That same year, tragedy struck the Wright family. The mother of Orville he died after a long fight against tuberculosis. His sister Katharine took over the responsibilities of the house. The bond between Orville, Katharine and Wilbur was very strong, and the brothers would form an inseparable trio for the rest of their lives.
After the death of his mother, Orville and his brother took up another shared interest: bicycles. A new, safer design had sparked a bicycle craze across the country. The brothers opened a bicycle shop in 1892, to sell and repair bicycles, beginning to manufacture their own design in 1896.
Always curious about aeronautics, Orville and Wilbur they followed the latest news about the flights. When the famous German aviator Otto Lilienthal, whose research they had studied, died in a paragliding accident, the Wright brothers became convinced that, with better designs, human flight was possible. The brothers took their work to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, where strong winds were more conducive to flying.
Orville and Wilbur began experimenting with wings. They observed that the birds angled their wings to balance and control their bodies during flight. Using their “wing warp” concept and a movable rudder, the brothers developed a design that had eluded all of their predecessors. On December 17, 1903, the Wright brothers succeeded in making the first free and controlled flight of a power-driven aircraft. Of the four flights they made that day, the longest was 59 seconds, over a distance of 852 feet. Today, the Wright brothers consider themselves the “fathers of modern aviation. “
News of the Wrights’ feat was met with skepticism. After funding a series of failed flight experiments, the US government was reluctant to back their work. When Wilbur sailed for Europe, Orville He headed to Washington, DC, to show off his flying machine in hopes of winning government and military contracts. In July 1909, Orville completed demonstration flights for the US Army, which had required that the plane include a passenger seat. The Wright brothers sold the plane for $ 30,000.
The extraordinary success of the Wright brothers landed them contracts, both in Europe and the United States, and they soon became owners of a thriving business. They began to build a large family home in Dayton, where they had spent much of their childhood.
On May 25, 1910, Orville He flew for six minutes, with Wilbur as his passenger, this being the first and only flight the brothers would make together. The same day, Orville took his 82-year-old father on the first and only flight of his life.
In 1912, Wilbur died of typhoid fever. Without his brother and business partner, Orville he was forced to assume the presidency of the Wright company. Unlike his brother, however, he had little concern for the commercial aspect of his work and therefore sold the company in 1915.
Orville Wright He spent the last thirty years of his life advising boards and committees related to aeronautics, including the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, predecessor of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. He cut off communication with his sister, Katharine, when she married in 1926. Neither Orville neither Wilbur ever married, and he was greatly upset by his sister’s choice. In 1929, he had to be persuaded to visit Katharine on her deathbed.
On January 30, 1948, Orville died after suffering a second heart attack. He is buried on the Wright family’s land in Dayton, Ohio.