The Write Brothers - American Heros

The Wright Brothers

The Wright Brothers are American Hero’s because they built and flew the first ever airplane known to man. They started the era of flying. Although some believe that Orville and Wilbur is not American Hero’s, they helped the world get in the air and beyond.

The Wright Brothers became fascinated with flight and engineering when their father brought home a surprise hidden within his hands. He tossed it into the air. It was a new toy that the boys named Bat. Bat had two propellers connected by a tightly wound rubber band. As the rubber band unwound, the propellers spun. (Phelan) It was a toy helicopter that their father brought home in 1878. At the time, Wilbur was eleven and Orville was seven. The two played with Bat until it fell apart. “The boys became self-taught tinkerers and inventors. In 1892, a bicycling craze promoted them to open their own bicycle shop in Dayton.” (Price 24) At their shop, they sold and repaired bikes. “They even built bicycles of their own design” (Phelan) “By 1899, when Wilbur was 32 and Orville 28, they could turn their attention to powered flight.” (Price 24-26)

During the Wright Brothers bicycle shop days, a German engineer, Otto Lilienthal, was building gliders. Otto Lilienthal was trying to figure out how to fly. “The Wrights saw magazine photos of the red-bearded German dangling beneath bird wings. They read tales of his 2,000 hang-gliding flights. Lilienthal’s last flight, on August 9, 1896, ended with disaster. Losing control of the glider, he plunged 50 feet to the ground. He broke his spine and died the next day. The tragedy showed Wilbur and Orville the danger of flying. But it didn’t end their desire to try. The brothers were determined to build a flying machine. They weren’t trained scientists or engineers. Yet they had learned a lot over the years from building kites, bikes, printing presses, engines, and many other things.” The Wright brothers read everything they could and contacted other aviation pioneers for help and advice. “They concluded that a flying machine needed three basic things: Wings to lift itself into the air, a source of power for moving through the air, and a way for a pilot to control the machine in flight.” (Phelan) Others who tried to fly figured out the first two mysteries. The main problem was figuring out how to control the flying machine. The Wright brothers found the answer to the problem by studying large birds known as buzzards. Wilbur and Orville tried to make a kite shaped like the wings of a buzzard. They attached strings to the tips to try and control the kite. It worked. They had just found a way to control