Wright Flyer Test Flights at Fort Myer, VA - GPN-2002-000124

The Wright Flyer demonstrations at Fort Myer, Virginia on September 3, 1908. In January 1907 the Wright Brothers submitted a bid to the U.S. War Department to design a plane for 5,000. This bid came as a response to a War Department request issued a month earlier for a "Heavier-than-air Flying Machine." While Wilbur Wright went off to Paris to promote the Wright Flyer, Orville Wright stayed in Dayton, Ohio to design a plane for the Army Signal Corps. By August Orville's plane was ready and he headed to Fort Myer, Virginia, where the air trials were to take place. From August 20, 1908, to September 17, 1908, Orville performed test flights for the Army. On September 17th a split propeller caused the plane to crash, injuring Orville and killing his passenger, Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge. In spite of the crash the Army believed that the Wright plane would work. In July 1909, when Orville was able to fly again, he completed the test flights and surpassed all of the Army's requirements for a military plane: to carry a passenger for at least 125 miles at a speed of 40 miles per hour and stay aloft for at least one hour, easily transportable, controllable and steerable at all times and in

Date

1908-09-03

Archive

Wikimedia Commons

Type

photograph

Original size

2,824 × 2,063 pixels

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