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Quiz about Orville and Wilbur Were Right
Quiz about Orville and Wilbur Were Right

Orville and Wilbur Were Right! Quiz


Orville and Wilbur Wright were great pioneers, inventors and scientists in the field of aviation. Enjoy taking a flight through the lives of these two great innovators!

A multiple-choice quiz by mcdubb. Estimated time: 8 mins.
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Author
mcdubb
Time
8 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
361,668
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Average
Avg Score
6 / 10
Plays
1168
Awards
Top 10% Quiz
Last 3 plays: Guest 156 (7/10), Catreona (10/10), Guest 67 (1/10).
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Question 1 of 10
1. Wilbur Wright was born April 16, 1867 near Millville, Indiana, the third child of Milton Wright and Susan Koerner. Orville, the next child in the family to survive infancy, was born August 19th, 1871 in the town that the brothers would eventually call their home for the remainder of their adult lives. In which city, later adopting the town motto "The Birthplace of Aviation," did Orville Wright enter this world? Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. Neither Wright brother graduated high school. Wilbur would have graduated, having completed four years of high school in Indiana, but did not receive his diploma due to the family's sudden move. Orville dropped out after his junior year in 1889, in order to start a business with his brother. Three years prior to forming the Wright Cycle Exchange, their famous bicycle repair shop, the Wright brothers took up which of the following media enterprises, based on one of Orville's homemade contraptions? Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. The Wright Cycle Exchange, the bicycle repair shop they founded in 1892, was to the Wright brothers merely a means for funding their growing interest and research in their hobby of aviation. Starting with unpowered gliders, Orville and Wilbur started testing their aerodynamic theories on their self-built aircraft in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, between 1900 and 1903, culminating with the famous "first flight" of the Wright Flyer I with Orville at the stick. On which historic date did the "first flight" occur? Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. After their testing years at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the Wright Brothers moved their testing grounds closer to home, to a cow pasture called Huffman Prairie. Here, they were able to work in relative secrecy, safeguarding their technological secrets from potential copycats. They achieved some important feats at this field. Wilbur piloted Wright Flyer II in the world's first flight circle on September 20, 1904, using the techniques in bank and roll that he had earlier developed. Both brothers achieved flights lasting longer than five minutes in the Flyer II. After their second Flyer crashed, Wilbur piloted the Flyer III in a then record 38 minute flight. Which United States Military base now sits adjacent to Huffman Prairie? Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. At both Kitty Hawk and Huffman Prairie, the Wright brothers worked in relative obscurity and isolation. There were only five witnesses for their "first flight" at Kitty Hawk. Orville and Wilbur often submitted their own press releases to local newspapers, but their reports were often brushed aside and deemed non-newsworthy. With the lack of witnesses, they were often treated with skepticism and criticism in both the United States and Europe. In order to build their business's and their own reputations, as well as to gain customers, the brothers had to take their "show" on the road. Orville stuck to public flight demonstrations in the United States, while Wilbur went to Europe, starting in August of 1908. Known as the home of aviation pioneers such as the Montgolfier brothers, Jean-Marie Le Bris, Louis Bleriot and Clement Ader, in which European nation did Wilbur primarily base his public performances? Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. While Wilbur was gaining fame in Europe, Orville was demonstrating their aircraft back in the USA at Fort Myer, near Washington DC, in hopes of gaining a contract with the United States military. It was during these demonstrations that Orville achieved the first hour long flight, on September 9th, 1908. Sadly, on September 17th, another aviation first was accomplished, but not for the record that one would want notoriety. A few minutes into a demonstration flight along with a passenger, Army lieutenant Thomas Selfridge, the propeller shattered and the plane crashed. Orville sustained a broken leg, four broken ribs, and hipbone displacement and fractures. But Selfridge became the first fatality in the crash of a powered aircraft. In which US state did these flights occur? Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. Between 1910 and 1916, Orville and Wilbur Wright, through the Wright Company, operated the Wright Brothers Flying School. Operating first out of Montgomery Alabama and then from Huffman Prairie, as well as Augusta, Georgia, the academy trained 119 men to fly. One of their most famous students was a man who would become a famous WWII five-star army general. Also the inaugural holder of the five-star rank of General of the Air Force and considered as one of the United States Air Force's founding fathers, who was this famous student of Orville and Wilbur's? Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. Perhaps the most significant contribution to aviation was the techniques that Wilbur Wright developed concerning aircraft control. Unlike maneuvering on road or water, in the air, aerodynamic forces work in three dimensions, with components of pitch, yaw, and roll. Wilbur determined that you can't turn an aircraft with a rudder as you can steer a ship. Instead, by bending one wing more than another, the bent wing would produce more lift, raise itself higher, and move faster, banking at an angle as the plane turns. The rudder acts to maintain stability in this maneuver. The Wright Brothers were awarded a patent in 1906, for their method of aircraft control. However, for almost a decade between 1908 and 1917, the Wright Company fought a bitter patent war against the Curtiss Company, which used Wilbur's methods. Of this patent war, which of the following CANNOT be stated? Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. Sadly, Wilbur Wright died at the young age of 45, May 30, 1912. He was severely ill for several weeks since the previous month, sometimes in and out of consciousness. Some have attributed Wilbur's illness as a consequence of eating contaminated shellfish at a banquet while on a business trip to Boston. Which of the following illnesses stole this aviation pioneer from the world? Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. Fatally succumbing to a heart attack, Orville Wright took his "final one-way flight" on January 30, 1948, at the age of 76. A few years earlier, April 19, 1944, Orville went up in what turned out to be his final ride in an aircraft. Along with Jack Frye, the president of TWA, a Lockheed Constellation was returning from a 7 hour flight between Burbank and Washington, DC, when the pilot made a detour to pay homage to the living legend. Also the inventor of the Spruce Goose, which famous and eccentric pilot was at the controls the final time Orville Wright took to the sky? Hint



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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. Wilbur Wright was born April 16, 1867 near Millville, Indiana, the third child of Milton Wright and Susan Koerner. Orville, the next child in the family to survive infancy, was born August 19th, 1871 in the town that the brothers would eventually call their home for the remainder of their adult lives. In which city, later adopting the town motto "The Birthplace of Aviation," did Orville Wright enter this world?

Answer: Dayton, Ohio

Dayton, Ohio, is the sixth largest city in the state of Ohio. Orville and Wilbur Wright's father, Milton Wright, a bishop of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, had seven children with his wife Susan. Orville and Wilbur had two older brothers, Reuchlin and Lorin, both born in Indiana as well as Wilbur. The family relocated to Dayton, Ohio, in 1869, living there until 1878 when the family moved to Iowa. Twins Otis and Ida Wright were born in Dayton in 1870, but did not survive infancy. The youngest child of the family, sister Katharine, was born in 1874 in Dayton. After six years in Iowa and also Richmond, Indiana, the family moved back and permanently reestablished their home in Dayton.

Their mother Susan died young, at age 58, in 1889. Orville was 17 at the time, and Wilbur, 22. They had a tight-knit and close family; though family oriented, neither Wilbur nor Orville ever married.
2. Neither Wright brother graduated high school. Wilbur would have graduated, having completed four years of high school in Indiana, but did not receive his diploma due to the family's sudden move. Orville dropped out after his junior year in 1889, in order to start a business with his brother. Three years prior to forming the Wright Cycle Exchange, their famous bicycle repair shop, the Wright brothers took up which of the following media enterprises, based on one of Orville's homemade contraptions?

Answer: Newspaper business, after Orville designed and constructed his own printing press

Initially, Orville and Wilbur started a weekly newspaper called the "West Side News" with Wilbur as editor and Orville as publisher. It was converted into a daily publication in April of 1890, "The Evening Item." The paper only lasted a few months before the Wright brothers abandoned it and just focused on printing commercially. Paul Lawrence Dunbar, the famous African American novelist, playwright and poet, was often a client of Orville and Wilbur's.

They also continued to print newspapers, "The Dayton Tattler," a weekly publication that was edited by Dunbar for a short time.
3. The Wright Cycle Exchange, the bicycle repair shop they founded in 1892, was to the Wright brothers merely a means for funding their growing interest and research in their hobby of aviation. Starting with unpowered gliders, Orville and Wilbur started testing their aerodynamic theories on their self-built aircraft in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, between 1900 and 1903, culminating with the famous "first flight" of the Wright Flyer I with Orville at the stick. On which historic date did the "first flight" occur?

Answer: December 17th, 1903

Though only one took place in 1903, all the options listed are historic dates in flight. May 20th, 1927, marks the date with Charles Lindbergh took off for his flight across the Atlantic. July 20th, 1969, was the date Apollo 11 landed on the Moon. October 14th, 1947, marks the date Chuck Yeager first broke the sound barrier. Wright Flyer I, the plane used on that day, was constructed of a spruce frame and muslin fabric covering.

There have been many claims to having achieved the first flight. Those claims are correct with their own technicalities and caveats.

The Wright brothers weren't the only aviation pioneers of the era. However, their Wright Flyer, on December 17th, 1903, was the first to make a powered, fully controlled and piloted, heavier than air flight. An original gasoline engine built by one of their bicycle mechanics, Charlie Taylor, turned the twin propellers.

The aircraft controls were manipulated by pulling a series of wires. The first flight lasted a total of 12 seconds and covered a distance of 120 feet. Orville flew first, with the brothers alternating over the course of four flights that day.

The last flight, piloted by Wilbur, lasted close to a minute. The original Wright Flyer, badly damaged after the last flight, never flew again. Wright Flyer I is currently on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.
4. After their testing years at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the Wright Brothers moved their testing grounds closer to home, to a cow pasture called Huffman Prairie. Here, they were able to work in relative secrecy, safeguarding their technological secrets from potential copycats. They achieved some important feats at this field. Wilbur piloted Wright Flyer II in the world's first flight circle on September 20, 1904, using the techniques in bank and roll that he had earlier developed. Both brothers achieved flights lasting longer than five minutes in the Flyer II. After their second Flyer crashed, Wilbur piloted the Flyer III in a then record 38 minute flight. Which United States Military base now sits adjacent to Huffman Prairie?

Answer: Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio

About 10 miles northeast of Dayton, Ohio, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is one of the largest US Air Force facilities in the world. It was created when adjacent air bases Wilbur Wright Field and Patterson Field were combined into a single operation in 1948. Huffman Prairie, adjacent to Wilbur Wright Field, has been maintained as a National Historic Landmark by the National Parks Service.

The Wright Flyer III, first flown at Huffman Prairie and vastly superior to the previous two iterations with its ability to make complete turns and fly for longer than just a few minutes, is considered to have been the first practical aircraft.
5. At both Kitty Hawk and Huffman Prairie, the Wright brothers worked in relative obscurity and isolation. There were only five witnesses for their "first flight" at Kitty Hawk. Orville and Wilbur often submitted their own press releases to local newspapers, but their reports were often brushed aside and deemed non-newsworthy. With the lack of witnesses, they were often treated with skepticism and criticism in both the United States and Europe. In order to build their business's and their own reputations, as well as to gain customers, the brothers had to take their "show" on the road. Orville stuck to public flight demonstrations in the United States, while Wilbur went to Europe, starting in August of 1908. Known as the home of aviation pioneers such as the Montgolfier brothers, Jean-Marie Le Bris, Louis Bleriot and Clement Ader, in which European nation did Wilbur primarily base his public performances?

Answer: France

While in Le Mans, France, and later the small town of Pau in southern France, Wilbur Wright stunned and amazed audiences with the public demonstrations of his flying skill and erased the prevalent doubt in the minds of the French. In fact, two years prior in 1906, one Paris newspaper was quoted as saying, "They are in fact either flyers, or liars.

It is difficult to fly. It is easy to say, 'We have flown.'" That was quickly retracted. Wilbur was soon joined in early 1909 by Orville and their sister Katharine. Putting on shows for kings, queens, and a wide array of dignitaries, the three siblings quickly earned worldwide fame.

The European trip was marked with a couple of notable firsts. A woman named Edith Berg, the wife of the brothers' European business agent Hart O. Berg, became the first female aircraft passenger when she rode with Wilbur on October 7, 1908. On one public demonstration in Italy, an Italian filmmaker named Federico Valle flew with Wilbur and filmed the first motion picture ever shot from an airplane.

Besides the publicity, the European trip was a huge success, training several French pilots, and selling several of their aircraft to French companies.
6. While Wilbur was gaining fame in Europe, Orville was demonstrating their aircraft back in the USA at Fort Myer, near Washington DC, in hopes of gaining a contract with the United States military. It was during these demonstrations that Orville achieved the first hour long flight, on September 9th, 1908. Sadly, on September 17th, another aviation first was accomplished, but not for the record that one would want notoriety. A few minutes into a demonstration flight along with a passenger, Army lieutenant Thomas Selfridge, the propeller shattered and the plane crashed. Orville sustained a broken leg, four broken ribs, and hipbone displacement and fractures. But Selfridge became the first fatality in the crash of a powered aircraft. In which US state did these flights occur?

Answer: Virginia

When they first started flying, Orville and Wilbur made a promise to their father that they would never fly together, so that an accident such as this one would not result in a double tragedy for the family. However, the brothers did fly together once with special permission from their father, Milton, on May 25, 1910, with Orville at the stick and Wilbur alongside on a six minute ride at Huffman Prairie. After that, Orville took Milton up in the patriarch's only flight, on a similar flight, to an altitude of 350 feet.

After the accident, sister Katharine rushed from Dayton to Fort Myer, Virginia, to be with her brother. While there, she was able to obtain a yearlong contract extension with the Army for her brothers. The following January, both Orville and Katharine joined Wilbur in France, where all three became celebrities.

On that fateful day in 1908, Orville Wright and Thomas Selfridge plunged from 150 feet altitude when the propeller shattered and the Wright Flyer went into a nosedive. Selfridge suffered a fractured skull, and died later that evening. He was only 26 at the time.
7. Between 1910 and 1916, Orville and Wilbur Wright, through the Wright Company, operated the Wright Brothers Flying School. Operating first out of Montgomery Alabama and then from Huffman Prairie, as well as Augusta, Georgia, the academy trained 119 men to fly. One of their most famous students was a man who would become a famous WWII five-star army general. Also the inaugural holder of the five-star rank of General of the Air Force and considered as one of the United States Air Force's founding fathers, who was this famous student of Orville and Wilbur's?

Answer: Henry "Hap" Arnold

Hap Arnold was only the second person to be granted a Military Aviation Certificate, and the 29th pilot to be certified by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. He is the first officer to hold a five-star rank in two branches of the United States Military, the Army, and once it was formed as a separate branch in 1947, the United States Air Force.

The Wright brothers had several students that would become famous distinguished airmen. Another one in particular was Calbraith Perry Rodgers. He is noted for making the first trans-continental flight, though with plenty of required stops along the way, between September 17, 1911, and November 5, 1911. He flew a Wright Model EX the distance between Sheepshead Bay, New York, to Pasadena, California. Using the same technique professional sports teams would later adopt in naming their grounds a century later, Rodgers named his aircraft the "Vin Fizz" after the soft drink produced by his sponsor, Armour and Company. The Vin Fizz is on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, not far from the Wright Exhibit. Sadly, Rodgers was killed in a crash just a few months after his feat.
8. Perhaps the most significant contribution to aviation was the techniques that Wilbur Wright developed concerning aircraft control. Unlike maneuvering on road or water, in the air, aerodynamic forces work in three dimensions, with components of pitch, yaw, and roll. Wilbur determined that you can't turn an aircraft with a rudder as you can steer a ship. Instead, by bending one wing more than another, the bent wing would produce more lift, raise itself higher, and move faster, banking at an angle as the plane turns. The rudder acts to maintain stability in this maneuver. The Wright Brothers were awarded a patent in 1906, for their method of aircraft control. However, for almost a decade between 1908 and 1917, the Wright Company fought a bitter patent war against the Curtiss Company, which used Wilbur's methods. Of this patent war, which of the following CANNOT be stated?

Answer: The patent war encouraged the rapid development and expansion of the aviation industry

Wilbur Wright developed one of the most basic methods of aircraft dynamics and control. Without using his principles, it wasn't practical to think that other companies could ever reasonably manufacture aircraft. This hampered the American aviation industry, especially critical at this time prior to WWI. Wilbur had died in 1912 and Orville sold his shares in the Wright Company in 1915, so neither was around when the issue was resolved in 1917. Under the recommendation of a committee chaired by Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was at that time Assistant Secretary of the Navy, the Manufacturers' Aircraft Association was formed.

It created a profit pool, in which all aircraft manufacturers were required to join. For each aircraft built by any manufacturer, a fee was paid, split between the Wright and Curtiss Companies, until the Wright Brother's patent expired in 1917.
9. Sadly, Wilbur Wright died at the young age of 45, May 30, 1912. He was severely ill for several weeks since the previous month, sometimes in and out of consciousness. Some have attributed Wilbur's illness as a consequence of eating contaminated shellfish at a banquet while on a business trip to Boston. Which of the following illnesses stole this aviation pioneer from the world?

Answer: Typhoid fever

Typhoid fever is a bacterial disease transmitted by ingesting food or water contaminated with the Salmonella Typhi bacteria. The occurrence of the disease in the United States is now rare, due to increased hygiene, sanitation, and food regulations, and is now more commonly seen in developing nations.

However up to the early 20th century, outbreaks and epidemics were common in the United States. Symptoms include a very high fever, delirium, and intestinal hemorrhage.
10. Fatally succumbing to a heart attack, Orville Wright took his "final one-way flight" on January 30, 1948, at the age of 76. A few years earlier, April 19, 1944, Orville went up in what turned out to be his final ride in an aircraft. Along with Jack Frye, the president of TWA, a Lockheed Constellation was returning from a 7 hour flight between Burbank and Washington, DC, when the pilot made a detour to pay homage to the living legend. Also the inventor of the Spruce Goose, which famous and eccentric pilot was at the controls the final time Orville Wright took to the sky?

Answer: Howard Hughes

Both Orville and Wilbur were buried at Woodland Cemetery in Dayton, Ohio. Ironically, John T Daniels, who took the famous photograph of Orville and the first flight of the Wright Flyer in action, died the very next day. Howard Hughes was not only an aviation pioneer in his own right and the founder of Hughes Aircraft, but also became the majority shareholder in Trans-World Airlines. Working with the Lockheed Corporation to develop the Constellation, Hughes and TWA purchased for the airline the first forty Constellations manufactured. The Constellation model also saw service in the Berlin Airlift, and was used by Dwight Eisenhower as his presidential aircraft.

Orville and Wilbur Wright were true aviation pioneers, and of course have had their honors bestowed upon them. In 1929, Orville, and posthumously Wilbur, were awarded the very first Daniel Guggenheim Medal for the promotion of aeronautics. In 1913, Orville was awarded the annual Collier Trophy, for the development of the automatic stabilizer. Today, both of these are among the most coveted prizes in all aeronautics.

Orville and Wilbur Wright will forever be immortalized in American history, as the brothers and their flight at Kitty Hawk has been carved into the "Frieze of American History" in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, DC. And both North Carolina and Ohio chose to commemorate Orville and Wilbur on their state quarters. The only other man to be depicted on multiple quarters is George Washington.
Source: Author mcdubb

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