Air transportation is vitally important to the world's economy, as well as the thousands of people each day who make routine, long distance trips. While it is easy to take this convenience for granted, it is almost impossible to imagine life without it. Nearly a century has passed since the Wright brother's momentous flight, and preparations for next year's celebration are already underway. Two...

On May 13, 1900, Wilbur Wright composed a letter that would later prove to be one of the most important in the history of science, and certainly within the development of the quest of humans to achieve flight. This letter to Octave Chanute (a wealthy businessman and engineer) began thusly: "For some years I have been afflicted with the belief that flight is possible to man." This legendary piece...

The Galvin Library at Illinois Institute of Technology hosts this site serving as a digital repository for publications and news from the Wright Air Development Center (WADC) of the Wright-Patterson Airforce Base. The Historical Overview section contains a timeline of important events at the WADC, black-and-white images of the aircrafts designed there, and a hyperlinked "Reference Shelf" of...