How advanced an airplane did the Wright brothers get to see?

[Elendil_s_Heir]

Incidentally, the Wright Brothers are finalists in a vote run by the Ohio Historical Society for the next statue to represent Ohio in Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol.

[Cheshire_Human]

@WreckingCrew

My only guess would be that it is about 75 miles to Norfolk, where there is a ton of Navy flyers, not sure where the nearest AF base is.

Langley AFB in Virginia, not much farther away.

[TerpBE]

@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

Sounds like a strange prize. Luckily the two winners happened to be of the opposite sex, or it could have been awkward.

[ElvisL1ves]

@Cicero

A book I have contradicts Wiki in the post at #3 above.

A sweet story, AFAIK uncorroborated elsewhere unfortunately, but contradicted a number of places.

Amongst other things he said "We had no idea that there’d be thousands of aircraft flying around the world. We had no idea that aircraft would be dropping bombs. We were a couple of kids with a bike shop who wanted to get this contraption up in the air. It was a hobby. We had no idea…’

Of course they did, and that’s another reason to doubt the tale. The Wrights were quite blunt about trying to sell their airplane to any government that would be interested, knowing its primary practical application would be in military reconnaissance and later in, yes, bombing, and that that market would be far more lucrative than one-by-one private sales. When the US Army was too skeptical of their claims, they determinedly tried to sell to the UK, France, and Germany, with no interest in who was going to win any conflict between them.
BTW, private pilots can land at First Flight Airport, adjacent to the memorial where the 12/17/03 flights started, and give thanks. That’s on my to-do list.

[tullsterx]

@Zsofia

It’s sad when you think that Orville lived to see airplanes firebomb Dresden and drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Flight transformed the world in many dramatic ways. Think of how some of the most remote places on earth were suddenly opened to active exploration. . . think of how flight has opened up the world and brought people and cultures together. . . I think anyone who would color the development of flight as a tragedy has a few issues, frankly.

[Don_t_Call_Me_Shirley]

Air and Space magazine published a letter back in the 90s from a guy who was flying a P-61 across the country shortly after WWII. He landed to refuel at Wright field and was approached by an old man who started asking him all kinds of questions about the plane’s capabilities and handling. Annoyed, he brushed the old man off and went to the hangar, where he was informed that he had just brushed off Orville Wright.

[The_Seventh_Deadly_Finn]

@TerpBE

Sounds like a strange prize. Luckily the two winners happened to be of the opposite sex, or it could have been awkward.

Not, you know, that there’s anything wrong with that.

[Elendil_s_Heir]

Lest anyone think the Wright Bros. were too mercenary, they essentially gave their own country the right of first refusal even though they didn’t have to, and the other countries to which they offered their airplane were, at the time, not hostile towards the U.S.

@ElvisL1ves

…BTW, private pilots can land at First Flight Airport, adjacent to the memorial where the 12/17/03 flights started, and give thanks. That’s on my to-do list.

I’ve flown in and out of First Flight several times. Other than the nearby Wright Memorial, it’s an unremarkable field, but still a good thing for any pilot’s or aviation lover’s bucket list.