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Wednesday, June 17, 2026

Orville Wright and the Kettering Bug

Revised June 12, 2026 

Orville Wright assisted Charles Kettering and team within the Dayton-Wright Airplane Company with the design of a self-guided aerial torpedo for potential use in World War I; essentially, the world's first armed drone. When Orville was asked in 1916 what sort of experiments he would be performing with his new wind tunnel at his newly constructed Wright Aeronautical Laboratory at 15 North Broadway in west Dayton, the papers reported he replied, "his experiments  are not extraordinary in character..." (1) As he transitioned to performing tests for the top-secret aerial guided missile, the press and public would assume he was continuing to perform non-extraordinary experiments. 

This post provides portions of John Wright's comments in an interview conducted in February of 1967. The comments were unscripted, and as these comments at the time were recollections of events 48 to 50 years prior, it would be expected that a number of details given by memory would include errors. 

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Portions of interview with John Wright, February 11, 1967. (2)

"I first met him [Orville Wright] rather intimately in the later part of December of 1917. I was working for Mr. Kettering at the Delco at the time, and he took on a project for the Signal Corps of the U. S. Army. It was a rather unpleasant surprise for the German army and it became what was Dayton's best kept secret. [Actually, Germany would not be affected or aware of the project until well after WWI] There is a replica of the device at the Air Force Museum."  

 

Kettering Aerial Torpedo "Bug" replica on display at the U.S. Air Force Museum, Dayton, Ohio. Image courtesy of National Museum of The U. S. Air Force.


"And since it's pretty well known there's no point in being too secretive about it anymore. But this device was a guided missile; it was supposed to dump explosives in Germany at any selected point to which it was aimed. Mr. Wright was consulting engineer of the Dayton-Wright Airplane Company and a good friend of Mr. Kettering's and Mr. Kettering asked him to design an engine for this thing. [Orville didn't design the engine, but was involved in other features of the "Bug"] This engine was later built by Ralph D. Palmer in his machine shop right close to the Speedway in Indianapolis. And he assigned me the job to design and build the guidance and control mechanism of this thing. Now, at the particular time my, this job was just as fantastic as a trip to the moon was twenty years ago. It was just as fantastic as shooting a satellite by Venus or some other planet at enormous distances in the light of what we knew at that particular time. For example, the device was supposed to strike a target, at a range which was almost exactly the longest uninterrupted flight that had ever been made in an airplane. [This claim was based on John Wright's recollection that the range of the Bug was 400 miles, but it's range was only 75 miles, and    uninterrupted flights of airplanes had exceeded 250 miles prior to 1917]  So problems arose, problems to which there was no answers either in books or anywhere else. And as a result, a lot of test work on the control and guidance system of this device was done in the wind tunnel in Mr. Wright's laboratory on Broadway."

 

Photo from Matt Yanney Wright Brother Archives
Orville Wright's Lab, The Wright Aeronautical Laboratory, 15 North Broadway, Dayton, Ohio. Photo dates to October 1917, Central Press Ass'n, from Author's collection. Orville's office was right of the main entrance (to the north). The wind tunnel was located in the white bricked back area of the building.

 

"It was one of the few wind tunnels in existence at that particular time. And of course, Mr. Wright was very much interested in the work, that is advice, his help where-ever he could. And for a period of about a year, we was in and out of that place almost every day."

"...the smallest part...flared out at each end to maybe three and a half to four feet. It was a very beautiful piece of woodworking. It was made of mahogany, polished till it looked just like rosewood; it was very beautiful. The interior was very, very highly polished. It had to be because it would otherwise distort the airflow through it." 

 

Orville Wright's Wind Tunnel, currently on display at the U. S. Air Force Museum, Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio. Photo by Author.

For more information on Orville's Laboratory and wind tunnel, see my post:

15 North Broadway- The Wright Aeronautical Laboratory 

 

 "The explosive was in the fuselage, that was a rather interesting device. I said Mr. Wright designed the air frame he did, but Dayton-Wright Airplane Company worked out some very unique manufacturing schemes to build it. It was a very nice little aircraft. It had a wing span of about thirteen feet. It was about ten feet long. [Actual Wing span was 14' ft, 11.5in. Length was 12 ft, 6 in.] But it was designed to use up all the scraps of the spruce wood that they couldn't use for making DH airplanes at Dayton-Wright Airplane Company, because in those days, all aircraft was built of wood." 

 

Dayton-Wright Airplane Company Plant #1, with South Field west (to the right in this photo) of the Plant buildings. Test of the Kettering Bug were performed in the South Field. Image circa 1918 courtesy of Wright State University Libraries Special Collections & Archives, Dayton-Wright Airplane Company Photographs (MS-152) > 193, Core Scholar.

 

"There was no metal, and they used spruce, because it was a pure grain, strong wood; they carved it into fantastic intricate shapes and this, particular job was designed to use up the short lengths and the scrap wood that couldn't be built into DH Airplanes. The wings were covered with paper, and the fuselage was a cylinder of cardboard impregnated with rosin, about five feet long. The tail section was a cone of cardboard, and it was so designed that it could be put together very quickly. One of the specifications was that it must be packaged in a crate with minimum cubic foot capacity. Because all transport to Europe was by ship. And the cubic contents, the cubic space occupied by a box, was vastly important, because that determined how many boxes the shop could carry. So  this device was designed to occupy the minimum cubic space when packed, yet it was required that two men from the time they touched the box, till the time it was in the air, less than five minutes would elapse. A fantastic assembly job. The thing was put together so it had bolts of one size, sot that it took only one wrench to put it together, and each box carried two of these wrenches. The explosive was in the lower half of the fuselage and the control guidance mechanism was right above it. And it was so designed that when it reached its range, the mechanism operated a latch that released the wings, the wings just folded up the device, the wings folded away and then the fuselage with its engine, became a free falling bomb... Well, four hundred miles was its maximum range." [Actual range was 75 miles]

 

Dayton-Wright Airplane Company workers, fashioning parts for the Kettering Bug. John Sheats archive from Author's collection.


"The, artillery range officer gave the compass directions and the distance, to the target. That's all that was necessary to know. Then the guidance mechanism was just rotated around to where the compass correction read that many degrees, we set the distance on a log if it was, since this was an artillery project, it all had to be in yards, and the range you would say, fifty thousand two hundred and ninety yards, and we just set five-o two nine-o on the distance control mechanism and as soon as it took off, it began to count backwards, each yard, and at the end of that time, why then the wings folded up......It would travel around sixty, seventy miles an hour. [ Maximum speed was 120 mph] Fifty were built; there was none ever used. This whole thing was one of the most fantastic and most ironical stories that you ever saw."


Dayton-Wright Airplane Company assembly in process of Kettering Bug with engines installed. John Sheats archive from Author's collection.



Kettering Bug supported from above while George Maxwell (left), Edd Whipp (center), and Frank Whipp (right) make adjustments. John Sheats archive from Author's collection.


"On the twenty-fourth day of December 1917, that was Christmas Eve, Mr. Kettering took on the contract with the Signal Corps to build this device that I have been describing. And he walked out of his office over through the office where I was working and he says, get your stuff together, and go down to the garage and get in my car and I'll be down shortly.....he took me over to a residence, just north of Rike's new garage downtown. It was on property that's now occupied by the Talbot Building, and here had set up a laboratory to do research work and he took me in what was the stable of this fine old mansion, they were rapidly converting into a machine shop and an office.  And he says, now this is your office, and here's what you've got to do. And he told me about the specifications of this thing that he had taken on. It was to have a range of two hundred miles [Actually 75 miles] carrying two hundred pounds of explosive. [180 lbs of explosive] It was to weigh less than five hundred pounds. [Total weight loaded was 530 lbs.] It was to be packaged so that the two men could unpack it, set it, and fire it within the space of five minutes time, and it was to have a range such that it could be controlled over that length of space. And he says now your job is to design the guidance and control mechanism for this thing, and then he told me about how he had asked Mr. Wright to do the air frame and so, originally and electrical man, I spent Christmas day and the next couple of days in fixing up what we then called a wireless system; we call it radio control today. And when the boss come in, a couple days later, he says, now look, you know better than that. He says this thing, we are not going to have any such devices as that because if it gets over the German lines, all they got to do is jam the thing, turn it around and fire it back at us. He says, we're not going to have any of that kind of thing. So then we started to look into other means of control."


"But the, as time went on, along about the middle of December, June or July I think, we had this thing ready to fly. And we flew it down at old South Field, which is down on the corner of  what's now, Dixie, southern Dixie and Stroop Road. It was the old Cincinnati Highway at that particular time, and the flying field for the Dayton-Wright Aircraft Company was on that spot, it's all built up into houses now. We had one hangar over in one corner of the field, in which we did our work." 


 

Preparing for a launch. John Sheats archive from Author's collection.

 

 

Dayton-Wright Airplane Company South Field, looking east. Fuselages of De Havilland DH-4 with completed aircraft in foreground. Image, circa 1918, courtesy of Wright State University Special Collections and Archives >Dayton-Wright Airplane Company Photographs (MS-152) > 50. Church and Graveyard identified by Author.

 

"When it came time to fly it, well the boss and the military, got together and blocked all the roads leading to the place, and we flew the first one, with practically no witnesses. Because we didn't want anybody to see it. But after that, we'd go down about four o'clock in the afternoon and get all set up and the shift from the Dayton-Wright would leave and by five o'clock there would be nobody around and we could fly these things all we wanted to with nobody seeing them." 

 

 

Kettering Bug on launch rail, with others on saw horses awaiting their turn. John Sheats archive from Author's collection.


"We used to set them so they'd fly around the field two or three times, and then crash in that graveyard over in the corner of Stroop and Route 25 [South Dixie Drive]. We did that for a lot reasons, first because the people that was there didn't care, and it didn't hurt them anyhow. And anybody else didn't have any business being there, so it was a good safe place to crash them."


An aerial view Circa 1917-1919. South Field from where the Bug was launched is indicated, and the graveyard adjacent to Zion Memorial United Church of Christ can be seen. Labeling in yellow by Author. Photo courtesy of Special Collections and Archives, Wright State University. (3)


"Well, eventually along about the middle of September, we thought we had the thing all pretty well done, so the boss invited some people to see it perform. [This test was performed on October 2, 1918 according to Military records] Now there was George Squier who was head of the Signal Corps, and his staff." [ In September of 1908, Major George Squier flew as Orville's passenger at Ft. Myer, Virginia for a flight that lasted nine minutes, six seconds. ]

 

"And Colonel H. H. Arnold, who was the aid to General Pershing, and incidentally he became the famous Hap Arnold of World War II. But he was General Pershing's aid at that time. [Henry "Hap" Arnold was trained on a Wright Flyer in 1911 at the Wright's Simms Station Flying Grounds by Arthur Welsh.] Colonel H. H. Arnold who was the liaison officer between the military and Mr. Kettering, and there was Orville Wright, there was Henry Ford, there was Thomas Edison, Rollinsbury, and there was several others of quite prominent, renown. And to see this thing the boss had built a kind of bleachers along one side of the field, got all these people to sit in that area. It looked just like a bunch of buzzards sitting along the fence, so we set a couple of crates out and they started to watch, and we unpacked one. Put it on the launching dolly, fired it well within the five minutes, and then followed what the military report says was the most remarkable flight in the history of aviation. Because every control mechanism on that thing went haywire and that airplane did stunts that every pilot in the country knew, and many that they didn't." 

 

"It looped and it twisted and it turned and it flew upside down and it did Immelmanns, and it did barrel-rolls and it did what have you. We began to get concerned, how was we going to get this thing down, and had an old DH on the field over in the other corner, it had a couple of machine guns on it, they got somebody to get that thing would up to go up there and shoot it down, but before they could get it up in the air, this thing came around and made a dive right at that bunch of bleachers, and you never saw guys disappear so fast in all your life, prominent men, of every description was hunting for a place to hide behind their own shadows. And this thing come down and it just missed the top of that, well the whole crashed in the graveyard, like it was supposed to."

 

Current day 2026 view of former location of Dayton-Wright Airplane Co. Plant #1 and South Field. Zion Memorial United Church of Christ and graveyard remain. Image courtesy of Google Earth, with notes and highlights in yellow by Author. 

 

"So the boss, he says look fellows, he says, these people have come a long ways to see this thing fly and by blankity-blank, they're going to see it fly; now you get another one ready for heavens sake, he says, put in it just enough fuel to go around the field twice and crash in the graveyard. In the mean time, he says, I'll get these guys back up on their seat and see what happens." [This second test occurred two days later, on October 4, 1918, according to Military records.]

 

"So we got another one ready and a fellow poured out about a half a teacup full of gasoline put it in the tank, and screwed the top of the tank on and he never looked to see what was in the tank, we fired this one and it was a perfect shot. It went out to the end of the field, made a hundred and eighty degree turn, came back over the field and headed right straight at the boss's house. Up on the end. Right strait at it. It went over the top of that house with less than two inches to spare and right between two chimneys and disappeared from sight." [If John Wright's memory is correct, and if binoculars were used, from the center of South Field to Kettering's home is a distance of 1.16 miles. If the Bug was traveling at 50 mph, it would reach Kettering's house in 1 minute, 24 seconds. It is also possible John's memory had confused Kettering's home with a home nearer to the field such as Col Deeds Moraine Farm home, or a house closer to or within the Field. ]

 

Home shown at Dayton-Wright Airplane Company Plant #1, circa 1918. This Author has not determined where this home was located within the property, and if it could have been in the path of the Bug. Image courtesy of Wright State University Special Collections and Archives, MS-152: Dayton-Wright Airplane Company Photographs 165.

 

2026 Image courtesy of Google Earth with yellow notes by Author. 

 

"So, three of us jumped in the boss's car along with the boss; it was a Packard touring car...And he took out after this thing, and there was no paved roads in Montgomery County, all the paved roads in Montgomery County was from the front of Gov. Cox's residence to the city of Dayton. And this was out Stroop Road, and it was a gravel road, ninety degree bends in it wherever there was a bend, because it followed property lines, so the boss takes out after this thing, and he had a trick that was very effective, when he'd come to a corner. He went into it full speed until the front wheels was just about in the middle of the intersection, then he cut them just as hard as he could and tramped the accelerator down to the floorboard, well the back end came around. He had a shower of gravel and what have you, but it went right straight down the road every time. It was rather disconcerting to the guys in the back seat. But is was very effective. So General Squier and several of his staff, jumped in the car and followed us.

 

"We got down oh a half a mile or so from the place. Saw a farmer out in the field, putting up on his hay stack. Well, we jumped out and run over and asked him if he'd seen an airplane come by. He started to cuss, blankity-blank flyer took the top of my haystack and if I ever get my hands on him; we don't know what he would have done, because we left him standing there talking, and went on down to about where Town and Country shopping center is now." 

 

1938 map of Van Buren Township showing location of Charles Kettering property (blue star). North is up. Stroop road at south edge of property, running east/west. Route 48 runs north/south (Far Hills). Town & Country Shopping Center was constructed just east of 48, south of Stroop, where Jos. Myer property is shown. Again, this is a 1938 map, so may of been a different farm owner in 1917.

 

Modern 2026 Google Earth map of City of Kettering, formally the Van Buren Township. For comparison, map shows location of Kettering home, Stroop road, route 48 just west of Town & Country Shopping Center. 

 

"There was a big dairy farm, and I never saw such a loco bunch of cows in all my life. Those cows were running and jumping, the farmer was running around with a pitch fork and the farmer's wife was out with her apron waving it up and down trying to herd those cows back in the barn, so we stopped and asked him, and if the haystack fellow cussed, this guy was the master of it. That blankity-blank flyer, he come by here and scared the cows and the cows won't go up to the milk barn because they're scared and where in the blankity-blank am I going to get milk to pay, to for my customers tonight, and who in the blankety-blank is going to pay me for the milk that I ain't going to get. And we left him talking, but we learned a lesson, don't stop." [ From the 1938 map shown earlier, perhaps the dairy farm beyond the future Town & Country Shopping Center location was Himes Guernsey Farms. Further research would be required to determine locations of dairy farms in 1918.]

 

"We just kept an eye out for some guy putting the top of his chicken house or for a bunch of crazy sheep or what have you and went down Stroop road and clear on down through this little town of New Burlington, on down across a covered bridge pretty soon it was just getting dusk then, just real dusk." [New Burlington, a farm community, was demolished in the 1970's preceding the damming of the creek and flooding of the area to the southwest to form Caesar's Creek State Park, with the New Burlington area becoming a spillway during high water conditions. John Wright refers to taking Stroop road, but the trip would only have been on a portion of Stroop, with the majority of the rest of the trip traveling on various roads as needed to follow the Bug's flight.]

 

From location of South Field, assuming a straight line flight toward New Burlington, the bug traveled about 16.2 miles. Modern image from Google Earth.

"We see a bunch of lights over in the field about seventy-five yards from the road. We jumped out and run over there, and here was about twenty-five or thirty farmers. Each one of them had a lighted lantern in one hand and a shotgun in the other. And here was our airplane. They was organizing a posse to go out and find the pilot. We couldn't tell them there was no pilot in there, and the last thing in the world that we wanted them to do was to go hunting for one, and while we were standing, General Squier and his staff come up to know what the trouble was. They was going out to hunt for the flyer. In those days, all flyers wore a uniform, a standard uniform. Northford jacket, pair of peg-topped pants that fit into footees, and a cap. And whenever he wanted to make a flight all he needed to do was to button his jacket and turn his cap around backwards on his head, like a baseball catchers and he was ready to fly, and that was the mark of the flyer....General Squier looked around and he saw a second lieutenant. This guy had on a cap, he had a tight-fitting jacket and he had on the most glorious pair of pegged-topped pants I'd ever seen in my life. General Squier says there's the flyer, he says, we picked him up a couple miles back, he says we'll take care of him. Well, the farmers figured the guy was in the military custody and from the tone of Gen. Squier's voice they figured that he would be most properly disciplined; they fell to and helped us hunt the pieces of the airplane, and we found all but a piece of one wing. By this time, it's nine-thirty, ten o'clock. So we left one of the poor second lieutenants to guard it the rest of the night, started back to town." 

 

"So the next morning, we had a meeting and the military said that they were satisfied that the thing was ready to go. It was agreed that Colonel Arnold would go to France and advise Gen. Pershing what was happening and find out just where he wanted to use it and when. They gave Mr. Kettering orders to manufacturer fifty of these with all possible speed and to get in shape to build them in quantity as soon as possible. And they decided I would be commissioned a Captain in the Army and take the first fifty to France. Well, Colonel Arnold left, caught a boat in New York, and on the way over he took the flu, that heavy epidemic that swept through the country in 1919, and he took the flu." 

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Orville Wright's nephew, Herbert Abeckett Wright (his oldest brother Reuchlin's son), was serving in France during this time. Herbert's wife Irene Matilda May, writing from their home in Independence, Kansas, wrote to Herbert October 11, 1918, saying, "On account of the enfluenza [sic] epidemic here all of the schools and picture shows, churches, and all public meetings are closed. Crouds [sic] of more than twenty-five are prohibited. I guess people didn't realize how dangerous that desease [sic] was until it spread to all of the camps and so many of the soldiers died from pneumonia as a result. Then it spread to the west and now it is all over Kansas and Missouri towns and altho' it is somewhat checked everyone is taking every precaution to blot it out entirely. It wasn't really the enfluenza [sic] I had a couple of weeks ago. It was just a bad cold I think...." 

For more on Herbert's time in France during WWI, see my post:

The Story of Herbert and Irene Wright 

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"When the boat got to England, they took him [Colonel Arnold] to a hospital in London, all too sick to talk. When he could talk, he found out that the war was over , the Germans had surrendered and the Armistice had been signed, and we found ourselves with fifty of the things already built and ready to go. No war. So the Signal Corps decided to take them to Florida to one of the airfields in, well it wasn't an airfield, it was just a big open space in Florida away from everybody where nobody would see them.....They wanted to keep it under cover as much as possible. So they asked Mr. Kettering to take out patents on it, in his own name and keep those patents in the patent office as long as possible. Well, he prepared patent applications and then by various legal maneuvers we kept the thing in the patent office until about the middle of the 1930's and the patent issue. If I'm not mistaken, it's the largest and longest patent ever issued by the patent office."

 

"The Germans bought up some of the patents, and filed them away for possible future use. They could see a need for this. Well, when World War II broke out, the boss resurrected the thing and equipped it with heat sensing seekers and it was responsive to heat; you could fire it in England and it would go straight to a steel mill in Germany or any place that was putting out infrared heat waves. They, they offered it to the military, but they were rather obsessed with the idea of big bombers and heavy bombers and they wanted, didn't pay any attention to it. But the Germans built it. They built the V-1. And it was identical with this device with the exception of the engine. They copied it identically right down to the very last detail with the exception of the engine. [The V-1 was quite different from the Kettering Bug. John Wright likely just assumed the Bug was the inspiration for the German V-1] They put a different engine on it. And it was the V-1 that almost knocked England out of the war......Of course, along toward the end, they had made considerable improvement on them and made them much bigger than they originally were...." 

 

German V-1 Cruise Missile (kick-named buzz bomb, and doodle bug), image courtesy of National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian. "....more than 20,000 were launched at British and continental targets, mostly London and Antwerp, from June 1944 to March 1945. It carried a one-ton, high-explosive warhead and had a range of about 150 miles but was very inaccurate."

A much different account of the October 4, 1918 flight of the Kettering Bug is presented in "Twenty-Five Years Ahead Of Its Time: The American Aerial Torpedo in World War I", by Michael H. Taint, Lt. Colonel, USAF (Ret) Independent Scholar, published 2018. Taint utilized official military records, reports from Major General George Owen Squier, and memoirs of General Henry Hap Arnold. In Taints account, amongst other differences, upon the disappearance of the October 4th Kettering Bug, Charles Kettering is disgusted, and quoted as saying, "let the thing stay up there", and left! Then, several officers, including Lt. Colonel Bion Arnold, and Colonel Hap Arnold gave chase in an automobile, but lost sight of the Bug, and returned. Upon learning it had crashed south of Xenia, they drove there, where Lt. Colonel Arnold pointed to Colonel Hap Arnold (who was wearing a flight jacket), telling the people there that Hap had been the pilot. Additionally, the launch occurred from McCook Field and passed over Wright Field according to this account. 

John Wright's account contains so much specific detail of the chase that it is most likely a true account of the events. Charles Kettering may have been disgusted, but when he "left", according to John, he went on the chase. And the chase was from South Field heading east on Stroop, not from McCook Field. It would have been in the military's best interest to mislead the public into believing the event occurred at McCook Field, in lieu of the actual secret location of the experiments at South Field.

 

Copyright 2026-Getting the Story Wright

 

Additional-

Interview with Ernest Dubel, March 1, 1967 (4)

" Well, the idea was conceived I guess by the government, to have a guided missile they could bomb at ammunition dumps with. And supply centers. And the idea was turned over to Dayton-Wright Airplane Company, and Mr. Kettering, had drawings made, they were made by Louis Luneke, he stayed at the Runnymede farm home, home of the Talbott family. It was in what was part of Hills and Dales. And it was kept secret. And when they were ready to start construction, Mr. Jacobs came to me and told me what they were going to do. And they wanted it kept secret. And I should pick the best men I had to put on the project. [Ernest was supervisor at Dayton-Wright South Field plant at this time.]  And the work was taken out, of South Field and taken over to the old farmhouse, which was my uncle's home when I was young. And it was on Kettering's ground at the time. He owned the ground. The work was really under the charge then, that is experimental work, of John Sheats. And later John got in controversy with General Ryan and the company had to release John from the job, and a man by the name of Lee took charge from then on, until we were ready for tests."

"The actual construction, the making of the parts, we made at South Field, and they took them over and assembled them, and mad changes continue, and done the testing and experimented with the mechanism. We built the, most of the mechanism at South Field. We built the ship to test the motor as South Field. It was called the messenger ship. And Howard Rinehart flew it, and tested it out. And Charles Kettering was testing a motor also on the ground. One day when one of the piston heads blew off and almost hit him in the head and I can still remember that......after we had the motor tested thoroughly, well, they built one ship and brought it over to the Field, and we flew it there at the Field at night time so there wouldn't be anybody to know what was going on. And the ship didn't leave the Field, it flew around the Field, over the Field, and made a lot of peculiar dives and dips at the ground, and the last one that drove into the ground wrecked it completely and there wasn't anything to salvage. And we took it into the hangar and broke it up and threw it away and built a new one." 

 

 

 

Notes:

1. The Dayton Daily News December 17, 1916, "Orville Wright Experimenting to Utilize Unused Currents of Air".

2. Interview with John Wright, February 11, 1967, Wright Brothers- Charles F. Kettering Oral History Project, University Archives and Special Collections, University of Dayton.

3. Wilbur F. H. Bigelow, Sr., Dayton-Wright Company Collection (SC-347) > 18, Wright State University Libraries Core Scholar.

4. Interview with Ernest Dubel, March 1, 1967, Wright Brothers- Charles F. Kettering Oral History Project, University Archives and Special Collections, University of Dayton.


Sunday, February 15, 2026

Orville Wright- The Art Critic, Part II

Updated June 13, 2026

In my post, "Orville Wright- The Art Critic", I shared how Orville Wright used to tease his grand-nephew Milton Wright about modern art. Orville was not a fan, though he did like Milton's artwork, which I discussed in my post, "Orville Wright's grand-nephew Milton Wright Jr.". What would Orville have thought about some of the so called art currently being created through AI programs? This post continues the discussion in Orville Wright- The Art Critic, Part II.

Is it ok to judge a book by it's cover? Generally not, so I'll simply judge the cover and not the book. I haven't read any of these children's books, and hopefully their contents are not as inaccurate as their cover depictions of the Wright Brothers. I'm not bothered by animated characters of the Wrights, but when the animation doesn't resemble them in any way, and incorrectly shows their invention, I don't find that helpful in representing the history.

This self-published book by Farhad Hemmatkhah Kalibar can be purchased for just $28.10 from London, United Kingdom, through E-bay. Orville shaved off his mustache, Wilbur got his teeth fixed, they both have gray hair, and they're posing by a plane they didn't invent, with a broken propeller.  

Maybe next time, invest a few bucks in a human artist in lieu of an AI program.

 

 

The German language version is also available, self-published book by Farhad Hemmatkhah Kalibar. Looks like someone added a propeller blade but didn't bother to space them correctly. Maybe one blade broke off hitting one of those kites AI put floating in the air.

 

Wilbur had a hair transplant, but kept his gray hair since he was 4 years older than Orville. You have to be able to tell them apart somehow.

 

  

This next book is written for kids aged 7-15. At least kids aged less than 7, and over 15 will understand the Wright Brothers invented a flying machine and not a winged go-cart for the beach. 

 

Amazing facts for curious minds showing the Wright Brothers were actually twins (even though they were born 4 years apart), and invented some goofy rolling uncontrollable bi-winged play-toy thingy for fun on the beach.








 

 

This book First in Flight, I'm really confused. I'm assuming the men on the cover are supposed to be the Wright Brothers. Only Orville wore a mustache, and Wilbur did not have much hair, nor a comb over. Was any real research done?

First in Flight, The Story of The Wright Brothers For Kids, by Sarah Michaels, published in 2024, 134 pages, available on E-bay for $35.15. Maybe the guys on the cover are elementary school teachers? 

 

 

 

The Wright Brothers, a book about the curious twins born 4 years apart.  Written for children ages 5-13, by Sharon H. Johnson, available on E-bay for just $27.87 plus $3.99 postage. Published January 18, 2026, this remarkable AI produced cover for the first time in history, shows the actual aeroplane designed by the brothers, held by Orville....or wait, by Wilbur....or wait....by one of the twins.


 

The amazing detail of their invention is provided in this amazing cover. Not exactly sure how they were able to get that configuration to fly, but hey, it's on the book cover, so it must have been carefully researched. And people are concerned that AI is going to take away artist's jobs? 

 

This 2024 book "The Wright Brothers Book for Curious Kids" by Mark Lylani, may not have AI created cover art....I'm not sure. The brothers are not twins, so maybe not. BUT......why does Wilbur have hair, and perfect teeth? Why does their aeroplane look nothing like their actual invention? What is with that barrel?? Are they planning on taking this thing over Niagara Falls? 


 

 

As mentioned, I'm not opposed to animated characters of the Wright Brothers. But the animation should at least include some of the physical characteristics of Wilbur and Orville. Some examples follow that both Wilbur and Orville would have found acceptable: 

 

The Story of The Wright Brothers, Annette Whipple, 2020. At least Wilbur and Orville are recognizable on this cover. The art appears to have been performed by an actual artist and not a mindless AI program.




The Wright Brothers and the Airplane, by Xavier Niz, and Illustrated by Steve Erwin, Keith Williams, and Charles Barnett III. Published in 2007, before the age of AI. Not perfect, as the launching rail is shown running down a sand dune in lieu of on level ground, but the cover art is nice.

 

 

 

Who Were The Wright Brothers? by James Buckley Jr., published 2014. Again, prior to the AI age, the artist represents the Wrights such that you can recognize which is Wilbur and which is Orville, and in a goofy way kids would enjoy. Yes their heads are huge, but the guy in the aeroplane is Wilbur, and he doesn't have a mustache, he doesn't have a big toothy smile, and he's not a twin of Orville! 

 

 

 

The Wondrous Whirligig, by Andrew Glass, published 2003. Wilbur and Orville depicted as young kids show Wilbur, the older brother on left, and Orv, the younger having fun with the flying "bat" their father gave to them. True, their faces don't look much like they did at that age, but isn't it refreshing they aren't shown as twins, and the art work is really nice.

 

 

 

The Ultimate Wright Brothers Book for Kids, by Steve Morrison. The Wright Brothers, by Elizabeth Macleod and Andrej Krystoforski (2008). Ah, the nostalgia of the age before AI, when animated Wilbur and Orville actually looked something like Wilbur and Orville. 








 
It would be interesting to obtain a copy of each of these books and compare how well (or not) the history is presented in each. Perhaps a topic for a future post. Can a book at times, be judged by it's cover?
 


Copyright 2026-Getting the Story Wright  

 

Related Posts: 

 

Orville Wright's grand-nephew Milton Wright Jr. 

















Sunday, January 25, 2026

22 South Williams Street- Wright Cycle Company/Wright & Wright Printers (1895-1897)

Initially, Wilbur and Orville Wright's printing and cycle businesses were in separate buildings. April of 1889 through October of 1890, The West Side News, Evening Item print shop was at 1210 West Third. Then from November 1890 through Spring of 1895, Wright & Wright Job Printers was located at the second floor level of the Hoover Block, southeast corner of Williams and West Third. The Wright Cycle Exchange had first been operated from 1015 West Third December 1892 through May of 1893. It then relocated to 1034 West Third a few doors east of Wright & Wright Job Printers in the Hoover Block. 

On September 12, 1894, Wilbur wrote his father Milton, and shared "The bicycle business is fair. Selling new wheels is about done for this year but the repairing business is good and we are getting about $20 a month from the rent of three wheels...." Several weeks later, Wilbur, writing to his father October 2, 1894, "We will give up our bicycle store room in about a week and will probably move our repair shop upstairs in the printing office. There is hardly enough business to justify us in keeping so expensive a room any longer." Assuming this move took place, 1034 West Third was vacated of their Cycle Shop, and from late October 1894 through early Spring of 1895, Wright Cycle Company and Wright & Wright Printers shared space at the Hoover Block. 

 

Wright Cycle Company price and availability announcement for the 1895 season, as printed in the January 19, 1895 issue of Snap Shots At Current Events, a publication of The Wright Cycle Company. Printed while occupying the second floor level of the Hoover Block, prior to moving to 22 South Williams Street.

The Wright's moved both the printing and bicycle businesses to 22 South Williams Street in early 1895. They would remain at this location into early 1897. The Benson Ford Library Archives include information shared by Orville Wright in November 30, 1936, "In the early part of 1895 they moved again, this time to Williams Street where they began building the Van Cleve bicycle in 1896, making about fifteen the first year. In addition to this they continued to sell other makes of bicycles which bore the trade name 'Redding'.......After starting the manufacture of the Van Cleve bicycle....A couple years later they started the manufacture of the St. Clair, a medium priced bicycle and then added the Wright Special which sold at $18.00 each. This was of seamless tubing and was equipped with Morgan & Wright tires. The Wright Special was made to meet competition and they did not make so many of them."

 

22 South Williams, 1983, prior to renovation. (2)


Thanks to efforts made in the 1980's and leading toward the centennial celebration of first flight in 2003, the Hoover Block and 22 South Williams buildings were saved and renovated. Both buildings are now a part of the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park, with free admission.

 

Image by Matt Yanney

Restored 22 South Williams Street, Wright Cycle Company. Photo by Author, 2020.

 

 

Image by Matt Yanney
Wright-Dunbar Interpretive Center, West Third Street, Dayton, Ohio. The rectangular building to the left is the renovated Hoover Block structure. Photo by Author.

Prior to being occupied by the Wright Cycle Company, 22 South Williams was a saloon! When the Wright's Cycle Exchange was at their first location of 1015 West Third Street, a saloon owned by John J. Witbeck was operated at 22 South Williams. As the Wright's occupied their second location at 1034 West Third, Ernest. E. Elkins tried his hand at operating a saloon at 22 South Williams. 

 

"E. E. Elkins, of Williams street, and Abner Cain, of North Dayton, have been matched to fight at 134 pounds, Thursday, September 21, within twenty-five miles of Dayton. Each man has up a forfeit of $25." The Dayton Herald, September 1, 1893.

Elkins was an interesting character. In September of 1893, he had challenged Abner Cain to a boxing match. "Elkins had quite a reputation as a pugilist [boxer], up to last night, when, alas, his 'rep' was shattered beyond repair, and trampled in the dust. His first fight was in 1886, when he defeated Dannie Gibbs at Defiance, O., in a fierce six-round mill. In 1888 he bested Charles Stencel, of Sandusky, near Lansing, Mich. In 1890 he fought with Carrol, of Cincinnati, the mill ending in a draw. Last night's contest occurred at the 'Pinnacles' in a frame building......the building was packed and jammed an hour and a half before time was called.....In the fourth, fifth and sixth rounds, Elkins was knocked down repeatedly. At the end of the sixth, he was knocked silly....In the seventh round, Elkins showed up with his left optic swollen shut, and blue as indigo...Cain...with a terrific left, followed by a right, knocked Elkins down in his own corner. He attempted to rise, but sank tot he floor, and the fight was ended." (1) Elkins' saloon's survival wasn't much better, and perhaps leaving town due to the boxing loss, he moved to Camden, Ohio. 

Then, Mrs. May Watson tried her hand at a saloon here in 1894. Much competition existed that year, with saloons along West Third street at 702, 1023, 1029, 1102, 1212, 1246, 1247, & 1252. 1029 West Third was operated as a saloon by William Orth just a few doors east of the Wright Cycle Company when they were located at 1034 West Third. The 1029 building was expanded in size and experienced an address change in 1939 to be renumbered 1034, which confused historians such that the Orth Building had been mistakenly identified as the location of the Wright's second Cycle Shop. If it had been, they would have shared the space with a saloon! Not the case.

As the Wright's occupied 22 South Williams, they opened a second location in downtown Dayton. The Dayton Herald reported May 13, 1895, "The Wright Cycle Company will continue to handle the Halliday-Temple Scorcher, and have beside the Wright special, New Reading and the Featherstone wheels." 

Milton Wright wrote in his diary entry of May 24, 1895, "..In afternoon called at....Wilbur's store, 23 W. Second Street."  It could be surmised from this entry that Wilbur ran the downtown location, while Orville ran the West Dayton location, including the print shop.

The Dayton Herald reported July 10, 1895, "The Wright Cycle Company has removed from the West Side to Second street, a few doors west of Main". This announcement was correct in that the store at 23 West Second Street was opened, but incorrect in claiming the Wright Cycle Company was no longer located on the West Side, at 22 South WilliamsThe Wrights operated both locations in 1895. The downtown location would remain open for less than a year.

 

Advertisements for Wright Cycle Company at 23 West Second Street, July 1895.

 

In a letter dated September 16, 1895, Wilbur wrote to Milton, "Our bicycle business is rather quiet at present except repairings which brings in ten or twelve dollars a week most of the time...."

Orville wrote to  Milton October 8, 1895, "Our bicycle business is beginning to be a little slack, though we sell a wheel now and then. Repairing is pretty good. We expect to build our wheels for next year. I think it will pay us, and give us employment during the winter."

Milton wrote in his diary January 1, 1896, "...This is Bicycle Exhibit day at Y.M.C.A. Building & our boys are very busy preparing for it...."

March 13, 1896, Milton wrote, "Boys trying to adjust business. Bicycle frame came..."  

On May 16, 1896, Milton Wright wrote in his diary, "....The boys got the first 'Wright Special' bicycle ready for sale, and a ladies' wheel about so- both their own manufacture." The exact date of the first Wright Special cycle manufactured for sale is unknown. As noted earlier, a year prior to this entry by Milton, the Dayton Herald had reported, "The Wright Cycle Company will continue to handle the Halliday-Temple Scorcher, and have beside the Wright special, New Reading and the Featherstone wheels." One possibility is that the Wright Special mentioned here by Milton is the first made available for the Spring 1896 season, and not to imply none were made for the previous 1895 season.

 

 

Wright Cycle Company ad for both 22 South Williams and their downtown location at 23 West Second. These ads appeared in the Dayton Herald, July 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, and 25, 1895. 

 

Stationary letterhead for 22 South Williams Street Wright Cycle Company, letter from Wilbur to his father Milton, courtesy of the Library of Congress Archives.

 

The Oberlin Review reported in the September 30th issue that "Miss Wright went home after summer school to nurse her brother through typhoid fever." Orville had begun to feel unwell the last week of August. Initially neither his father Milton, nor his sister Katharine were in Dayton. Katharine rushed home to assist.

 

Oberlin Review, September 30, 1896. Author's copy.



Wilbur, writing to his father August 25, 1896, said, "Orville is complaining some for a day or two, but is taking quinine and I think will be all right in a few days.....Business affairs are very dull in Dayton. Nearly all the shops are practically shut down. Every one seems to be out of work or expect to be soon. We are not making or selling any more bicycles at present. We are planning our next years pattern. Kate sold here bicycle at Oberlin, getting $35 cash, and is waiting for us to make her a new one." The United States was in a state of a deep recession from late 1895 through mid 1897, which had it's roots in the "Panic of 1893" when runs were made on banks, resulting in many failed financial institutions. 

Milton wrote his daughter Katharine on August 31, 1896, "I am sorry that Orville is sick, and sorry that I am away when he is sick. While I hope it may prove but a mild attack, I have grave apprehensions that it may prove a severe siege. Inform  me by mail, and by telegraph, if the latter is necessary. Put him in the best room for air and comfort. Sponge him off gently & quickly with the least exposure & follow with mild friction. Let no one use the well water at the store henceforth. Boil the water you all drink, and set it in ice water to cool. Use the best economy about rest. Be temperate in articles eaten. Be regular." Milton and Katharine assumed the source of Orville's typhoid was the well water at 22 South Williams.  

September 4, 1896, Milton wrote, "....Found Orville very sick with typhoid fever. The temperature at one time, days ago, ran to 105.5 degrees. Temperature is now about 102 or 103 degrees." Over the next several weeks, Orville slowly recovered.

Prior to Orville's illness, on August 10, 1896, Otto Lilienthal, at age of 48, died from injuries he had suffered the day before, having fallen from a stalled glide at Rhinow, near Berlin. In "The Wright Brothers" (1943), Fred Kelly wrote, "In 1895, both [Wilbur and Orville] were impressed .... by a brief item they had come upon about the glider experiments, in Germany, by Otto Lilienthal.....their interest in anything relating to Lilienthal was still strong in the summer of the next year...Then, at a time Orville was still delirious from the fever, Wilbur read that Lilienthal had been killed in a crash of his glider. After Orville was well enough to hear about Lilienthal's fatal accident, both he and Wilbur had a greater eagerness than ever to learn more about what Lilienthal had accomplished, as well as what had been tried by others, toward human flight." 

In his October 8, 1896 diary entry, Milton wrote, "...Orville had tapioca to-day for the first time. He has lived for six weeks on milk, with a little beef broth for a couple of weeks past. He also sat up in bed for the first time in six weeks." 

 

Dayton Evening Herald, October 29, 1896, "Mr. Orville Wright, of Hawthorne street, is able to be around again after a long and severe illness of typhoid fever."

Charles Webbert remodeled a residence on West Third during the winter of 1896/97, constructing an addition to the front for conversion of the residential structure to a commercial building. The Wrights had made the decision to vacate 22 South Williams and occupy part of the 1125/1127 Webbert building.

The Dayton Herald March 2, 1897 issue reported on Bicycles, "The Different Kinds That Will Be Handled in Dayton the Coming Season.", that the Wright Cycle Company would provide the Van Cleve at their location at 1125 West Third. Customers would have been surprised to find caskets in lieu of bicycles, as Fetters & Shank Undertakers had advertised they had moved to 1125 West Third in the May 29, 1897 Dayton Herald. Earlier, in the April 27, 1897 Dayton Herald, it had been reported "Messrs. Fetters and Shank, the undertakers, have moved into their neat and spacious apartments in the new Webbert Block, on Third Street, just west of Williams street." The Wrights were located just west at 1127 West Third, offering bicycles, repair work, printing services, photography equipment, but no caskets. By May 8, 1897, Brandenburg Interior Screen Company had moved in to 22 South Williams.

 

Wilbur Wright working at Wright Cycle Shop, 22 South Williams Street, 1897. Image courtesy of Wright State University Special Collections and Archives, CoreScholar image ms1_15_1_18.


  
  
Image by Matt Yanney
Restoration of work area in photo above, 22 South Williams Street Wright Cycle Company. Photo by Author, 2024.

 

Image by Matt Yanney
Wright Cycle Company museum display, first floor south wall, looking west toward front entry. Photo by Author, 2024.

 

Image by Matt Yanney
Wright Cycle Company 22 South Williams Street, museum display at first floor north wall, looking west. Photo by Author, 2024. 

 


 

Copyright 2026-Getting the Story Wright  

 

Related Posts: 

Wright Cycle Exchange, 1015 West Third Street, Dayton, Ohio 

The Wright Brother's Print and Cycle Shop Locations 

The Gem City Ice Cream Building and the 1st Wright Cycle Shop 

Similar Posts:

1127 West Third Street- The Wright Cycle Company 

Hawthorn Street, Dayton, Ohio- Neighborhood of the Wright Brothers 

West Third Street, Dayton Ohio Wright Brother Connection 

15 North Broadway- The Wright Aeronautical Laboratory 

The Miami Wood Specialty and Wright-Dayton Companies 

 

Notes:

1. The Dayton Herald, September 22, 1893, "Cain A Winner" He Knocked Out Elkins in the Seventh Round.

2. Dayton Daily News, July 20, 1983 "Wheels of History".