# How advanced an airplane did the Wright brothers get to see? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 24, 2010, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-advanced-an-airplane-did-the-wright-brothers-get-to-see/537172 "2010-04-24T01:25:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2010, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-advanced-an-airplane-did-the-wright-brothers-get-to-see/537172/1 "2010-04-24T01:25:27Z")
How advanced an airplane did the Wright brothers get to see before their death? ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2010, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-advanced-an-airplane-did-the-wright-brothers-get-to-see/537172/2 "2010-04-24T01:29:20Z")
Wilbur died in 1912, so he got to see some pretty decent stuff made by foreigners flouting his and Orville’s aileron patent (that kept American development pretty tightly limited). Orville made it to 1948, through WW2 and into the early jet age. ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2010, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-advanced-an-airplane-did-the-wright-brothers-get-to-see/537172/3 "2010-04-24T02:37:55Z")
Cool bit of trivia: [QUOTE=Wikipedia] On April 19, 1944, the second production Lockheed Constellation, piloted by Howard Hughes and TWA president Jack Frye, flew from Burbank, California to Washington, D.C. in 6 hours and 57 minutes. On the return trip, the aircraft stopped at Wright Field to give Orville Wright his last airplane flight, more than 40 years after his historic first flight. He may even have briefly handled the controls. He commented that the wingspan of the Constellation was longer than the distance of his first flight. [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2010, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-advanced-an-airplane-did-the-wright-brothers-get-to-see/537172/4 "2010-04-24T03:00:23Z")
I’m surprised I can’t find any interviews with Orville on YouTube. Surely someone in the 30s or 40s got him on camera… ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2010, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-advanced-an-airplane-did-the-wright-brothers-get-to-see/537172/5 "2010-04-24T13:14:03Z")
Orville kept pretty much to himself after the deaths of his brother and of several close friends who were flying the Model C he designed, and his sister Katherine left the home to marry (he never did, and neither did Wilbur). Orville wasn’t exactly a recluse, but he was about as public as Neil Armstrong is today. My father, as a small boy, got to shake Orville’s hand at a county fair he was attending with Charles Kettering. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2010, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-advanced-an-airplane-did-the-wright-brothers-get-to-see/537172/6 "2010-04-24T13:57:27Z")
It’s sad when you think that Orville lived to see airplanes firebomb Dresden and drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2010, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-advanced-an-airplane-did-the-wright-brothers-get-to-see/537172/7 "2010-04-24T14:19:05Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > It’s sad when you think that Orville lived to see airplanes firebomb Dresden and drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Why would that be sad? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2010, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-advanced-an-airplane-did-the-wright-brothers-get-to-see/537172/8 "2010-04-24T14:24:31Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > Why would that be sad? Are you kidding? If you invented something that contributed directly to the destruction of great art and millions of human lives, wouldn’t that be a least a little less than fluffy-bunny-giggly happy? Even if you believed it was for a greater good? At least the inventors of the atomic bomb were aware of what it was for; I doubt if the Wright brothers foresaw the airplane as a weapon of war (though perhaps they did; it would not have been a huge leap of the imagination). ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2010, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-advanced-an-airplane-did-the-wright-brothers-get-to-see/537172/9 "2010-04-24T14:32:15Z")
the Wright brothers did market their plane to the military as soon as it was practical, though they were not much more than observation platforms at the time. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2010, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-advanced-an-airplane-did-the-wright-brothers-get-to-see/537172/10 "2010-04-24T16:54:21Z")
Yep, Alberto Santos-Dumont (who claimed to be the first man to fly an airplane) got so depressed over the militarization of the air, that he killed himself. Really, it must have been very disillusioning for inventors and scientists, in the world of 1914-they had thought that mankind was entering a new age of prosperty (brought about by modern science and engineering). What they got instead, was the horror of WW1. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2010, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-advanced-an-airplane-did-the-wright-brothers-get-to-see/537172/11 "2010-04-24T19:14:28Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > My father, as a small boy, got to shake Orville’s hand at a county fair he was attending with Charles Kettering. My mother, who was born in 1913, got to meet Orville at an air show in Cleveland. There had been an art contest, and the two winners would eventually become my parents (both of whom became artists). The prize for the first two winners was a plane ride . . . very much of a novelty back then. My paternal grandmother wouldn’t let my father go. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2010, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-advanced-an-airplane-did-the-wright-brothers-get-to-see/537172/12 "2010-04-24T19:16:13Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > It’s sad when you think that Orville lived to see airplanes firebomb Dresden and drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. [mod note] This is a GQ thread. Don’t try to turn it into a political/social debate. [/mod note] ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2010, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-advanced-an-airplane-did-the-wright-brothers-get-to-see/537172/13 "2010-04-24T19:34:32Z")
What? Seriously? It isn’t on topic to point out that one of the Wright brothers lived to see a war where air combat was an important factor? Jeez. ---
**Author:** ![Ronald\_C.Semone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2010, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-advanced-an-airplane-did-the-wright-brothers-get-to-see/537172/14 "2010-04-24T19:38:10Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > What? Seriously? It isn’t on topic to point out that one of the Wright brothers lived to see a war where air combat was an important factor? Jeez. The fact that you chose the examples you did (Dresden and Hiroshima) instead of, say, Coventry and Pearl Harbor, shows that you were trying to make a political statement and not just provide information. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2010, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-advanced-an-airplane-did-the-wright-brothers-get-to-see/537172/15 "2010-04-24T19:41:37Z")
Well, I imagine it would have been a hell of a thing to invent airplanes and see Pearl Harbor or the Blitz too. I wasn’t making a political point and wasn’t aware that “war sucks” was a controversial position. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2010, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-advanced-an-airplane-did-the-wright-brothers-get-to-see/537172/16 "2010-04-24T19:42:16Z")
> [@Darryl\_Lict](#): > > Cool bit of trivia: Thanks, That was a cool, if not tear jerking (in a good way) bit of trivia. Just imagine, with just a bit of good luck and a bit of compression on the timeline, the Wrights could have lived to see manned space flight. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2010, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-advanced-an-airplane-did-the-wright-brothers-get-to-see/537172/17 "2010-04-24T20:24:10Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > My mother, who was born in 1913, got to meet Orville at an air show in Cleveland. There had been an art contest, and the two winners would eventually become my parents (both of whom became artists). The prize for the first two winners was a plane ride . . . very much of a novelty back then. My paternal grandmother wouldn’t let my father go. I would watch that movie! What a nice story. Any chance the art survives, or is it rather standard little kid stuff? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2010, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-advanced-an-airplane-did-the-wright-brothers-get-to-see/537172/18 "2010-04-24T20:28:05Z")
I’ve seen a picture of Orville Wright and Curtis Lemay looking at jet fighter. I can’t Google it, but I did find these [quote.] ([http://www.skygod.com/quotes/airpower.html](http://www.skygod.com/quotes/airpower.html)) When my brother and I built the first man-carrying flying machine we thought that we were introducing into the world an invention which would make further wars practically impossible. — Orville Wright, 1917. I feel about the airplane much as I do in regard to fire. That is, I regret all the terrible damage caused by fire. But I think it is good for the human race that someone discovered how to start fires, and that it is possible to put fire to thousands of important uses. — Orville Wright, asked during WWII if he ever regretted being involved in the invention of the airplane. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2010, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-advanced-an-airplane-did-the-wright-brothers-get-to-see/537172/19 "2010-04-24T20:34:30Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > My father, as a small boy, got to shake Orville’s hand at a county fair he was attending with Charles Kettering. Just how cool is that? ---
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2010, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-advanced-an-airplane-did-the-wright-brothers-get-to-see/537172/20 "2010-04-24T21:04:03Z")
I had heard about Orville flying in the Constellation, and always enjoyed the thought of it. Along these same lines, Charles Lindbergh saw a great deal of early aviation and did get to see manned spaceflight. I have a biography with a photo of him in some sort of modern (at the time) aircraft, and it’s amazing to note the differences between it and the Spirt of St. Louis. I often think how the little hand-held GPS that I fly with could have changed the course of the world in an earlier age. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-advanced-an-airplane-did-the-wright-brothers-get-to-see/537172.md?page=2)