Brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright loved machines and dreamed of flying. In 1903 they built and flew the world's first airplane — and changed travel forever.
Quick facts
- Born
- Wilbur 1867 and Orville 1871, USA
- Famous for
- Building the first airplane
- Known for
- Never giving up on their dream to fly
🖼️ Photo coming soon
Two curious brothers
The Wrights ran a bicycle shop and loved tinkering with machines. They watched how birds glide through the air and built their own flying machines to test.
The first flight
On 17 December 1903, their plane flew for about 12 seconds — the first time ever that a powered airplane carried a person into the sky!
The sky is open
They kept improving their planes year after year. Because of these two brothers, airplanes now carry people all around the world.
“The desire to fly is an idea handed down to us by our ancestors.” — Wilbur Wright
Why we remember Wright
The Wright Brothers show that big dreams plus careful tinkering can lift the whole world up. They took us into the sky — and later, heroes like Neil Armstrong took us all the way to the Moon.