Wilbur Wright Flies Around the Statue of Liberty
Two of the greatest American icons captured in one photo? This is historical gold. The Statue of Liberty stands in the background of this amazing photo – and Wilbur Wright flies his airplane nearby. Does it get more American than that? (Only if you add a Big Mac from McDonald’s probably…) The Wright Brothers went down in history for their success in being the “first in flight”. On December 17, 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright made four brief flights at Kitty Hawk with their first powered aircraft. The Wright brothers had invented the first successful airplane.
While the Wright brothers were negotiating the sale of their aircraft, they let no one witness a flight or even see the airplane until they had a signed contract in hand. By the spring of 1908, the Wright brothers’ had received their patent in America and in several European countries. They had contracts with the U.S. government and a French syndicate of financiers. They were finally ready to share their invention with the world. There was little press coverage of the Wrights’ breakthrough flights in 1903, and they made no effort to publicize their flights at Huffman Prairie in 1904 and 1905. The Wright brothers’ extraordinary success led to contracts in both Europe and the United States, and they soon became wealthy business owners. They began building a grand family home in Dayton, Ohio, where they had spent much of their childhood. So it makes sense that a year later, in 1909, Wilbur Wright would make a very public spectacle of their flying machine.