USA in 1892. While repairing bicycles paid the bills, their true aspiration was to build a full-size flying machine.

After reading virtually everything written on flying, Wilbur was the first early aviator to recognise the need for some form of control that would stop the aircraft rolling from side to side. In response to the problem, he twisted an empty bicycle tube box with the ends removed. The same principle was applied to the surface of the wing - 'wing warping' - it would enable the pilot to not only fly level, but also make balanced, banked turns - rather like a bicycle cornering.
 
Today, the entire aerospace industry depends on this simple but brilliant idea. So do spacecraft, submarines and even robots!
 
In August 1900, Wilbur and Orville Wright tested their first glider at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The next year, they tested a new and improved glider with a 22ft wingspan. A disappointing performance by the 1901 glider prompted the Wright brothers to construct a wind tunnel to test the effectiveness of a variety of wing shapes. Using the results, they built their 1902 glider, which flew a record 620ft.

It was then that the brothers built their own 4-cylinder, 12-horsepower engine for their 1903 powered aircraft - the Flyer - from the back room of their cycle shop. The Flyer's airframe was made of ash and spruce wood. The wooden wings were covered with linen and stiffened with bracing wires. To fly it, the pilot had to lie on the bottom wing in a cradle. As he moved from side to side, the cradle pulled wires and twisted the wings - hence steering the plane.
 
When the Wright brothers' Flyer was complete, it was shipped down to Kitty Hawk and assembled. On December 14, 1903, Wilbur won a coin toss and made the first attempt to fly the machine. He stalled it on take-off, causing some minor damage.

Once the Flyer was repaired, Orville made the next attempt on 17 December, 1903 at 10.35am. In a flight lasting only 12 seconds and covering just 120ft, he made the first powered, sustained and controlled flight in a heavier-than-air machine. He had done what, for centuries, men and women could only dream of.
 
When Wilbur Wright demonstrated his aeroplane in France in 1908, the French were astounded. They were quick to learn and within a year Henri Farman and Louis Bleriot were making extended flights.
 
Even though Wilbur and Orville spent most of their lives defending their patent, many held the brothers as the true pioneers of flight.