Year: 1903

Early in 1903 Wrights build a second wind tunnel, 2 feet by 2 feet by 8 feet, to ensure greater accuracy in measurements than obtained in tests made in the 1901 wind tunnel.

February 12. Wrights test newly built airplane motor for first time.

February 13. Motor body and frame broken during test.

March 6. Propeller estimates for 1903 propellers completed.

March 23. Wright brothers apply for patent on their flying machine (patent issued May 22, 1906).

April 1. Octave Chanute, in illustrated lecture before Aero-Club de France in Paris, tells of the Wright brothers’ gliding experiments of 1901 and 1902.

In the August 1903 issue of L’Aerophile, Chanute published an article on the same subject with photographic illustrations, scale drawings, and structural details on the Wright 1902 glider. Chanute’s lecture and subsequent reports and articles precipitated a revival of interest in aviation in Europe.

April 16. Wilbur Wright 36 years old.

April 20. Wright brothers receive from foundry a new aluminum casting for engine of 1903 machine.

May 2. Orville suffers injury when eye is struck by piece of emery.

On May 4 Charles Taylor removed an embedded fragment from Orville’s eye; the doctor later removed additional fragments.

June 6. Following return from Europe in May, Chanute visits Wrights in Dayton. He presents them with a Richard hand anemometer.

Wilbur reported in 1911 that on this visit Chanute informed the brothers he was ending his active gliding experiments because “he had come to the conclusion that whatever the final merits of the two systems {Wright and Chanute} might be, the first success would be obtained in all probability by our system, i.e., human control, rather than by his own system, i.e., automatic control.”

June 7. In letter to George A. Spratt, Orville tells of plans for powered machine.

June 18. Wilbur informs Chanute in a letter that “Our engine develops at the brake 15.6 horsepower and we are convinced that this is very close to what we will be able to reach as a maximum,” indicating early completion of engine required for powered flight.

June 24. Wilbur delivers second lecture before Western Society of Engineers, “Experiments and Observations in Soaring Fight,” giving account of Wright gliding experiments at Kitty Hawk in September and October 1902.

August. Wilbur’s lecture of June 24 published in Journal of the Western Society of Engineers.

August 19. Orville 32 years old.

September 12. Wright brothers, as agents, order from St. Louis Motor Carriage Co. an automobile “tonneau” for Albert R. Cotteral, of Cotteral & Gaddis, General Contractor, Dayton, which they deliver to him on September 22.

September 23. Wrights leave Dayton for Kitty Hawk, arriving there September 25.

September 26. Wrights repair damaged shed that housed their 1902 glider and commence construction on a new building at Kitty Hawk, completed on October 5, in which to assemble and house their new machine.

September 28. 1902 glider renovated and experiments conducted for first time in 1903. Between 60 and 100 glides are made.

In a letter to Chanute dated October 1, Wilbur states that it was the finest day for practice the Wrights ever had.

October 3. 1902 glider modified and performance improved by enlarging tail surface and changing method of attaching rudder to rear rudder frame.

October 9. Wrights commence assembly of 1903 machine, following receipt on October 8 of parts shipped from Dayton.

October 23. Dr. Spratt arrives at Kitty Hawk and participates in the Wright experiments for third time, departing from Kitty Hawk on November 6.

October 28. Smithsonian Institution reprints from its 1902 annual report and distributes Wilbur’s 1901 lecture, “Some Aeronautical Experiments,” as Smithsonian Publication 1380.

November 2. Installation of engine on 1903 machine complete.

November 4. The 1903 machine assembled and ready for launching except for mounting of propellers. Launching track completed.

November 5, New Wright airplane almost completed and assembled when propeller shafts break, requiring shipment to Dayton for repair and delaying further experiments.

Repaired shafts were returned on November 20.

November 6. Chanute arrives at Kitty Hawk to visit Wilbur and Orville, staying until November 12 and discussing his own and Wrights’ plans for the next year.

November 12. Glider experiments are terminated because the dilapidated condition of the machine rendered it unsafe.

Over 200 glides were made during the period September – November.

November 28. Propeller shaft cracks in test, curtailing further tests while awaiting replacement.

December 3, Orville returns to Dayton to obtain replacement for broken propeller shaft, the second time shaft had broken.

December 9. Orville leaves Dayton for Kitty Hawk with new improved propeller shaft, arriving back in Kitty Hawk on December 11.

December 14. Wrights make first and unsuccessful attempt with power machine from slope of Big Kill Devil Hill, with Wilbur as operator. Machine stalls after 3 1/2 seconds in the air and settles to earth 105 feet below. Five men from Kill Devil Hill Life Saving Station present during test.

December 17. Wilbur and Orville make world’s first free, controlled, and sustained flights in power-driven, heavier-than-air machine. The four trial flights are witnessed by John T. Daniels, W. S. Dough, and A. D. Etheridge, from the Kill Devil Life Saving Station; W. C. Brinkley, from Manteo, and Johnny Moore, from Nags Head.

1. First trial by Orville 10:35 a.m. Time 12 seconds. Distance 120 feet. Speed between 7 and 8 miles per hour.

2. Second trial by Wilbur 11 a.m. Time approximately 12 seconds. Distance approximately 175 feet.

3.Third trial by Orville 11:40 a.m. Time 15 seconds. Distance a little over 200 feet.

4. Fourth trial by Wilbur 12 noon. Time 59 seconds. Distance 852 feet. With headwinds averaging 27 m.p.h., the fourth flight achieved a distance through the air of over half a mile. A photograph of the first successful flight was taken by John T. Daniels, one of the witnesses, with Orville’s camera. Machine was wrecked by sudden gust of wind shortly after the fourth flight.

Orville’s telegram to his father announcing successful flights transmitted by Joseph J. Dosher, then in charge of Weather Bureau Station at Kitty Hawk, to Weather Bureau Station in Norfolk, in charge of James Gray, who turned it over to Western Union for transmission to Dayton.

December 18. First (inaccurate) accounts of successful flights of December 17 published in Norfolk Virginia-Pilot, New York American, and Cincinnati Enquirer, as well as Dayton afternoon papers.

December 18 – 19. 1903 machine and motor disassembled, packed, and shipped to Dayton. The 1902 glider is stored in the large camp building at Kitty Hawk.

The machine, in boxes, was stored for many years in a shed at the rear of the old Wright workshop and lay for several weeks in water and mud during the Dayton flood of March  - April 1914. Subsequently, it was stored in a barn and, when this was torn down, in Orville’s laboratory.

December 21. Wrights leave Kitty Hawk, arriving back in Dayton December 23.

December 26. Wilbur and Orville interviewed at home by Bertha Comstock, of the Chicago Tribune, and by J. D. Sliders, of the New York World.

December 31. On reading of successful flights on December 17, Godfrey L. Cabot, wealthy and influential Boston businessman, writes Senator Henry Cabot Lodge that it would be “eminently desirable for the United States to interest itself in this invention with a view to utilizing it for war-like purposes.” He also wrote the Wrights asking if their machine were capable of carrying a payload in the form of a 100-lb. sack of carbon black from his mine in West Virginia, over the countryside, often impassable in winter, to the nearest railhead, 16 miles away.