The Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, early in their career published a newspaper and later formed the Wright Cycle Company in Dayton, OH. Their interest in aviation began in 1896 when they learned of early European experiments. They began testing with the hope of building their own plane. Their first tests were with kites, and then with gliders. Before attempting power flight, they resolved the issues of controlling a plane's motion in rising, descending, and turning.

On the advice of the U.S. Weather Bureau, the Wrights selected an isolated beach nearly Kitty Hawk, NC, for their tests. Not until after they had more than 700 successful glider flights, did they begin to look for an engine light enough and powerful enough to get their plane off the ground. No automobile manufacturer would accept such an assignment. So the Wrights, along with Charles Taylor, designed and built their own engine and propeller. The Flyer I, as it originally was called, was the craft with which Orville achieved the first successful flight made in a self-propelled heavier-than-air craft.