HEROES: Begetter of an Age

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Wives & Machines. The rush of aerial development passed Orville. He built himself a laboratory in Dayton, spent his time puttering in it. After 1918 he rarely flew. He had fractured a hip in an early crash, and any vibration caused him excruciating pain. Occasionally an aircraft company asked his advice. He still loved to build gadgets—a rolling roof and self-opening doors for his summer lodge in Canada, an automatic record-changer, a line of mechanical toys which his brother Lorin manufactured. He lived alone—neither he nor Wilbur ever married. Said Orville: "You can't support a wife and a flying machine too."

Last week, at 76, Orville suffered a heart attack. Lung congestion developed. Late one night, under an oxygen tent in the Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, death came to Orville Wright, begetter of an age.