In his letters to Orville, Wilbur wrote at length about his European endeavors. He seemed especially delighted with the attitude of many European writers, who had come to doubt but stayed to praise. In one letter he noted: ‘Every day there is a crowd of people not only from the neighborhood here, but also every country of Europe. Queen Margharita of Italy was in the crowd yesterday. Princes and millionaires are as thick as flies.’

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When Orville had recovered sufficiently from his accident, Wilbur wanted him and their sister Katherine to join him in Paris. They arrived in early January 1909. Orville, still limping and saddened by the death of Selfridge, did not intend to do any flying. Meanwhile, Wilbur had moved his operation to Pau, a resort town in the south of France where the weather was warmer, and he had departed to resume his flying. Ironically, while en route to Pau from Paris to join him a few days later, Orville and Katherine barely escaped injury in a train wreck.

Wilbur made his first flight at Pau on February 3, 1909, and thereafter continued training Lambert, Tissandier and Girardville. In so doing, he established the world’s first flying school. He remained at Pau until March 20, and dignitaries from several nations visited him there, including King Alfonso XIII of Spain and England’s King Edward VII. The Wrights returned to Paris briefly, then Wilbur entrained for Centocelle, near Rome, on March 28 to demonstrate their Flyer and also train two pilots for an Italian company that had been formed to acquire a plane. He made 42 flights there beginning in mid-April, half of which were training efforts with Italian army and navy officers and other passengers. On one flight, he permitted a ‘bioscope’ cameraman from the Universal News Agency to fly with him and photograph the surrounding countryside, thus producing the first motion pictures taken from an aircraft in flight. He was joined by Orville and Katherine for a month, then the three of them went to Paris and London, where the brothers received awards and called on military leaders. They returned exhausted to the States in May, where they received a rousing two-day homecoming celebration in Dayton, including cannon salutes, a parade, a 10-minute factory whistle salute and fireworks. During their sojourn in Italy, the Wrights had received an offer from some wealthy Germans to form a German Wright company, build planes and obtain sales rights to five other countries. They signed a preliminary contract that meant they would receive cash, stock and a 10-percent royalty on all planes sold.

Orville’s visit to Europe had provided the newsmen, who now followed both brothers relentlessly, even more incentive to publish material about the Wrights. By that time their fame was also resulting in additional–and unanticipated–problems. At Pau, Wilbur learned of a report in the Dayton Daily News that he had been named as a co-respondent in a divorce suit filed by a Lieutenant Goujarde. He rushed off a letter to the editor saying that the report was entirely without foundation. The news service that had sent the item, after an investigation, discharged its reporter and apologized to Wilbur.

While Wilbur was in Europe, a joint resolution had been introduced in the U.S. Congress to award a medal ‘in recognition of the great service of Orville and Wilbur Wright, of Ohio, rendered the science of aerial navigation in the invention of the Wright aeroplane, and for their ability, courage, and success in navigating the air.’ The Smithsonian Institution also recommended that the newly established Langley Medal be awarded to the brothers ‘for advancing the science of aerodromics in its application to aviation by their successful investigations and demonstrations of the practicability of mechanical flight by man.’ They also received medals from the state of Ohio and the city of Dayton.

Once the homecoming celebrations were over, Wilbur and Orville decided it was time to return to Fort Myer with a new plane and complete the Army flight tests. They arrived in Virginia with their latest Flyer on June 20, 1909, and the first series of flights began on June 29.

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