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Wright Brothers Day

History · December 17

Wright Brothers Day honors Wilbur and Orville Wright, the Ohio brothers who made the first controlled, powered airplane flights.

Wright Brothers Day falls on Thursday, December 17, 2026. That is 51 days away.

Wilbur and Orville Wright were two brothers from Dayton, Ohio, who ran a bicycle shop and spent their spare hours working out how to fly. Wright Brothers Day remembers them and the powered, controlled airplane flights they made at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

The first flight was short. It covered less distance than many modern airliners are long, and it stayed close to the sand. What mattered was that the machine took off under its own power, stayed under control and landed. The brothers made several flights that same day, taking turns at the controls.

Their real breakthrough was control. Earlier experimenters had built gliders and engines, but the Wrights worked out how to steer an aircraft through the air, using a method called wing warping that twisted the wings to bank and turn. They tested ideas with kites, gliders and a homemade wind tunnel. Bicycle work helped, too. Balancing a bike and balancing a flying machine turned out to have more in common than most people guessed.

People mark the day by reading about the flight, looking at the famous photograph of the first takeoff, or visiting aviation museums and airfields. Some fold paper airplanes and test which designs glide farthest, which is roughly the Wright method on a kitchen table scale.

The original airplane, the Wright Flyer, survives and is on display at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

Ways to celebrate

• Look up the famous photograph of the first Wright Flyer takeoff.
• Fold a few paper airplanes and test which design glides farthest.
• Visit a local aviation museum or watch planes at a nearby airfield.
• Read a short biography of Wilbur and Orville Wright.
• Share a family story about someone's first airplane trip.

Dates

All national days on December 17

Also on December 17

• National Maple Syrup Day

Categories: History days