Who are known as Wright Brothers ?

The family moved often: to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in 1878; to a farm near Richmond, Indiana, in 1881; and back to Dayton in 1884.

Wilbur spent much of this period at home, reading books in his family’s library, and caring for his ailing mother.

Susan Koerner died in 1889 of tuberculosis.

The Wright children were educated in public schools and grew up, as Orville later explained, in a home where “there was always much encouragement to children to pursue intellectual interests; to investigate whatever aroused curiosity.”

In a less-nourishing environment, Orville believed, “our curiosity might have been nipped long before it could have borne fruit.”

In 1889 the brothers started their own newspaper, the West Side News. Wilbur edited the paper, and Orville was the publisher.

These were not tranquil years for Bishop Wright.

As a child Wilbur’s playmate was his younger brother, Orville Wright, born in 1871.

The brothers also shared a passion for bicycles- a new craze that was sweeping the country.

In 1892 Wilbur and Orville opened a bike shop, fixing bicycles and selling their own design.

As the leader of a conservative faction opposed to modernization in the church, he was involved in a 20-year struggle that led to a national schism in 1889 and was followed by multiple lawsuits for possession of church property.

Even as these decades of crisis were approaching a conclusion, an entirely new conflict developed, this time within the small schismatic branch that Bishop Wright had led away from the original church.

Always working on different mechanical projects and keeping up with scientific research, the Wright brothers closely followed the research of German aviator Otto Lilienthal.

Milton Wright’s preaching took him on the road frequently, and he often brought back small toys for his children. In 1878 he brought back a small model helicopter for his boys.

The resulting church disciplinary hearings and civil court cases continued up to the time of the bishop’s retirement in 1905.

When Lilienthal died in a glider crash, the brothers decided to start their own experiments with flight.

Made of cork, bamboo and paper, and powered by a rubber band to twirl its blades, the model was based on a design by the French aeronautical pioneer Alphonse Pénaud

Bishop Wright exercised an extraordinary influence on the lives of his children.

Fascinated by the toy and its mechanics, Wilbur and Orville would develop a lifelong love of aeronautics and flying.

Determined to develop their own successful design, Wilbur and Orville headed to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, known for its strong winds.

Wilbur and Orville, like their father, were independent thinkers with a deep confidence in their own talents, an unshakable faith in the soundness of their judgment, and a determination to persevere in the face of disappointment and adversity.

Wilbur was a bright and studious child, and excelled in school. His personality was outgoing and robust, and he made plans to attend Yale University after high school.

Those qualities, when combined with their unique technical gifts, help to explain the success of the Wright brothers as inventors.

Wilbur and Orville set to work trying to figure out how to design wings for flight.

At the same time, the bishop’s rigid adherence to principle and disinclination to negotiate disputes may have had some influence on the manner in which the brothers, later in life, conducted the marketing of their invention.