Wilbur and Orville Wright were equal partners in the accomplishment of first flight. I believe this because this is what was expressed by Wilbur, Orville, Katharine, their father Milton, their niece Ivonette, and other family members, relatives, and friends. Why shouldn't we take their word for it?
What follows are statements by those close to the brothers.
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| Orville and Wilbur Wright, 1909, in Bolle'e garden, Le Mans, France. Image from postcard. |
Their father Milton Wright wrote on Dec 22, 1903- "Wilbur
is 36, Orville 32, and they are inseparable as twins. For several years
they have read up on aeronautics as a physician would read his books,
and they have studied, discussed, and experimented together. Natural
workmen, they have invented, constructed, and operated their gliders,
and finally their "Wright Flyer", jointly, all at their own personal
expense. About equal credit is due each." (1)
From the article "In the Interpreter's House" American Magazine, July 1909- "They
took hold of the thing together.....Probably their method of work saved
them from failure at this stage of the undertaking. It was this: When
one made a suggestion the other attacked it- but not without reasons, of
course. The outcome was that frequently a whole day's discussion- and
they often talked at home until the women folks felt like sweeping them
out with a broom- would result in each one accepting the position of the
other. Then the next day the whole thing would be gone over again,
until they had got the truth and both were persuaded. In this manner
they undoubtedly avoided 'going off on a tangent' and also attained each
others determination. And for this reason everybody in the family,
and everybody in Dayton, is satisfied that neither brother could have
mastered the thing alone." (2)
Their mechanic Charlie Taylor, May, 1928 stated, "It's been a long time ago but everything is clear as yesterday is to me. We were all excited about the possibilities and I felt confident they would succeed after they came home from their first glider experiments up at Kitty Hawk. They told me, that on the train coming back from Elizabeth City they had set up until late in the night trying to work out ideas for control lines which they intended to use on a real, engine powered flying machine with flexible wings like those on their glider" (3)
Wilbur and Orville's nephew Horace Wright said, "..And when one would get an idea, the other would try to prove him wrong. They didn't try to prove they were right. They tried to, and they avoided an awful lot of mistakes..." (4)
Wilbur and Orville's niece, Ivonette stated, speaking of Wilbur and Orville, "They'd talk once in while about things pertaining to what they were doing, what they were interested in about flight. Not much at the dinner table, but when they were sitting in their parlor, Seven Hawthorn Street, and you would hear them sitting there, and one of them would make a statement, and then there'd be a long pause, and then the other one would make a statement, and then the other one would say, 'tisn't tisn't either,' and then it would be 'tisn't either,' 'tis too,' 'tisn't either,' and then there'd be a long pause again and before they were through with the argument, each one had presented it so well that they'd be on the opposite sides when they'd finish their argument." (5)
Ivonette also wrote, "Orville and Wilbur found it fun working together. Once in speaking of an acquaintance who seemed to be seeking happiness through material possessions Orville shook his head and said 'I can remember when Wilbur and I could hardly wait for morning to come to get at something that interested us. That's happiness!" While they had fun working together, they also enjoyed arguing. It was Wilbur who said at one time, 'I like scrapping with Orv, he's such a good scrapper.'..." (6)
Their father Milton Wright, March 13, 1912, shared, "The boys are doing well in their business. What one does not think about, the other does not forget. They have a large factory and it makes the Wright Company a good profit. If one of them should be disabled, the whole company would suffer. It is a business that few can run to advantage. If they were not by nature workmen, their invention would not have succeeded." (7)
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| Portion of page 2 of 4 page letter Milton Wright to grandniece Grace Frazier, March 13, 1912. "If one of them should be disabled, the whole company would suffer..." From Author's collection. |
Wilbur Wright has been quoted as saying, "From the time we were little children my
brother Orville and myself lived together, played together and, in fact, thought together. We usually owned our
toys in common, talked over our thoughts and aspirations so that
nearly everything that was done in our lives has been the result of
conversations, suggestions and discussions between us." (8) Wilbur, providing very similar wording in his will prepared May 10, 1912, "...to my brother Orville Wright, of Dayton Ohio, who has been associated with me in all the hopes and labors both of childhood and manhood, and who, I am sure, will use the property in very much the same manner as we would use it together in case we would both survive until old age."
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| "I hereby nominate and appoint as Executor of this my last Will and Testament, my brother Orville Wright and direct that he serve without bond...." Last Will and Testament, May 10, 1912. |
Mark Eppler in his book "The Wright Way" explains
this partnership well throughout..."The Wright Brothers are forever fixed in our
minds as one personality because of the extraordinary cohesion of their partnership.
It was a collaboration of minds the world has not seen since....Although different in so many respects, the men were remarkably compatible. They complemented each other, each providing a skill or discipline the other lacked." (9)
Aero Club of America Bulletin, July 1912, "With the death of Wilbur
Wright, on May 30, 1912, at the age of forty-five, there closed the
prologue of the great drama of human flight. In less than a decade after
its inauguration the better known of its authors has passed away, and
thus is torn asunder that remarkable dual personality, the Wright
brothers, whose genius the world has treated as a unit.....The brothers,
Wilbur and Orville, have ever seemed the indivisible halves of a single
personality, the younger of which possessed its contemplative, and the
older its actively expressive, qualities. Orville, the man of thought,
was expressed by Wilbur the man of action; while the two, who always
spoke of themselves as the Wright brothers, appeared in all things a unit......Further
than this it seems neither useful nor delicate to go; these remarkable
men chose to blend their identities, and between them share equally the
glory of their astounding achievement: so let it be." (10)
It was this unique team, and unique circumstances that led to the
solution. And for those who view Wilbur has having the more commanding presence, the sharper mind, and
therefore the greater share of ownership to the invention, consider Wilbur's own words in a 1906 letter to Octave Chanute. He explains that it takes more than simply having the mental ability to perform a task. Else, the flight problem would have been solved long ago. "I am not certain that your method of estimating probabilities is a sound one. Do you not insist too strongly upon the single point of mental ability?
To me it seems that a thousand other factors, each rather insignificant
in itself, in the aggregate influence the event ten times more than
mere mental ability or inventiveness. The world does not contain greater
men than Maxim, Bell, Edison, Langley, Lilienthal & Chanute. We are
not so foolish as to base our belief, (that an independent solution of
the flying problem is not imminent,) upon any supposed superiority to
these men and to all those who will hereafter take up the problem. If the wheels of time could be turned back six years, it is not at all probable that we would do again what we have done. The one thing that impresses me as remarkable is the shortness of time within which our work was done. It was due to peculiar combinations of circumstances which might never occur again.
How do you explain the lapse of more than 50 years between Newcomen and
Watt? Was the world wanting in smart men during those years? Surely
not! The world was full of Watts, but a thousand and one trifles kept
them from undertaking and completing the task...We look upon the present
question in an impersonal way. It is not chiefly a question of relative
ability, but of mathematical probabilities." (11)
What were these circumstances? First and foremost, that Wilbur and
Orville were brothers, close in their relationship in friendship, and
"in their thoughts and aspirations". Their combined differing talents enabled them to systematically strive forward toward the final solution of flight. Secondly, they had supporting
parents, else their "curiosity might have been nipped in the bud long before it could have borne fruit". (12) Thirdly, their bicycle business was
doing financially well enough, and being seasonal in nature, they were
able to devote time to their inventive interests. And countless other
factors- good health, lack of serious accidents, etc.
Again from "Miracle at Kitty Hawk", Kelly documents Wilbur Wright's letter to his father, Le Mans, November 9, 1908, "...The government had decided to confer upon me the "Legion of Honor" but on learning of it privately, I sent word that it would be impossible for me to accept an honor which Orville could not equally share.....The
Aero Club of Great Britain has also voted a gold metal, the first in
the history of the Club, to Orville and me......I was offered the
honorary presidency of the new English Aeroplane Society, but I declined it as I have declined all formal honors in which Orville was not associated. He must come over here next year...." (13)
From the Dayton Daily News, January 31, 1948, James M. Cox, publisher of the Dayton Daily at that time, said the following, "I
have known Orville Wright for almost 50 years. Others more acquainted
with the sciences than I can better speak of his genius, but my
admiration for the fine qualities of his character has amounted almost
to a reverence. History will give him equal rank with his brother, Wilbur." Cox then shares thoughts that I believe are substantial, and hit to the core of how many have viewed Wilbur and Orville's contributions, stating, "In the first days of their fame, Wilbur made stronger appeal to
the eye and imagination of the publicist and at that time Miss Katharine
Wright, the sister, spoke to me of the injustice of public appraisal. The two brothers, unlike in many ways, still supplemented each other
in their great achievement. In their day of glory when they were
probably more talked about than anyone in modern history they maintained
a quiet dignity in keeping with the pattern of their lives. They never
sought to be seen or heard. People placed a halo upon them, but it never
unbalanced them in manner or speech." (14)
Their sister Katharine, writing to a friend in 1924, shared, "I've always been a dreamer. It is a survival of a part of my childhood. I was always dreaming of what wonderful things Will and Orv would do. That isn't an after-thought, Stef. All my college friends remember how my interest was in Will and Orv, always. When I was home for vacations I was down with them half the days and at night we all staid home together. They fascinated me and I never enjoyed any one else so much. It has always been so, really." (15)
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| Portion of page 5 of 10 page letter from Katharine Wright to Vilhjalmur Stefansson, March 8, 1924. "I was always dreaming of what wonderful things Will and Orv would do..." From Author's collection. |
Ivonette wrote in October of 1976, "Wilbur and Orville
were both geniuses. They worked well together because what one lacked,
the other had. They were a good team."(16)
Ivonette, in a 1967 interview, stated, "Orville was the one with, he was bubbling over with ideas. He was an amazing person when it came to the mechanics of inventions, like what it would do here, and how it would come out there, and what the different steps were. He had a mind that could figure it out, it just came natural to him. Wilbur was not particularly gifted in that line, but he was the one that said now we've got a good thing here let's stick with this and not try to find a better, keep inventing a better way, and trying this and trying that. We've got a good thing here, let's stick with this one point and then work on something else. I know when they were working with the air tunnels, the wind tunnels. They would love to have gone on with the experiments they were having with that, they were having so much fun. But they decided and I think probably Wilbur was the one that suggested that they had found out what they wanted to know in their experiments, and they must go on to something else. Now he was the one that sort of stabilized things to that degree." (17)
Ivonette continued on the brother's personalities and talents in 1978, writing, "Wilbur was an independent thinker and leader. He took the initiative to make some decisions as Orville's older brother. His approach was businesslike and realistic. He was very persuasive in his dealings with businessmen. he had an unusual presence. Even before men knew who he was, they were drawn to him. Orville was different....He was a dreamer and idealist, quick to see why things didn't work and full of ideas as to how he could improve their efficiency...He was shy and polite, almost to a fault... He could forgive most anything more easily than dishonesty, lying or boasting...He hated to write letters. Writing was agony to him, although he was very descriptive and detailed when he did. Orville Wright never made speeches but was a constant talker when he was at home with family or friends.
Whenever I am asked which brother contributed most to the invention of the airplane, I hasten to respond that I do not believe either could have accomplished it alone. Whenever one thought their discussions were at an impasse, the other was always ready with the next step. To quote from a letter of Bishop Wright: 'They (Wilbur and Orville) are equal in their inventions, neither claiming any superiority above the other, nor accepting any honor to the neglect of the other.' In another letter their father wrote: 'Neither could have mastered the problem alone. As inseparable as twins, they are indispensable to each other.' (18)
Their grandnephew Wilkinson Wright, interviewed in 1996, said of Orville, "....anything mechanical he was always fascinated by it. You've seen the modern computers, you know, where you can throw an image on the screen and then it'll revolve around and you get a three-dimensional view? Yeah. Well, Orville when he was working on anything mechanical, he would pick it up and he would turn it over and over and over in his hands. And he seemed almost to communicate through his hands. But he would look at it and look at it and analyze it. He was just fascinated by anything.....I remember he was working on an automatic transmission for an automobile. During the war he was working on a code typewriter that was supposed to have a million.....he could get a million different combinations in it, something like that." (19)
Wilbur and Orville's nephew Horace Wright, interviewed in 1967, said something similar, "Now Uncle Orv was inclined to be mechanical more and one of these unusual things on Orville, Uncle Orv, was he could think in three dimensions. He could see machines that are working in three dimensions just as clear and very few people have that ability." (4)
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| Orville Wright |
Many Wright historians have concluded that the majority of the credit should go to Wilbur, while some other aviation authors have put forward the idea that the invention lay
solely with Wilbur, and that Orville manipulated history to elevate
himself above his own brother through lies and distortions, which is
slanderous to Orville's name and unwarranted. This insult to Orville
would have saddened his brother greatly.
Orville's reputation was one of honesty. His nephew Horace Wright said of Wilbur and Orville, "...But they were very, I would say, they lived a very clean and they were very conscientious, I mean, and they could forgive I think about any weakness in a person except a lie. And if somebody lied to them, they didn't have much use for them anymore. And in other words, they were both very careful to be absolutely fair and they had I'd say the highest of morals and everything else." (4)
Ivonette said of Wilbur and Orville when asked if there was anything they felt deeply about, enough they would get irritated with, answered, "Well, I might tell. I don't know that this answers your question. But it's a funny thing, they could both, stand anything but dishonesty. A person that they knew could fail in business and do a poor job and not apply themselves well, and do everything wrong, but if they were honest, they would forgive them everything." (5)
I believe James Cox hit the nail on the head with his recollection of the conversation he had with Katharine, "In the first days of their fame, Wilbur made stronger appeal to
the eye and imagination of the publicist and at that time Miss Katharine
Wright, the sister, spoke to me of the injustice of public appraisal. The two brothers, unlike in many ways, still supplemented each other
in their great achievement." Some have said Wilbur was the genius, and Orville was just a mechanic, which is ridiculous. I believe it takes two equally gifted minds to go head to head in argument over a scientific concept until one changes the other's mind, or comes to some consensus of the truth, as Wilbur and Orville did. Orville was introverted around those other than friends and family. He wouldn't give a speech, not because he couldn't, but because as an introvert, it was very uncomfortable for him to do so. Many of the extroverts in this world do not understand this. I speak from personal experience.
Here is where I believe the difference of opinions arise- the measure
of importance placed on different gifts. Wilbur had the gift of oral presentation and of
enjoyment of written word. Historians point to the vast correspondence between Wilbur and Octave Chanute discussing the progress on the brother's investigations. Does it make any sense at all that each of these letters would not have not been read by both Wilbur and Orville, and the content discussed between the brothers? The family believed Orville was the more gifted mathematician of the two, so he certainly would have had no difficulty in the subject matter. Orville had the gift of implementation of
ideas, of going after the answers with the art of "scrapping" and
experimentation. Those who intimately knew them, described the talents and contributions of
each, and clearly it can be seen that it was a
team effort. Wilbur had his
talents, and Orville his; gifts that complemented each other and enabled
them as a team to accomplish the task.
That is my view, the view of their family members, and those who were there that knew them intimately.
Copyright 2025-Getting the Story Wright
Notes:
- Milton Wright letter to Carl Dienstbach, December 22, 1902. Wright, Milton; H.W. Lende. Jr. Manuscript Collection (Smithsonian Libraries).
- The American Magazine, June/July, 1909, "In the Interpreter's House" author not named.
- "Building the Original Wright Brothers Engine", Slipstream Aviation Monthly, May, 1928, Interview with Charles E. Taylor by Fred. F. Marshall, Editor and Publisher of Slipstream.
- University of Dayton Wright Brothers- Charles F. Kettering Oral History Project, "Interview with Horace Wright", 3-31-1967 University Archives and Special Collections.
- As above, "Interview with Ivonette Wright Miller", 3-13-1967.
- Wright Reminiscences, 1978, "Character Study", by Ivonette Wright Miller.
- Milton Wright to grandniece Grace Frazier, March 13, 1912, 4pg letter, from Author's collection.
- Wright Reminiscences, 1978, "Memories of my Cousin Orville Wright" by Jay R. Petree. Jay indicated the quote was written by Wilbur just days before he died, which is incorrect. Wilbur was mostly unconscious the two weeks prior to his death. Earlier source is from Wright Brothers, National Memorial North Carolina, by Omega G. East, 1961, reprint 1963, no primary source indicated.
- "The Wright Way", 7 Problem-Solving Principles from the Wright Brothers That Can Make Your Business Soar. By Mark Eppler, 2004.
- Aero Club of America, Vol. 1, No. 6, July 12, 1912 "The Wright Brothers".
- Fred Kelly's "Miracle at Kitty Hawk", 1951, Kelly
documents Wilbur Wright's letter to Octave Chanute, October 28, 1906.
- Orville Wright interview by Fred Kelly, Harpers Magazine, October, 1939. Kelly had commented "the Wright brothers will always be favorite examples of how American lads, with no special advantages, can forge ahead and become famous." Orville responded, "but that isn't true because we did have special advantages....Simply that we were lucky enough to grow up in a home environment where there was always much encouragement to children to pursue intellectual interests. We were taught to cultivate the encyclopedia habit, to look up facts about whatever aroused our curiosity. In a different kind of environment I imagine our curiosity might have been nipped long before it could have borne fruit."
- Miracle at Kitty Hawk, The Letters of Wilbur and Orville Wright, edited by Fred C. Kelly, 1951, Wilbur to father Milton Wright, November 9, 1908.
- Dayton Daily News, January 31, 1948, "Tributes Paid in Memory of Orville Wright".
- Katharine Wright to Vilhjalmur Stefansson, March 8, 1924, 10pg letter, from Author's collection.
- Letter from Ivonette Wright Miller to Herb Wetenkamp, Jr., October 14, 1976, from Author's collection.
- Wright Reminiscences, Compiled by Ivonette Wright Miller, 1978, "Character Study".
- Wright Reminiscences, 1978, "Character Study", by Ivonette Wright Miller.
- May 11, 1996 interview by Ann Deines with Wilkinson Wright.
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