Orville and Wilbur Wright Cycle Shop

Originally built in Dayton Ohio, at 1127 West Third Street, the Wright Cycle Company stood on a commercial street while the Wright Brothers home was situation in a residential neighborhood four blocks from the shop. Today they stand next to each other in Greenfield Village.

Orville and Wilbur Wright were originally in the bicycle business which provided the necessary income to pay for the Brother’s experiments regarding flight. Milton Wright, their father, had no problem with the boys spending their money on whatever they liked -- that is, as long as they earned the money themselves.

While living and working in the cycle shop, in 1903 Orville and Wilbur, who were self-trained in the science and art of aviation, constructed the world’s first successful, powered heavier-than-air flying machine capable of free, controlled, and sustained flight in the workroom at the back of this shop. The Wright Brothers continued to perfect their invention during 1904 and 1905 in their hometown of Dayton. Income from the sale and repair of bicycles helped support their aviation experiments between 1900 and 1907.
This post was not written by me--Tom Stanford