After Hours

First in flight from the Wright Brothers' camera

By // December 3, 2008, 6:31 AM PST // ensable

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  • Wright Brothers Glider, Kitty Hawk, NC, 1900

    This gallery offers a fascinating look at the history of flight through the camera lens of the Wright Brothers. They did a great job of documenting their earliest failures and successes.

    There are ample resources to study the Wright Brothers; here, I've usually provided only the spare captions attached to the individual pictures in the collection.

    These images are in the public domain, from the Collection: Glass negatives from the Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, housed in the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA.

    For the full collection, click here.

  • Orville Wright, 1897

    Before the big moustache

  • Wilbur Wright, 1897

    Wilbur at age 30

  • Wilbur, 1897

    Wilbur working in the bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio

  • Early accident, 1900

    Crumpled glider wrecked by the wind on Hill of the Wreck (named after a shipwreck)

  • Glider, 1900

    Left side view of the 1900 Wright glider before installation of forward horizontal control surface, flying as a kite, tipped forward; Kitty Hawk Lifesaving Station and Weather Bureau buildings in background to the left

  • Camp at Kitty Hawk, 1900

    Closeup view of the Wright brothers' tent at Kitty Hawk

  • Wilbur on glider, 1901

    Wilbur Wright in prone position on glider just after landing, its skid marks visible behind it and, in the foreground, skid marks from a previous landing; Kitty Hawk, North Carolina

  • Glider being flown as kite, 1901

    Wilbur at left side, Orville at right; Kitty Hawk, North Carolina

  • Back to the drawing board, 1901

    Wright brothers rebuilding their glider in a wooden shed erected in July to serve as a workshop and to house the glider in bad weather, August, 1901; Kitty Hawk, North Carolina

  • Whoops, 1901

    Orville at left wing end of upended glider, bottom view; Kitty Hawk, North Carolina

  • Time-out for local fauna, 1901

    Sand crab; Kitty Hawk, North Carolina

  • Working with the glider, 1901

    Side view of glider flying as a kite near the ground, Wilbur at left and Orville at right, glider turned forward to right and tipped downward

  • Piloting the glider, 1901

    Side view of Wilbur Wright piloting a glider in level flight almost overhead, moving to left, showing bottom wing and elevator

  • Getting inspiration

    Otto Lilienthal glider, 1895 (from a magazine or newspaper)

  • October, 1902

    Start of a glide; Wilbur in motion at left holding one end of glider (rebuilt with single vertical rudder), Orville lying prone in machine, and Dan Tate at right; Kitty Hawk, North Carolina

  • October, 1902

    Wilbur gliding in level flight, single rear rudder clearly visible; Kitty Hawk, North Carolina

  • Kill Devil Hill, 1902

    Wilbur gliding down steep slope of Big Kill Devil Hill; Kitty Hawk, North Carolina

  • In the shop, 1903

    Powered 1903 machine in the shop

  • Damaged machine, 1903

    Wilbur in prone position in damaged machine on ground after unsuccessful trial of December 14, 1903; Kitty Hawk, North Carolina

  • First flight, December 17, 1903

    First flight, 120 feet in 12 seconds, 10:35 a.m.; Kitty Hawk, North Carolina

    The Wright Brothers invented and built the world's first successful airplane and made the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight on 17 December 1903. They are officially credited worldwide through the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, the standard setting and record-keeping body for aeronautics and astronautics. The Wright Brothers later developed their flying machine into the first practical fixed-wing aircraft through the invention of flight controls.

  • May 1904

    Wilbur and Orville Wright with their second powered machine; Huffman Prairie, Dayton, Ohio

  • August 1904

    Flight 19: Orville piloting, covering a distance of 356 feet, machine close to the ground; Huffman Prairie, Dayton, Ohio

  • September 1905

    Side view of flight 41, showing the machine traveling to the right, with double horizontal rudder in front and double vertical rudder behind, as Orville flew 12 miles; Huffman Prairie, Dayton, Ohio

  • October 1905

    Rear view of flight 46, Orville shown flying at a high altitude over Huffman Prairie, Dayton, Ohio.

  • Wright Flying School, 1910

    Series of flights from May through July, just after the opening of the Wright Flying School, probably Orville acting as instructor; Simms Station, Dayton, Ohio

  • Exterior view of the Wright Company factory; Dayton, Ohio, 1911

    The Wright Company was incorporated on November 22, 1909. The factory was completed in November 1910 and a duplicate building was erected in 1911. The buildings continued in use until the Wright Company was sold, October 15, 1915.

  • Motor, 1911

    Magneto side of the Wright four-cylinder motor used in 1911

  • Inside the airplane, 1911

    Close-up view of airplane, including the pilot and passenger seats

  • Sister, Katherine Wright, 1915

    Katharine Wright, wearing a leather jacket, cap, and goggles, aboard the Wright Model HS airplane with Orville, 1915

  • Orville's best friend, 1917

    Scipio, a St. Bernard dog Orville acquired in March, 1917

  • Meeting Charles Lindbergh, 1927

    Orville Wright, Major John F. Curry, and Colonel Charles Lindbergh, who came to pay Orville a personal call at Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio. June 22, 1927 [Wilbur died in 1912]

    Charles Lindbergh famously piloted the first non-stop flight between New York and Paris in the Spirit of St. Louis in May 1927.

  • January 1928

    Underside view of the Wright brothers' reconstructed 1903 motor

  • January 1928

    Rear view of the Wright brothers' four-cylinder motor as installed in their 1903 airplane

Wright Brothers Glider, Kitty Hawk, NC, 1900

This gallery offers a fascinating look at the history of flight through the camera lens of the Wright Brothers. They did a great job of documenting their earliest failures and successes.

There are ample resources to study the Wright Brothers; here, I've usually provided only the spare captions attached to the individual pictures in the collection.

These images are in the public domain, from the Collection: Glass negatives from the Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright, housed in the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA.

For the full collection, click here.

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By Selena Frye

Selena has been at TechRepublic since 2002. She is currently a Senior Editor with a background in technical writing, editing, and research. She edits Data Center, Linux and Open Source, Apple in the Enterprise, The Enterprise Cloud, Web Designer, and...