ORVILLE and WILBUR WRIGHT (1871-1948), (1867-1912)
On Dec. 17, 1903, Orville Wright climbed into a 600 pound flying machine and made his historic flight in Kitty Hawk, N.C. Three days before, with Wilbur as pilot, the Wrights had tried but failed to get off the ground. The 17th turned out to be the fateful day for the Akron, Ohio-born brothers who had tinkered for months before finally unlocking the key to powered flight. They made four flights that day — Orville's first lasted 12 seconds and spanned 120 feet; Wilbur's best was a 59 seconds, 852 foot leap. It wasn't long before the brothers had formed the Wright Company, which bought and sold airplanes.
In 1919, New York hotel owner Raymond Orteig offered $25,000 to the first person to pilot a plane from New York to Paris nonstop. No one claimed the bounty — though several died trying — until 25-year-old, Detroit-born Charles Lindbergh touched down the Spirit of St. Louis at Le Bourget Field near Paris at 10:21 p.m. local time on May 21, 1927. A hero was born, but the first-ever TIME Man of the Year was never comfortable with his legendary status. He was considered the first mass-media celebrity, albeit a reluctant one, and the famous kidnapping and murder of his 20-month-old son, Charles Jr., caused the family to shun the spotlight.
The most famous woman in aviation history, Earhart was dubbed "Lady Lindy," a moniker that fit well with her publicists' attempt to fashion her as a female version of Charles Lindbergh. In 1928, she was a passenger on a three-person plane that crossed the Atlantic, and four years later she became the first person since Lindbergh to make that trip solo. In 1934, she flew from Hawaii to California, a trip that had previously claimed the lives of 10 other pilots. In 1937, while attempting an around-the-world flight from Florida to California, Earhart's plane was lost, believed to have gone down 35-100 miles off the coast of Howland Island.
One of America's leading scientists in the late 1880's, Langley worked for years to get a manned, powered plane in the air. As the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution Langley had considerably more resources than the Wrights, but the brothers from Ohio beat him in the race to produce the first flying machine. Langley's failed attempts led to public humiliation, but his name lives on at NASA Langley Research Center. The United States' first aircraft carrier, built in the early 1920's, also bears his name.
GLENN CURTISS (1878-1930)
Like the Wright brothers, Curtiss, a former bike shop owner and motorcycle manufacturer, went from working with wheels to wings when flying captured the attention of mechanics everywhere at the turn of the 20th century. He joined Alexander Graham Bell's Aerial Experiment Association in 1907 and was the leading aircraft manufacturer in U.S. by 1914, producing some of the most influential aircrafts of the time, including the first flying boats and the first planes to take off and land from a ship. For his accomplishments, he is known as the "Father of Naval Aviation."
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