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Wilbur Wright

1867 – 1912

dead

Wilbur Wright, with his younger brother Orville, was an American aviation pioneer who invented, built, and flew the world's first successful powered, heavier-than-air aircraft. On 17 December 1903 the brothers achieved the first sustained, controlled, powered flights with the Wright Flyer at Kill Devil Hills near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Their breakthrough three-axis control system, perfected in their Dayton, Ohio bicycle shop, became the foundational technique that has made fixed-wing flight possible ever since.