Wright Brothers Day 2024 is on Tuesday, December 17, 2024: Intersting facts about the Wright Brother?

Tuesday, December 17, 2024 is Wright Brothers Day 2024.

Sponsored Deals

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Here are a few little known (but fascinating) facts about the Wright brothers:

Awards

The Wright brothers received awards on three separate occasions.

Congressional Medal of Honor, awarded June 17, 1909.

After the Wrights had returned home from a triumphant tour of Europe, they were awarded this medal during the Wright Brothers' Home Days Celebration on June 17 and 18, 1909. They also received gold medals from the State of Ohio and the City of Dayton.

Legion of Honor, awarded June 20, 1909.

Created by Napoleon Bonaparte, the French Legion of Honor is an order of merit given to individuals without regard to birth or religion, provided they swear to uphold the values of liberty and equality. Orville, Wilbur, and Katharine Wright were so honored after their successful aviation demonstrations in 1908 and 1909.

Collier Trophy, awarded February 3, 1914.

Established in 1911 by Robert Collier, the Collier Trophy was presented annually for the most significant contribution to aeronautics. Glenn Curtiss won the trophy for the years 1911 and 1912, and Orville Wright won it for 1913 for the Wrights' automatic stabilization system, the forerunner of the automatic pilot.

Boy Scouts

Orville Wright was active in the promotion of scouting and sat on the Dan Beard Council of the Boy Scouts of America. He was the scouting advisor for the Aviation Merit Badge. (Who better?)

Education

Neither Wilbur or Orville Wright received a high school diploma. Wilbur completed his senior year at Richmond High School in Indiana with good grades (about a 95 average), but did not apply for a diploma. The Wright family moved to Dayton, Ohio before commencement and Wilbur never went back to claim his certificate. Orville started a printing business when he was 15 years old and was running a weekly newspaper by his junior year of high school. His grades were mediocre (except for the sciences) and he had obviously lost interest in school, so he did not go back for his senior year.

Despite the lack of a high school certificate, both Wilbur and Orville earned honorary graduate and post-graduate college degrees.

Honorary degrees awarded to Wilbur and Orville Wright while Wilbur was still living:

University of Munich, Munich, Germany — Honorary Doctor of Engineering, March 5, 1909.

Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana — Honorary Bachelor of Science, June 16, 1909.

Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio — Honorary Doctor of Laws, June 22, 1910.

After Wilbur died in 1912, Orville was awarded these degrees:

Polytechnicum of Chicago — Honorary Doctor of Philosophy, March 31, 1915.

Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut — Honorary Doctor of Science, June 23, 1915.

Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana — Honorary Masters of Science, June 14, 1917.

University of Cincinnati — Honorary Doctor of Science, June 16, 1917.

Yale University— Honorary Master of Arts, June 18, 1919.

University of Michigan — Honorary Doctor of Engineering, June 16, 1924.

Ohio State University—Honorary Doctor of Science, June 10,1930.

Harvard University — Honorary Doctor of Laws, June 19, 1930.

Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana — Honorary Doctor of Laws, June 15, 1931

Huntington College, Huntington, Indiana — Honorary Doctor of Laws, June 10, 1935

University of Dayton, Dayton, Ohio — Honorary Doctor of Science, December 19, 1943.

Otterbein College, Westerville, Ohio — Honorary Doctor of Science, June 9, 1947

All totaled, there were 15 honorary degrees awarded to one or both of the brothers.

Newspaper Coverage

After the first flights on December 17, 1903, Wilbur and Orville's brother Lorin carried the news to an Associated Press representative Frank Tunison. Frank also worked as a reporter at the Dayton Journal. Tunison didn't think the four short flights were newsworthy and declined to run the story -- ironic since Orville and Wilbur had specifically asked the telegraph operator in Kitty Hawk not to tell the local press; they wanted to story to come out of Dayton so that their home town would get the glory. The telegraph operator blabbed anyway, and an inaccurate story appeared in the Virginia Pilot. This was repeated in the Cincinnati Enquirer and the New York American on December 18. Later that same day, the Dayton Daily News ran the first accurate account of the flight.

Nicknames

In the Wright family, Wilbur was often referred to a "Ullam" and Orville was "Bubs." Their sister Katharine went by the nickname "Swes."

Pets

The Wright family had at least three pets that we know about. When Wilbur and Orville were children, they had a cat named "Old Mom." When Wilbur was in France in 1908, he adopted a stray dog he called "Flyer." And in later life, Orville had a St. Bernard named "Scipio."

Travel Plans

In traveling to Kitty Hawk, the Wright brothers took the Big Four train from Dayton to Cincinnati, where they caught a C &O train to Old Point Comfort, VA. From there they took a stea

Were the Wright Brothers poular?

the wright brothers were popular in their day and were very friendly to others , they also had a ton of fans after their first flight so had more friends than they ever

they were pretty down to earth people who built that airplane in their spare time , they ran a shop where they repaired and worked on motors , printing presses , bicycles and other machinery which is where they got their mechanical know how , in fact working on bikes is what made them realize an unstable machine like an air craft could indeed be balanced with practice

they may have seemed standoffish and mean to some people but that was because a guy named glenn curtis was selling planes using aelerons in an attempt to bypass the patent the wright brothers had for their forward elevator , both were basically the same

it took years in court fighting to win their case , by then the brothers distrusted most people .

Who was the wright brothers?

Orville and Wilbur Wright Brothers where Bicycle builders from Dayton Ohio.They built a series of gliders before they conducted the first CONTROLLED sustainable powered flight by an heavier than air aircraft at Kittyhawk, North Carolina.

Several others ie Clement Ader, George Cayley had gotten off the ground previously but had no means of controlling the aircraft in the air and could only achieve uncontrolled hops. The Wrights achievement was being able to control all the different axis of the aircraft making heavier than air flight truly achievable for the first time.

They went on to create the Wright Aircraft company of which merged with rival Curtiss Company to now be a major world Engineering company to this day