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The Wright Brothers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2016

Wilbur  and
Orville
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Extract

On 6th January 1916 Lord Northcliffe, seconding a vote of thanks to Mr. Griffith Brewer for his lecture on the Life and Work of Wilbur Wright, said among other things : “The fact remains, however, that after more than one hundred years of experiment with aeroplanes, these two brothers were the first people in the world who made a machine to fly, and flew it. I make that remark emphatically, because there is one point to which Mr. Griffith Brewer did not call attention, and that is the attempt that has been made to rob the Wright brothers of the credit of their invention. We have not heard much of that in England, but ‘a prophet is not without honour save in his own country,’ and in the United States there have been long and persistent attempts to belittle the work of Wilbur and Orville Wright. I have closely read and followed the history of the hundred years of aeroplane experiments, and I am convinced that the credit of the first flying aeroplane is due to the Wright Brothers, and from the point of practical flying to nobody else. As an Englishman I am in an independent position, and I know that these words of mine will go across the Atlantic, and I believe they will assist in stopping the spread of the insidious suggestion that the Wrights did not invent the aeroplane.”

Type
Research Article
Information
The Aeronautical Journal , Volume 52 , Issue 447 , March 1948 , pp. 141 - 150
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Aeronautical Society 1948

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References

1. The Wright Brothers. Kelly, F. C., New York, 1943. An authorised and important biography.Google Scholar
2. The Life and Work of Wilbur Wright, by Brewer, Griffith. The 4th Wilbur Wright Memorial lecture, 1916. Journal R.Ae.S., July-September, 1916. An excellent source of information about the work of the two brothers.Google Scholar
3. Some Aeronautical Experiments, by Wright, Wilbur. Lecture before the Western Society of Engineers. Journal of the Western Society of Engineers, December, 1901. Reprinted Journal R.Ae.S., July-September, 1916. An account by Wilbur Wright of the gliding experiments of himself and Orville Wright.Google Scholar
4. The Wright Brothers’ Aeroplane, by Orville, and Wright, Wilbur. The Century Magazine, September, 1908. The first full account by the brothers of their work from 1900-1907.Google Scholar
5. Letter from Wright, Orville to Mr. Alexander, Patrick, dated November, 1905. Published in Journal R.Ae.S. for January 1906, giving details of 1905 flights.Google Scholar
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7. Wilbur Wright, Gold Medallist of the Society, Brewer, Griffith. Journal R.Ae.S. for July 1912., An account of the work of Wilbur Wright, ; following his death in May 1912.Google Scholar
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11. Fifty Years of Flying. Brewer, Griffith. London, 1946.Google Scholar