The 1910 Wright Model B was the brother’s most successful aircraft

See a timeline of early flights, patent approvals and the birth of the Wright Company

The brothers’ most intense period of creativity and progress came between 1901 and 1910, when their work at Kitty Hawk culminated in the first powered flight. The pair, however, were not the most business-savvy, and they struggled to take financial advantage of their pioneering work in the field.

The Wrights battled inventor Glenn Curtiss for market dominance, ultimately losing

Their 1903 flights were met with skepticism, and the pair were hesitant to conduct public demonstrations. By 1908, Curtiss developed his own airplane, successfully flying a mile in front of judges and winning the nation’s first pilot license. The Wrights sued for patent infringement, sparking a business war.

The Wright brothers began as bicycle manufacturers in Dayton, Ohio

In the late 1800s, the duo managed several bike shops in the Dayton, Ohio area, where they would sharpen their teeth in engineering and design. Some of their earliest aviation efforts were funded by their bicycle business and initiated in their bike shops.

See shots of the Wright Flyer intact at the National Air and Space Museum

Since the museum’s opening in 1976, the wood-and-muslin plane has been available for public viewing with a model of Orville, the younger brother, lying on the plane’s mid-section.

How did the Wright brothers invent the airplane?

This article explores the research processes that led Wilbur and Orville Wright to invent the airplane and includes photos and visualizations of their findings and inventions.

Their 1901 Wind Tunnel system revolutionized the study of aeronautics

Only the second to be built in the US, the wind tunnel allowed the brothers to study how air moves around more than 200 different wing shapes. This data helped them refine a key math equation, long held as the standard, that had been based only on one wing shape.

Wilbur published key papers, gave speeches in the burgeoning aviation community

Much of the theoretical work is credited to Wilbur, whose scientific mind observed birds and early pioneers to discover the key problem to solve was control. This 1901 speech surveys the recent work in the field and showcases what the brothers worked on two years before their breakthrough flight.

Watch an amateur fly a 1902 Wright glider at the Kitty Hawk dunes

Billy Vaughan recreates the test flights of the Wright gliders in the exact location the brothers conducted them. He argues an October 1902 glider flight—not the December 1903 one—was the key innovative moment, implementing three-axis control. Host Baratunde rides a glider in perfect windy conditions in this re-creation.

The iconic photo of the Wright brothers' first flight was the photographer’s first

Using a then-state-of-the-art Korona V, rescue member John T. Daniels was tasked with squeezing the device’s rubber bulb the moment the plane left the wooden track on the sand. The camera produced negatives on 5 by 7 sheets of glass.

See nine airplane models that transformed aviation

This visual guide jumps over the dawn of modern air travel and begins with the open-cockpit biplane flown by the first scheduled airline, the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

The Wrights descended from English-born migrants to Boston in the 1630s

Samuel Wright was a Puritan who arrived in Massachusetts just two decades after the Pilgrims. His great-great-grandson Daniel Wright, born in Connecticut in 1757, fought in the Continental Army during the American Revolution, seeing action at the Battle of Saratoga.

The incredibly advanced engineering of the B-2 Bomber

B-2 Bombers are the world's most expensive plane, coming in at a cost of $2B per aircraft. There are roughly 20 in the world, all in use by the United States Air Force. They are known for their single-wing profile, allowing for stealth and the ability to transport some of the world's largest bombs.

What do you know about WWI's only Black fighter pilot?

This in-depth article follows the life of Eugene Bullard, a Black American nicknamed the "Black Swallow of Death" for his work in WWI. Though much of Bullard's life is known, some pieces, like what happened to Bullard's brother who vanished in the Jim Crow South, continue to escape historical record.

How a bicycle inspired an iconic armchair

The Wassily chair, also known as the Model B3, is one of the most recognizable and mass-produced pieces of modernist furniture. It was designed by Marcel Breuer—a Bauhaus student in the early '20s who went on to lead the school's carpentry workshop—who was inspired by the modular tubes and simple construction of a bicycle he'd purchased.

Airbus is a rare European industrial success story that overtook a rival American firm

After World War II, the US dominated aviation, particularly Boeing. To compete, Europe's major industrial nations pooled resources to form Airbus, a customer-centric airplane manufacturer. Its A320 family of planes became the most popular in airliner history, leading to profitability in the 1990s. Amid Boeing's major hurdles in recent years, Airbus remains the industry leader.

The Model T's simple but functional design helped the car become popular

Thanks to its low manufacturing costs, the Model T made it so many Americans could actually afford a personal vehicle. The car was produced as a simple, open-air vehicle that could be upgraded with aftermarket additions (like window wipers or better headlights).

Frank Lloyd Wright designed hundreds of buildings

Frank Lloyd Wright was a prolific architect and built hundreds of structures across America, and even a few in Japan and Canada. From humbler homes in Illinois to sprawling mansions in California, Wright experimented with different styles throughout his career and varied in each of his designs.

The Airstream surged in a postwar road trip boom

Wally Byam invented the Airstream in the late 1920s, but it took off following World War II, when more affordable automobiles allowed families to venture out into an expanding network of state and national parks. Airstream enthusiasts sometimes traveled in caravans, camping in front of famous scenery, like the Pyramids at Giza.

Frank Lloyd Wright's houses are historically hard to sell because they're old, subject to local landmark commissions, and often unfashionable

Exploring World War I technology on the battlefield

Industrialization brought massive changes to warfare during the Great War. Newly-invented killing machines begat novel defense mechanisms, which, in turn spurred the development of even deadlier technologies. Nearly every aspect of what we would consider modern warfare debuted on World War I battlefields. Starting with soldiers on horseback carrying lances and ending in poison gas, machine guns, and aerial battles, this gallery shows the first tools of modern warfare.

Meet the bowerbird, the bird world's greatest architect

There are roughly 20 species of bowerbird in and around Australia. It is a remarkable species known for its sophisticated nests. From what experts can tell, the bird has one thing in mind when building its elaborate abode: attracting a mate. See the variety of structures each bird makes in this well-written blog accompanied with incredible photos of bowerbird constructions.

For the same cost, turbines with three blades are the most resilient

Odd-numbered blade values more evenly distribute wind loads across the face of rotors, reducing bending and twisting forces on the turbine that cause wear. Modeling shows that three blades optimize efficiency and cost for everyday wind speeds.

Sears and Roebuck once sold DIY house kits

Between 1908 and 1940, "kit homes" that buyers could build themselves were advertised in Sears’ famous catalog—and many of them are still standing today.

In its famous catalog, Sears sold $600 DIY house kits from 1908 through the 1940s, resulting in an estimated 100,000 'Sears and Roebuck homes.'

Buddy Bolden assembled the first jazz ensemble

The New Orleans cornetist was a legend in the city, sometimes referred to as "king," for his electrifying performances, which captivated local dance halls by blending ragtime, blues, and gospel music. Unfortunately, recording technology was limited at the time, so there are no recordings of Bolden, though the song "Buddy Bolden's Blues" remains a standard to this day.

David Ogilvy’s brother helped get him into the advertising business

Ogilvy sent a copy of his stove sales manual, "The Theory and Practice of Selling the AGA Cooker" (which Fortune magazine later called "probably the best sales manual ever written”) to his brother, who was working at London ad agency Mather & Crowther at the time.

Anheuser-Busch was passed from father to son for five generations

The Busch family put a couple drops of Budweiser beer onto each first-born son’s tongue when they were born, according to family lore. Given their Anheuser-Busch ownership dynasty, the Busch family was considered beer royalty, with a Busch man running the operation up until the $52B InBev acquisition in 2008.

The first robot in literature may have been a 'mechanical man' in 1907's 'Ozma of Oz,' a book in L Frank Baum's 'Wizard of Oz' series.

After 25 people used virtual reality headsets to practice flying with virtual wings—flapping their arms—their visual cortex responded to the wings almost as if they were real arms, treating them as body parts.

Double world record holder Hunter Ewen helped conquer his fear of balloons, called globophobia, by training to win Guinness World Record titles for balloon inflation.

In 1915, workers recovered a submarine-like vessel from the Chicago River, prompting fears of German espionage

The history of many kitchen appliances involves unexpected discoveries and applications, including wartime radar turned hamster defroster and replacing an 'ice king' with heat-stealing boxes.

Trace how the Bill of Rights, inspired by centuries of political theory, took shape between 1774 and 1789.

Salvador Dalí believed he was his own dead brother, who had died nine months before he was born

Budweiser stores yeast derived from the original 1800s strain in a secret bunker, which only the Head of Yeast Management can access—not even the CEO

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

Watch a 1934 short film starring jazz legend Cab Calloway, a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance's music scene

SpaceX's S-1 or 'prospectus' revealed many previously unknown details about the company, including its unprofitability despite doing $18.7B in revenue in 2025, exactly how many voting shares Elon Musk will have in the company (roughly 85%), and more.

View the ten deadliest tornadoes in US history.

A small portion of The Winstons' 'Amen, Brother,' an obscure '60s gospel record, is the basis for thousands of hip-hop tracks, making it one of the most sampled records ever that's informally known as 'the Amen break.'

Elk Cloner, the first computer virus to spread in public, was written as a practical joke by Richard Skrenta, a Pittsburgh high school student.

American short story writer Flannery O'Connor raised 40 peacocks, which became potent symbols for her fiction's elegant violence

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

Brian Wilson wrote the Beach Boys' 'Don't Worry Baby' for the Ronettes, but the legendary girl group rejected it.

Many legends about George Washington, including his supposed wooden teeth and the story of cutting down the cherry tree, lack evidence.

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.

While atoms are normally made of protons, neutrons, and electrons, exotic ones have been built with antimatter—alternate versions of normal matter that live for fractions of a second and are about a billion times as rare.

Power lines are dotted with large, brightly colored balls to improve the visibility of these thin wires to helicopters and small planes and help prevent potential crashes.

Roughly 43 million US borrowers owe roughly $1.7T in student debt, the second-largest source of consumer debt behind mortgages.

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight