Wright brothers Quotes Proverbs, and Aphorisms

• Wilbur Wright: April 16, 1867 – May 30, 1912
• Orville Wright: August 19, 1871 – January 30, 1948
• American
• Aviation Pioneers, Inventors, Engineers, First to Achieve Powered, Controlled Flight

The Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur Wright, were American inventors and aviation pioneers credited with achieving the first successful powered flight on December 17, 1903, near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Through meticulous experimentation, they developed key innovations such as three-axis control, allowing a pilot to steer and maintain stability—an essential breakthrough for modern aviation. Their 1905 Flyer marked the beginning of practical flight, and by 1908, they were demonstrating aircraft publicly in Europe and the U.S. Though initially met with skepticism, their success revolutionized transportation and engineering. The Wright brothers are celebrated for their ingenuity, persistence, and for launching the age of aviation.

1. “It is possible to fly without motors, but not without knowledge and skill.”
2. “We could hardly wait to get up in the morning.”
3. “I confess that in 1901 I said to my brother Orville that man would not fly for fifty years.”
4. “I am an enthusiast, but not a crank in the sense that I have some pet theories as to the proper construction of a flying machine. I wish to avail myself of all that is already known and then, if possible, add my mite to help on the future worker who will attain final success.”
5. “Men become wise just as they become rich, more by what they save than by what they receive.”
6. “The fact that the great scientist believed in flying machines was the one thing that encouraged us to begin our studies.”
7. “The desire to fly is an idea handed down to us by our ancestors who… looked enviously on the birds soaring freely through space… on the infinite highway of the air.”
8. “We left Dayton, September 23, and arrived at our camp at Kill Devil Hill on Friday, the 25th.”
9. “When the motor was completed and tested, we found that it would develop 16 horse power for a few seconds, but that the power rapidly dropped till, at the end of a minute, it was only 12 horse power.”
10. “The airplane stays up because it doesn’t have the time to fall.”
11. “A sudden dart when a little over a hundred feet from the end of the track, or a little over 120 feet from the point at which it rose into the air, ended the flight.”
12. “With all the knowledge and skill acquired in thousands of flights in the last ten years, I would hardly think today of making my first flight on a strange machine in a twenty-seven mile wind, even if I knew that the machine had already been flown and was safe.”
13. “No flying machine will ever fly from New York to Paris.”
14. “If we all worked on the assumption that what is accepted as true is really true, there would be little hope of advance.”
15. “We were then satisfied that, with proper lubrication and better adjustments, a little more power could be expected. The completion of the motor according to drawing was, therefore, proceeded with at once.”
16. “The course of the flight up and down was exceedingly erratic, partly due to the irregularity of the air, and partly to lack of experience in handling this machine. The control of the front rudder was difficult on account of its being balanced too near the center.”
17. “We laid the track on a smooth stretch of ground about one hundred feet north of the new building.”
18. “In our gliding experiments we had had a number of experiences in which we had landed upon one wing, but the crushing of the wing had absorbed the shock, so that we were not uneasy about the motor in case of a landing of that kind.”
19. “One of the Life Saving men snapped the camera for us, taking a picture just as the machine had reached the end of the track and had risen to a height of about two feet.”
20. “Isn’t it astonishing that all these secrets have been preserved for so many years just so we could discover them!”
21. “With twelve horse power at our command, we considered that we could permit the weight of the machine with operator to rise to 750 or 800 pounds, and still have as much surplus power as we had originally allowed for in the first estimate of 550 pounds.”
22. “The ability to do this so quickly was largely due to the enthusiastic and efficient services of Mr. C.E. Taylor, who did all the machine work in our shop for the first as well as the succeeding experimental machines.”
23. “No data on air propellers was available, but we had always understood that it was not a difficult matter to secure an efficiency of 50% with marine propellers.”
24. “We estimated that we could make one of four cylinders with 4 inch bore and 4 inch stroke, weighing not over two hundred pounds, including all accessories.”
25. “In just six weeks from the time the design was started, we had the motor on the block testing its power.”
26. “When the machine had been fastened with a wire to the track, so that it could not start until released by the operator, and the motor had been run to make sure that it was in condition, we tossed a coin to decide who should have the first trial. Wilbur won.”