Flying Machines

As young boys the Wright brothers became intrigued with mechanical toys and making their own inventions by using those toys as models. As the boys grew older, they continued to tinker and invent various items. Orville made his first printing press using scrap metal and a tombstone. The invention should not have worked. Not only did it work but it was highly efficient.

Wilbur and Orville would soon begin to sell, manufacture and repair bicycles. However, it was hearing about Otto Lilienthal's experiments, successes and failures that guided the brothers in a new direction.

"Otto Lilienthal's gliding experiments in Germany, and his dramatic death in 1896, had aroused the Wright brothers' curiosity. They began to read what little they could find published on the subject of flight." (Chap. 4, p. 27)

It was not long before the workroom of the bicycle shop became the design center for the Wright...