Wilbur Wright Piloting the Wright Flyer, France, 1908-1909
01
Artifact Overview
Worried that rivals would steal their yet-to-be patented designs, the Wright brothers stopped flying publicly for nearly three years in late 1905. People began to doubt that the Wrights had ever flown. Skeptics were silenced in August 1908 when Wilbur Wright made a series of spectacular demonstration flights at Le Mans, France, achieving more distance and control than anyone else.
Artifact Details
Artifact
Negative (Photograph)
Subject Date
1908-1909
Creators
Collection Title
Location
By Request in the Benson Ford Research Center
Object ID
2000.53.127
Credit
From the Collections of The Henry Ford.
Material
Glass (Material)
Technique
Gelatin dry plate process
Color
Black-and-white (Colors)
Dimensions
Height: 5.000 in
Width: 7.000 in
Keywords |
|---|
02
Related Content
SetThe Wrights: Wowing the World
- 20 Artifacts
Wilbur Wright's many demonstration flights in France in 1908 and 1909 were spectacular events. Some in Europe had begun to doubt the Wrights' achievement at Kill Devil Hills. When Wilbur took to the skies over Le Mans, demonstrating more control and achieving more distance than his rivals, crowds flocked to watch his apparent mastery of the airplane. The skeptics were silenced.