I’ve never before heard this in my life, until a couple years ago-- and now it seems that everytime the Wright Brothers come up in conversation, someone references the “fact” that one of them died in a plane crash. I’ve even been accused of being stupid for not knowing this. Now, granted, they don’t come up all that often, but I bet I’ve heard this at least 4 or 5 times in the last 5 years or so. After hearing it a few times, I started questioning how I could have possibly dodged this very notable historical tidbit my entire life, especially considering that I grew up in North Carolina - where they tended to come up in school lessons once a year or so - and I had even been to Kitty Hawk in person and visited the Wright Brothers memorial there. So I checked, and double-checked, and kept questioning myself, but nope, not a single aviation-related death to go around between the two of them. One died of a heart attack and one died of illness.
So I’m wondering if there was a recent movie, or tv show, or book, or maybe a standup comic or something that referenced them dying in a plane crash? Or maybe this was a popular urban legend at some point, or . . . 