Wright Flyer

The Wright Flyer was the first successful heavier-than-air powered aircraft. Designed and built by the Wright brothers, they flew it four times on December 17, 1903, near Kill Devil Hills, about four miles south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Today, the airplane is exhibited in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C. The U.S. Smithsonian Institution describes the aircraft as "the first powered, heavier-than-air machine to achieve controlled, sustained flight with a pilot aboard." The flight of the Wright Flyer marks the beginning of the "pioneer era" of aviation.

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After Neil Armstrong's death, his sons put hundreds of items they inherited from their parents on auction, pulling in $14.69 million. Neil Armstrong owned pieces of fabric from Wright Flyer, and Apollo 11 gold medal that sold for $2.04 million

A relic from the Wright brothers' first plane (the 1903 Wright Flyer I) took flight on Mars today. This tiny piece of fabric affixed to Ingenuity is like many pieces of the Wright Flyer I that Orville Wright sent out to souvenir hunters in exchange for looted parts of the 1905 Wright Flyer III.