Wright Brothers Then and Now photography series

Wright Brothers Then and Now photography series by Dan Cleary

After the Wright Brothers had secured contracts with European and American governments, they set up flight schools to start training pilots. The Army airplane trials had been held at Fort Myer, Maryland in 1908 because of its proximity to Washington, headquarters of the Army and its Aeronautical Division, but the commandant at Fort Myer refused to relinquish the parade ground for further flight training and the Wright Brothers expressed reluctance to teach beginners to fly on the small, enclosed area. Another site was found near College Park, Maryland, about eight miles northeast of Washington, D.C. The Signal Corps agreed to lease the site. However, the winter weather meant the College Park site could not be used for year-round training. Various sites in the south and west were used during the early 1910s at Fort Sam Houston, near San Antonio, Texas, North Island, San Diego, California, and Augusta, Georgia. However flying training in the Army remained on a small scale until the USA joined World War I in April 1917. In February 1913, the Aviation School contingent in Augusta, Georgia, along with two pilots who had been training in Palm Beach, Florida, transferred to Texas City, Texas, to join ground forces on duty along the border. This meant that the Army Aviation school was concentrated on North Island, San Diego.

The Wrights also set up a private pilot training school at Huffman Prairie in Dayton and called it Simms Station.  Their brochure for the flying school read: “The Wright Company operates a permanent school of aviation at the historic grounds at Simms Station near Dayton, where the Wright Brothers carried on their experiments. The field is admirably adapted to training purposes, the ground being level and free from obstructions.” The Wright Brothers trained many individuals here at Simms Station like Hap Arnold who eventually became a five-star general and commanded the US Army Air Force during World War ll. Also, Albert Lambert from St Louis learned to fly at Simms Station. Lambert was a WW l pilot and later donated 170 acres of land outside of St Louis to create the first public municipal airport in the country.

Higher, Orville, Higher: My starting point for this series in many cases is with the historic photograph. On May 25, 1910 Orville and Wilbur made the only flight together in one of their airplanes. They had always agreed that they should never fly together incase tragedy happened that the other brother could continue with flight experiments. But this day was a perfect spring day. The only person in the immediate Wright family who hadn’t yet flown was Bishop Wright, their father. So, after the brothers landed Orville went over to his father and said “Next”. Bishop Wright who was 85 years of age said “yes” and they soared over Huffman Prairie at about 350 feet for about six minutes. I like to think that Wilbur took this photograph.