Wilbur and Orville Wright were entrepreneurs in every sense of the word. They invented the world’s first successful flying machine and planned to build it in quantity, promote and sell it. They organized a company, assumed the risks, applied for patents to protect their creation and sought sales contracts. They succeeded far beyond their wildest dreams. But they had to leave their homeland and travel to Europe to prove what they had done.

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During the years after their first successful flights at Kitty Hawk, N.C., in 1903, they improved their Flyer and made many test flights at Huffman Prairie near Dayton, Ohio. With a patent pending, they were afraid their invention would be copied while they carried on negotiations to find buyers. After their last flights in 1905, they stored the Flyer and did not take to the air again for the next 2 1/2 years. During that time, they were constantly defending against the disbelievers their claim of having flown. When they wrote a letter to Scientific American magazine telling what they had done, the editor published a cynical editorial in the January 13, 1906, edition headlined ‘The Wright Airplane and Its Fabled Performances.’ The editor called for the names of witnesses to their flights, which the Wrights promptly furnished. Letters were then sent to 17 onlookers, who confirmed that they had indeed seen the Wrights fly. The magazine stated in its December 15, 1906, issue that ‘in all the history of invention, there is probably no parallel to the unostentatious manner in which the brothers of Dayton, Ohio, ushered into the world their epoch-making invention of the first successful aeroplane flying machine.’ And still there was widespread public disbelief.

The Scientific American episode was typical of what the brothers experienced as they tried to market their invention. They attempted to interest the U.S. government in ‘the production of a flying machine of a type fitted for use’ but were turned down–not once but twice. Although they received a U.S. patent on May 22, 1906, they were reluctant to furnish drawings or data to individuals for fear they would lose control of their own invention.

There seemed to be no viable interest in purchasing the Flyer in the United States, so they wrote to a number of government officials in Europe, then decided they should make a trip to meet potential deal-makers in England, France and Germany and demonstrate the latest version of their flying machine. Wilbur traveled to England and France in May 1907 and was joined in July by Orville and later by Charles E. Taylor, their mechanic. The latest version of the plane was shipped to Le Havre in anticipation of demonstrations, and a series of talks began with European agents, discussions that the Wrights hoped would lead to a sales commitment. But negotiations soon collapsed, as would-be European competitors were by then building and flying their own machines. The Continental aviators received so much public acclaim for their short flights that the Wrights seemed likely to lose the recognition they deserved for being first to fly. The Wright brothers did, however, sign an agreement with Flint & Co. and Hart O. Berg, an American engineer, to act as sole agents for the the brothers’ abroad and to negotiate agreements with governments for purchase or use of Wright machines and formation of companies to take over ownership or exploitation of the brothers’ inventions.

They returned home in the fall of 1907, disappointed in developments on the Continent but determined to continue their work. They built new, improved aircraft, conducted experiments with hydroplanes and floats and also tested a new engine. Despite the apparent put-down in Europe, 1907 proved to be a turning point for the Wrights in America. On August 1 the War Department established an Aeronautical Division within the U.S. Army Signal Corps for the’study of the flying machine and the possibility of adapting it to military purpose.’ In December the Signal Corps advertised for bids for a heavier-than-air flying machine, and the Wrights made a bid on February 1, 1908, to furnish the War Department with an aircraft that would be capable of carrying two men and sufficient fuel supplies for a flight of 125 miles, with a speed of at least 40 miles an hour, and would ‘permit an intelligent man to become proficient in its use within a reasonable length of time.’ Two pilots had to be trained by whoever won the competition. The Wrights stated they would furnish a machine for $25,000 in 200 days that would fly at a speed of 40 mph with two men aboard. Their bid was accepted on February 8.

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