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The "Flyer" lifted from level ground to the north of Big Kill Devil Hill, at 10:35 a.m., on December 17, 1903. Orville Wright piloted the plane which weighed six hundred and five pounds.
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Wilbur Wright makes the longest flight of the year: 24 1/5 miles in 39 minutes, 23 4/5 seconds, more than twenty-nine times around the field, at an average speed of thirty-eight miles per hour.
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Wrights join the Aero Club of America.
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Wrights carry a passenger on a flight for the first time: Charles W. Furnas flies with Wilbur.
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Orville is seriously injured and his passenger, Lt. Thomas Selfridge, is killed in an airplane crash at Fort Meyer. Airplane crashes to the ground from a height of about seventy-five feet after a propeller blade breaks and the machine goes out of control. Selfridge is the first ever airplane fatality.
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Wright Company, formed to manufacture their airplanes, is incorporated; Wilbur serves as president and Orville as vice president. A few days later, Wrights sell their American patent rights to the company for $100,000, 40 percent of the company stock and a 10 percent royalty for every airplane built
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Wilbur dies of typhoid fever in Dayton
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Orville establishes Wright Aeronautical Laboratory in Dayton.
