Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park

"For 30 years Orville Wright's place of business was the plain brick building (here) on North Broadway. Visiting reporters found it quite ordinary. There was a reception area for Miss Beck (his secretary); an inner office with Orville's desk, files, and drawing table; and a large work area that ran across the back?with the exception of a large wind tunnel?there was little to distinguish it from any other well-equipped machine shop.

Still, it was difficult to believe that the inventor of the airplane was not at work in his lab on some project that would eventually yield wonders?One morning while puttering around the shop (Orville) noticed two small boys pecking through the window. One boy asked?what in the world Orville was doing. The other replied with a note of derision in his voice:

?Why, he's inventing!''

Tom Crouch, Wright brothers biographer.

This 1930's photo shows the front of the one-story workshop built by Orville Wright in 1916 on a lot he and Wilbur bought in 1909. Here, in the years following Wilbur's death, Orville perfected the split-wing flap and the automatic stabilizer. In 1976, Standard Oil of Ohio knocked down the former Wright Aeronautical Laboratory to use the property to sell gasoline—a gas station that was never built.

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Show me all markers in:  Dayton, OH  |  Montgomery County  |  45426  |  Ohio  |  United States of America

The Professor of the Propeller
31 Years at the Lab
West Side
Wheels to Wings
Birthplace of Aviation
Preserved and Enshrined
The Neighborhood Geniuses
We were always happy on Hawthorne Street...
Wright Brothers Home Base
Coming Home

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