2-860-708 - Heritage Space/Heritage Images

Wright Flyer test flights at Fort Myer, Virginia, USA, September 3, 1908. In January 1908, as a response to a War Department request for a "Heavier-than-air Flying Machine", the Wright Brothers submitted a bid to design a plane for $25,000. While Wilbur went to Paris to promote the Wright Flyer, Orville designed a plane for the Army Signal Corps. From September 3-17, Orville performed test flights at Fort Myer. On September 17th a split propeller caused the plane to crash, injuring Orville and killing his passenger, Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge. In spite of the crash the Army believed that the Wright plane would work. In July 1909, when Orville was able to fly again, he completed the test flights and surpassed all the Army's requirements for a military plane: to carry a passenger for at least 125 miles at a speed of 40 miles per hour and stay aloft for at least one hour, easily transportable, controllable and steerable at all times and in all directions, and land without damage. On August 2, 1909, the Signal Corps accepted the Wright Flyer as the world's first military aircraft, naming it Signal Corps Airplane No. 1.