# Most Modern Plane that Orville Wright flew in before his death in 1948? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 9, 2015, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-modern-plane-that-orville-wright-flew-in-before-his-death-in-1948/709423 "2015-01-09T18:51:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-modern-plane-that-orville-wright-flew-in-before-his-death-in-1948/709423/1 "2015-01-09T18:51:20Z")
Orville lived to the ripe old age of 76 which meant he saw over 40 years of aviation development. Just wondering what the most modern type of plane he got to ride in was and from where to where. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-modern-plane-that-orville-wright-flew-in-before-his-death-in-1948/709423/2 "2015-01-09T18:59:52Z")
> [@Mangosteen](#): > > Orville lived to the ripe old age of 76 which meant he saw over 40 years of aviation development. > > Just wondering what the most modern type of plane he got to ride in was and from where to where. According to wiki: > [@](#): > > 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 (2300 mi – 330.9 mph). On the return trip, the airliner stopped at Wright Field to give Orville Wright his last airplane flight, more than 40 years after his historic first flight.[132] 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.[133] Orville’s last major project was supervising the reclamation and preservation of the 1905 Wright Flyer III, which historians describe as the first practical airplane. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-modern-plane-that-orville-wright-flew-in-before-his-death-in-1948/709423/3 "2015-01-09T22:51:27Z")
Without checking Wiki, I was going to say that the Lockheed Constellation was the most modern civilian aircraft in 1948. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2015, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-modern-plane-that-orville-wright-flew-in-before-his-death-in-1948/709423/4 "2015-01-09T23:28:04Z")
A [similar thread from 2010](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=560785). ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2015, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-modern-plane-that-orville-wright-flew-in-before-his-death-in-1948/709423/5 "2015-01-10T00:15:20Z")
> [@Mangosteen](#): > > Orville lived to the ripe old age of 76 which meant he saw over 40 years of aviation development. He died the same day as Mahatma Gandhi. The strange thing is that Wright seems like a 19th century historical figure while Gandhi seems like a 20th century historical figure. But Gandhi was actually two years older than Wright. ---
**Author:** ![buddy431](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6a8cbe/32.png) [@buddy431](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddy431)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2015, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-modern-plane-that-orville-wright-flew-in-before-his-death-in-1948/709423/6 "2015-01-10T01:21:18Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > He died the same day as Mahatma Gandhi. > > The strange thing is that Wright seems like a 19th century historical figure while Gandhi seems like a 20th century historical figure. But Gandhi was actually two years older than Wright. The obvious response to that is to look at when they were doing the things they were famous for. On the balance, Wright was doing famous things at an earlier age. I would have called both of them early 20th century historical figures, but Wright is probably most famous for his first flight and then development in the first decade of the 20th century, while Gandhi is probably most famous for his political activities in the 1920s, 30s, and 40s. No one really cares what Wright did after 1915 when he sold the company (and arguably earlier than that), and while Gandhi was politically active starting in the first decade of the 20th century, it really was his assumption of leadership in the Indian National Congress in 1920 that brought him notice. I would suspect that this is pretty common when comparing people who are known for very different things. In particular, people who are powerful politically tend to be older. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2015, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-modern-plane-that-orville-wright-flew-in-before-his-death-in-1948/709423/7 "2015-01-10T02:04:08Z")
> [@buddy431](#): > > I would suspect that this is pretty common when comparing people who are known for very different things. In particular, people who are powerful politically tend to be older. Another common example of this is Anne Frank and Martin Luther King Jr. A lot of people don’t realize they were born only a few weeks apart because they seem to belong to different eras of history. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2015, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-modern-plane-that-orville-wright-flew-in-before-his-death-in-1948/709423/8 "2015-01-10T04:28:58Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Another common example of this is Anne Frank and Martin Luther King Jr. A lot of people don’t realize they were born only a few weeks apart because they seem to belong to different eras of history. Neil Armstrong was only a year younger than either. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2015, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-modern-plane-that-orville-wright-flew-in-before-his-death-in-1948/709423/9 "2015-01-10T16:56:17Z")
From the first flight to the moon landing in 8 posts! ---
**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2015, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-modern-plane-that-orville-wright-flew-in-before-his-death-in-1948/709423/10 "2015-01-10T18:41:55Z")
…one giant leap for discussionkind. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2015, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-modern-plane-that-orville-wright-flew-in-before-his-death-in-1948/709423/11 "2015-01-11T05:15:52Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > From the first flight to the moon landing in 8 posts! Well if we go by Wrights and spaceflights. In 1948, when Orville died Yuri Gagarin was a teenager Neil Armstrong was preparing to go to college Alan Shepard was already a WW2 veteren Sputnik was only 9 years away. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-modern-plane-that-orville-wright-flew-in-before-his-death-in-1948/709423/12 "2015-01-14T15:57:10Z")
…and JFK was reelected to his second term in the U.S. House of Representatives, and Truman defeated Dewey. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-modern-plane-that-orville-wright-flew-in-before-his-death-in-1948/709423/13 "2015-01-14T17:51:02Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Truman defeated Dewey. That’s not what I heard.