25 September 1903 – Orville and Wilbur Wright

The Wright brothers arrived at Kitty Hawk, to perform the further flights with their 1902 Wright Glider.

On 25 September 1903, the brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright came to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, to carry out further trials with their 1902 Wright Glider. Between 28th September and 12th November, they made over 200 flights improving their flying skills. Those flights were the last preparations for the brothers before the official flight trials of their next, already engine powered aircraft Wright Flyer I, which they were already working on at the time.

Already a year earlier, between 19th September and 24th October 1902, Wright brothers carried out the main trials with their 1902 Wright Glider. It is estimated that within this time they made between 700 and 1000 test flights in which the brothers managed to perform a flight on a distance of 622.5 feet (189.7 metres).

In addition to the 1899 kite and two other gliders built by Wright brothers in 1900 and 1901, the 1902 Wright Glider had a significant influence on the development of their aircraft. The lessons that the Wright brothers learned from its design process and flight tests contributed to the creation and successful flights of Wright Flyer 1 on 17th  December 1903, an event commonly regarded as the birth of aviation as we know it today.

Pictured: Wright Brothers testing their 1902 glider, photo from San Diego Air and Space Museum Archive collection, Flickr Commons licence.