Wright brothers

In the field of aviation, the Wright brothers – Orville (August 19, 1871 – January 30, 1948) and Wilbur (April 16, 1867 – May 30, 1912) – are two American aviation pioneers who are widely recognised with developing, constructing, and flying the world's first successful motor-driven aircraft in 1903. On December 17, 1903, four miles (six kilometres) south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, they achieved the first controlled, sustained flight of a powered, heavier-than-air aircraft in the Wright Flyer. Aside from that, they were the first to develop aircraft controls, which enabled fixed-wing powered flight to become a reality.

Wright Flyer II, followed by the Wright Flyer III, was the first truly practical fixed-wing aircraft built by the Wright brothers during the period 1904–1905. With the Wright Flyer II, the Wright brothers improved the performance of their flying machine by making it longer-running and more aerodynamic. The invention of a three-axis control system by the brothers was a watershed moment in aviation history because it allowed pilots to manoeuvre their aircraft efficiently while maintaining balance. This technique continues to be used on all fixed-wing aircraft, regardless of their kind. Wilbur and Orville Wright concentrated their aeronautical research from the outset on establishing a dependable system of pilot control as the key to solving "the flying issue." This was a major departure from the strategy used by other experimenters at the time, who placed a greater focus on building strong engines. The Wrights also used a tiny home-built wind tunnel to gather more precise data than had ever been collected previously, allowing them to build more efficient wings and propellers for their aircraft. 156 : 228 Their initial U.S. patent did not claim the creation of a flying machine, but rather the development of an aerodynamic control system that could modify the surfaces of a flying vehicle.