Orville Wright (19 August 1871 - 30 January 1948) and his older brother Wilbur (16 April 1867 - 30 May 1912) were two American aviation pioneers generally credited with inventing, building and flying the world's first successful motor-operated aeroplane.
They made the first controlled, sustained flight of a heavier than air aircraft with the Wright Flyer on 17 December 1903, just south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
The first flight by Orville at 10.35 am on that day lasted 12 seconds and covered approximately 37 metres at a speed of 10.9 km per hour. The next two flights, first by Wilbur and then by Orville, covered approximately 53 and 61 metres.
During the period of 1904-05 the brothers developed their next flying machine, the Wright Flyer II, making longer running and more aerodynamic flights.
Their first truly practical fixed wing aircraft, the Wright Flyer III, successfully took to the air late in 1905.
The Wright brothers were also the first to invent aeroplane controls, a three-axis system, that enable proper powered flight.
Over the next ten or so years, the Wright brothers had to deal with a skeptical press, various lawsuits, patent issues and claims that others had flown earlier than them.
Following a trip to Boston in April 1912, Wilbur fell ill and died the next month from typhoid fever.
Orville succeeded his brother as President of the Wright Company which he then sold in 1915.
Orville made his last flight in 1918 in a Wright Model B plane. He retired from business and became an elder statesman of the aviation industry serving on a number of boards and committees, including the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the predecessor of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
While records are sketchy, Orville was made an honorary member of the Rotary Club of Dayton, Ohio on 5 February 1914. Apparently, after he retired from business ownership some years later he became a more active Rotarian.
In 1930 Orville was awarded the Daniel Guggenheim Medal for his promotion of aviation and in 1936 he was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
On April 19, 1944, the second produced Lockheed Constellation aeroplane, piloted by Trans World Airlines president Jack Frye and Howard Hughes, flew from Burbank California to Washington DC in 6 hours 57 minutes. On the return trip the plane stopped at Wright Field to give Orville his last ride in an aircraft, more than 40 years after his historic first flight.
Never having never married, Orville Wright died on 30 January 1948 having lived from the horse and buggy age through to the dawn of the supersonic flight.
