In the summer of 1896 Orville Wright fell seriously ill with typhoid fever. During his convalescence, Wilbur read aloud to his brother about Otto Lilienthal, a famous German glider enthusiast who had just been killed in an accident.

Reading about Lilienthal aroused a deep and long-held interest in the Wright brothers. They began to read intensively about birds and flying. They had no experience, no formal technical training, and no funds, but, a dream had taken hold.

The Wright brothers’ first aircraft was really a large kite, made of bamboo and paper which had two wings, one over the other, with struts and criss-cross wires connecting them. A system of control cords enabled its flight to be directed from the ground. Although they ended with a crash, the brothers felt that the tests were sufficiently successful for their work to continue.

In 1900, they headed to Kitty Hawk, a wide strip of land on the Outer Banks of North Carolina noted for its good weather, reliable winds and only occupied by fishermen. It was an ideal location where the brothers could conduct their tests.

Down the sand slope headed into the wind they would trot the glider until it began to be airborne, and Wilbur would pull himself up onto the lower wing, take hold of the controls, and, with mooring lines still attached, briefly fly.

In the autumn of 1902, they returned to Kitty Hawk with a new, larger glider, they began flying it first as a glider, unmanned, and then, cautiously proceeding, piloted.

On December 17, 1903, in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina with an icy wind, stronger than they would have liked, Orville started forward and at a speed hardly greater than a walk lifted and—with the engine turning the propeller—flew unevenly for 120 feet. Later that day on a fourth try, Wilbur was able to fly a little over 850 feet. Although the Wright brothers were not the first to build and fly experimental aircraft, they were the first to invent aircraft controls that made fixed-wing powered flight possible.

Since then, their “first in flight” status has been commemorated on the North Carolina license plates.

A replica of the Wright brothers’ first plane called “The Flyer”.