Let’s begin in the Early Years Gallery near the Wright Bicycle.

In 1893, Dayton residents Wilbur and Orville Wright opened up the first of their several bicycle shops. Three years later they began building bicycles of their own design. Their successful bicycle business funded flight experiments, and it expanded their knowledge of building machines.

The Wright brothers read everything on flying they could obtain, even though most of the material then available was based only on theory. The two brothers first worked with kites and gliders, and in the summer of 1903, they built a 40-foot, 4-inch span airplane that incorporated all their aerodynamic knowledge and incorporated the theories and ideas of German glider Otto Lilienthal. On December 17, 1903, Orville made the first successful powered, heavier-than-air flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

During 1904 and 1905, the Wrights continued researching the mysteries of flight at Huffman Prairie, which is now part of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.