Wilbur and Orville Wright

Aero Clvb of America

W. Wright

Sep 21 1908

Le Mans

  France

O. Wright

Sep 9 1908

Fort

Myer Va.

U.S.A

V. D. Brenner Sc.

This 1908 medallion portrait of Wilbur and Orville Wright by Victor D. Brenner hangs in the Smithsonian Museum of American History in Washington, DC.  This seems to be the model for the gold medals presented to the Wrights by President Taft in 1909. (See  The Numismatist, Jan. 1908)

Here's a National Archives photo of Orville Wright, flying for 57 minutes and 31 seconds at Fort Myer, on Wednesday September 9, 1908.  As UPI said, “This exceeds by more than 26 minutes the hitherto world-breaking record made Monday by Delagrange near Paris.” 

Another flight on September 18 ended in a crash, killing Wright's passenger, Lt. Thomas E. Selfridge, and injuring Wright. (UPI)

Wright State University has this photo of Wilbur Wright setting the world endurance record at Le Mans, on Sept. 21, 1908.

Wilbur Wright flying a Wright 1907 Model Flyer at Camp d'Auvours artillery field near Le Mans, France, September 21, 1908. This flight set a world endurance record of one hour 31 minutes and 25 seconds over an estimated distance of 66 kilometers. The flight won the Aero Club of France prize. -- WSU

You can watch film of (part of) Orville Wright's 1 hour 12 minute  test flight at Fort Myer, a year later on July 27, 1909.

The reverse of the medallion shows a Wright flyer and the seal of the Aero Club of America.

1905

Victor Brenner is better known for his portrait of Lincoln on the U.S. 1¢ coin. Here's a 1909 penny with Brenner's initials on the reverse, also in the Smithsonian collection.

The initials turned out be controversial and were taken off the penny in August of 1909.

Here are the brothers as they appeared in the The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography  in 1910.

Orville and Wilbur Wright appeared in Aeronautics Magazine in September of 1909 in the illustration of a light-hearted poem. Wilbur is clutching their government contract.

The Wright Brothers

They take a tumble now and then, 

These brothers brave and bold, 

When something in the rudder breaks 

Or wires refuse to hold. 

But after every swift descent 

They're always game and say 

O, that was just because we much 

Preferred to land that way. 

If they should lose their legs and arms, 

These aviators true, 

Would still continue their attempts 

To navigate the blue. 

They love to soar aloft and match 

The swallow in the flight. 

Their names are Wright because, you see, 

They're nearly always right.