On this day in 1906 brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright received their patent for the flying machine. They originally filed for the patent in 1903 prior to their first powered flight on December 17, 1903, a few miles south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The brothers had been experimenting with manned flying machines since 1900 when they began to test their gliders. They had been working on unmanned flyers since the year prior and developed a basic design upon which they continued to improve upon once a pilot was put on board. Their first U.S. patent, 821,393, did not claim invention of a flying machine, but rather, the invention of a system of aerodynamic control that manipulated a flying machine’s surfaces. While not directly related to the automobile the invention of the flying machine forever changed transportation forever and eventually heavily influenced cars in relation to aerodynamics and style. PhotosOrville WrightWilbur Wright
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