May 22, 1906 – Wright brothers receive a flying machine patent

On this day in 1906, brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright received their first patent related to their “flying machine.”  They originally filed for the patent prior to their first powered flight, which took place on December 17, 1903, a few miles south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. After the rejection of their first patent application, they hired a patent lawyer. This man found the language that ensured they would receive the proper credit for their invention and. After filing in 1903, they finally received U.S. patent number 821,393 on this day in 1906. It covered a system of aerodynamic control that manipulated a flying machine’s surfaces.

The brothers had been experimenting with unmanned flying machines since 1899, and manned flying the next year, when they began to test their gliders. Their patent launched what is now referred to as the Wright brothers patent war. The Wrights defended their patent ferociously in an effort to collect licensing fees from builders, including aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss. Curtiss would later be defeated in court by the Wrights, only to win on appeal. Eventually Curtiss filed for and received patents of his own. As the Wright Company and Curtiss did all they could to receive royalties on their inventions, the cost of airplane manufacturing in the U.S. skyrocketed. Then, with war raging in Europe, war planes became a integral components of battle. These patents highly limited production capabilities.

The aviation patent pool

To resolve the issue and reduce production costs for the war, the U.S. government pressured the aviation industry into a cross-licensing organization known as a patent pool. The government forced all aircraft to join and pay a small blanket fee for access to each others’ patents. A majority of fees landed in the pockets of the Wright and Curtiss companies. The litigation expired in 1918, by which time Wilbur Wright had retired and Orville had sold his interest and retired. Perhaps unironically, the Curtiss and Wright organizations merged in 1929 to form the Curtiss-Wright Corporation, which still exists. 

Many historians believe the Wrights’ patent war damaged their reputation and delayed airplane development in the United States. While not wheeled automotive in nature, the invention of the flying machine forever changed transportation. Flying machines, of course, would heavily influence cars in relation to their aerodynamics and style, for decades to come.