What if Milton Wright hadn’t gifted that helicopter toy to the Wright Brothers?

As Steve Jobs said, “You can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backward.” This perfectly fits into the Wright Brothers' story of inventing flights. When the Wright Brothers were kids, their father brought them a helicopter toy, which aroused an innate passion for flying in Milton’s sons, Wilbur and Orville Wright. 

The helicopter toy wasn’t just a toy, it was a groundbreaking idea for the Wright Brothers. They played with the toy, observed how it worked, and when they mistakenly broke it, they tried to build their own version of a helicopter.

This clearly shows their immense love, passion, and deep interest in flying aircraft. 

Although, they weren’t the first ones to work in aviation. The history of aviation had already started a century before the Wright Brothers got their hands on flying. But the Wright Brothers were the first to build a controllable flight—while in the air. And every aircraft ever built since was based on their model the Wright Glider, which was first built by the Wright Brothers in 1902.

The Wright Brothers’ story offers so many learnings!

It’s time to dig deeper and extract some wisdom and learnings from their lives.

Let’s roll.

Childhood and Early Days

The Wright Brothers were a family of five, biologically seven. 

When we talk about the Wright Brothers, we mostly mean Wilbur and Orville Wright. Wilbur was born in 1867 near Millville, Indiana, and was the 3rd kid in the Wright family. Orville was born in 1871 in Dayton, Ohio, and was the 4th kid in the Wright family. Their father Milton Wright was a Bishop in the United Brethren Church, and their mother Susan Catherine Koerner—was often known for her dope mechanical skills, which growing up directly influenced the Wright Brothers’ lives.

The Wright Brothers had five siblings. Reuchlin who was born in 1861 and Lorin who was born in 1862 in Millville, Indiana. Then there were two other twin siblings Otis and Ida who were born in 1870 but died in infancy. Their youngest sister Katherine was born in 1874 in Dayton, Ohio. 

Did you notice something?

If you notice carefully you’ll see that both Wright Brothers Wilbur and Orville (and others too) didn’t have middle names—it was on purpose. Their father didn’t want to give them a middle name. Instead, he gave them a distinctive first name.

But how did he do it?

There were two clergymen the Wright Brothers’ father, Milton really admired—Wilbur Fisk and Orville Dewey. He chose these two names for their sons, Wilbur Wright and Orville Wright. 

Also, the misunderstanding people have is that they believe Wilbur was born in Dayton Ohio, which is not true. Not only Wilbur but Reuchlin and Lorin too were born in Indiana. And the Wright Brother family moved to Dayton Ohio in 1869 where Orville and Katherine were born.

However, All of the siblings grew up in Dayton, Ohio since they were all kids. 

The Family Bond

“If I were giving a young man advice as to how he might succeed in life, I would say to him, pick out a good father and mother, and begin life in Ohio.”—Wilbur Wright.

In the Wright Brothers’ family, Wilbur and Orville were too close to each other—Wilbur's only playmate was his younger brother Orville. They would spend most of their time with each other—laughing, goofing, and playing around in their house. 

Wilbur and Orville both were smart and intelligent kids from the beginning. Reading books was a part of their daily life since they were just toddlers—thanks to Milton’s book library, which he had in the house that their kids could access. Milton also was a huge believer in following intellectual curiosity. And that’s why he would often encourage his sons to do so—to follow what makes them curious, intrigued, and excited.

Since Milton was a Bishop, their neighbor knew the Wright Brothers as “The Bishop boys.” or “The Bishop’s Kids.” And the Wright Brothers’ friends would call them simply “Will and Orv.”

As Milton was a Bishop, he had to travel a ton for his work. This often led him to stay out of home and not see his family for days and weeks. But whenever he would come back home, he would bring something special for their kids. 

Did you know what he brought for his kids coming back home in 1878?

In 1878 when he came back home, Milton brought a helicopter toy for his sons, Wilbur and Orville. The helicopter toy was based on an invention of French aeronautical pioneer Alphonse Penaud—made of paper, bamboo, and cork with a rubber band to twirl its rotor, and was 1 foot long. The toy intrigued the Wright Brothers, they found it interesting, played with it, and when they broke the toy mistakenly, they tried to make a copy of it—with their hands!

The helicopter toy was something like this:

This early exposure to flying influenced their lives for the years and decades to come. 

Education and Adult Life

Neither Wilbur nor Orville had a college degree. 

Although both brothers attended high school but didn’t receive their diplomas. When Wilbur was in high school, the parents moved again from Indiana to Dayton, Ohio in 1884—preventing him from getting the diploma degree he was about to receive. 

In the late 1885 or early 1886, when Wilbur was playing an ice–skating game with friends, one of the players, Oliver Crook Haugh, who later became a serial killer, hockey’s stick struck Wilbur's face and broke his front teeth—the injury almost healed but led him to depression. 

Wilbur had plans to attend Yale University. But due to this accident, he canceled his plans, stayed home, spent the next few years reading books, and took care of his mother, Susan who was diagnosed with Tuberculosis. Unfortunately, Susan died in 1889. 

This was the same year when Orville dropped out of high school to start a printing business. 

Paper Boys and Bicycle Business

At this point, they were young and smart enough to get their hands on business.

A few months after their mother's death…the same year in 1889, Orville started a printing business and asked his elder brother Wilbur if he wanted to join him—to which Wilbur said “Yes.” Wilbur was the editor and Orville was the publisher of the Newspaper that they called the “West Side News” A weekly newspaper for the Dayton neighborhood. 

The newspaper business was moderately successful, but something had to change.

In 1892, they saw a bicycle craze that was driving people nuts in the Nation. They didn’t want to miss the opportunity. So they opened a bicycle shop and called it “Wright Cycle Exchange, later changed it to the Wright Cycle Company, where they’d repair old cycles and sell bicycles. 

The plan worked and soon it became their full-time business. After seeing the early success in 1896, they began manufacturing their own cycle brand. The Wright Cycle Company was making a solid profit from the business. But money wasn’t the Wright Brothers’ motivation anymore, they already had thought to trade wheels for wings. 

They used the capital to fund their growing interest in aviation.

Innovating Aviation

The helicopter toy was the only reason that led the Wright Brothers to experiment with aviation. 

So I wonder what would have happened if Milton Wright hadn’t brought the helicopter toy to his sons, Wilbur and Orville Wright. Of course, the Wright brothers would have never gotten their hands on aviation, as a result, this would’ve delayed the invention of aircraft and flights for years and decades, didn’t it?

That was the seed, the gravy is here…

When Wilbur and Orville were in the newspaper and bicycle business, they closely followed the research of aviation from people like Otto Lilienthal, a German aviator. In the early 1890s, they saw a newspaper of glides by Otto Lilienthal in Germany—it intrigued the Wright Brothers, but they whispered and thought, “Why do gliders not have control, how the heck the pilot would control the flight while in the air?” 

The idea of “Gliders’ was great but the Wright brothers also wanted it to have control panels that’d control the gliders. Otto Lilienthal had made 16 gliders but none of them had any control system, which made no sense to the Wright brothers.

The tipping point came when Otto Lilienthal died in a glider crash in 1996.

That’s when the Wright Brothers seriously decided to build and experiment with their own gliders. They started searching for the best location to build their aircraft—thankfully with the help of the government weather research bureau, which was publicly available—that suggested Kitty Hawk, North Carolina was the best place to test and land aircraft—known for its strong winds and weather conditions.

The Wright Brothers backpacked and headed to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Built a shelter to live in, and started making and experimenting with gliders. They built their first glider in 1900 and 1901, which did not fly for various reasons. 

It was definitely a failure, but they learned valuable lessons. 

It was the winter of 1901–1902 when Wilbur and Orville built a wind tunnel and conducted an experiment to determine the best wing shape for an airplane. They also got a general idea of flying from the birds. They looked at birds and observed how and when birds turn their wings left to right, up and down—very closely. 

This is when they developed the idea of “Wing Wrapping,” which totally changed the game of aviation. The Wright Brothers also focused on making the aircraft as controllable as possible so that they could reduce the risk of damage and death. 

Towards the end of the 1902 flying session, their third glider became the first fully controllable aircraft with roll, pitch, and yaw controls—a breathtaking moment for the Wright brothers. 

The years of work had finally paid off.

After this, every glider they ever built was more successful than the previous version. Because—they made mistakes, they learned from mistakes, and improved or not to make the same mistake again—100x the progress of building aircraft.

It was that simple!

On December 17, 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright made the first sustainable, controlled flights in a powered aircraft. Since that day, they kept reaching new heights in flying the aircraft. 

Here’s the progress they made over the years of building aircraft: 

• 1903 Wright Flyer: Pilot Orville, ran for 12 seconds at 120 feet's height. 

• 1903 Wright Flyer: Pilot Wilbut, ran for 59 seconds at 852 feet's height. 

• 1904 Wright Flyer II: Pilot Orville, ran for 49 minutes in ~4 miles (6.4 km) height. 

• 1905 Wright Flyer II: Pilot Wilbur, ran for 39 minutes in ~24 miles (38 km) height. 

• 1909 Wright Military Flyer: Pilot Orville ft. Frank P. Lahm, ran for 1 hour 12 mins ~10 miles (16 km) high. 

If you notice carefully, you’ll see that the two brothers never sat together in an aircraft at once. It was because their father had told them not to do so. So that if something unexpected happens, one would be safe to do the work and keep the process going. 

On May 25, 1910, back at Huffman Prairie, Orville piloted two unique flights. 

First, he took off on a six-minute flight with Wilbur as his passenger, the only time the Wright brothers ever flew together. Next, Orville took his 82-year-old father on a nearly 7-minute flight, the only powered aerial excursion of Milton Wright's life. The aircraft rose to about 350 feet (107 m) while the elderly Wright called to his son, "Higher, Orville, higher!"

Struggle and Opportunity

After the 1905 flying session, they had working, controlled, powerful flights. 

However, the Wright Brothers soon found that their achievements were not appreciated by all. Many in the press and as well as fellow flight experts were reluctant to believe the Wright brothers' claim. 

They contacted the United States War Department, as well as the government and individuals in England, France, Germany, and Russia—offering to sell a flying machine, but none of them believed in the Wright Brothers' work and rejected the offer. 

The government thought, “If these two bicycle mechanics could build these flights, why can't we?” However, the government later found out that they were wrong because it wasn’t easy to build working, controllable flights. 

As a result, in the late 1907, the U.S. The Army Signal Corps asked for an aircraft, and just a few months later, in early 1908, a French syndicate of businessmen agreed to purchase another—For the Wright Brothers, the money started to pour in, basically!

Both the U.S. The Army and the French asked for an airplane capable of carrying a passenger, which was not a big deal for the Wright brothers. However, the Wright Brothers had to manage both contracts to show them how the airplane worked. 

So? Wilbur flew to France in 1908 and Orville went to Virginia. 

In France, Wilbur also convinced people and found a receptive audience. Made many public flights and gave them to officials, journalists, and statesmen. Seeing the traction and potential business opportunity In 1909, Orville joined his brother in Europe with his sister Katherine. There, the Wright brothers became a huge celebrity—hosted by royals and heads of state, and constantly featured in the press. 

This was the moment when the Wright Brothers started selling their airplanes in Europe before returning to the United States in 1909. Soon they became wealthy businessmen—filling contracts for airplanes in Europe and the United States. 

The Wright Company was incorporated on November 22, 1909. The brothers sold their patents to the company for $100,000 and also received one-third of the shares in a million-dollar stock issue and a 10% royalty on every airplane sold.

Direction and Death

Both Wilbur and Orville were lifelong bachelors. Wilbur once said, “He did not have time for both a wife and an airplane.” In 1912, on a business trip to Boston, Wilbur became ill. After returning home in May 1912, the illness hit him again, and was diagnosed with typhoid fever. Soon Wilbur died at the age of 45 in Dayton at the Wright family home on May 30.

The illness was sometimes attributed to eating bad shellfish at a banquet. 

His father, Milton Wright wrote in his diary “A short life, full of consequences. An unfailing intellect, imperturbable temper, great self-reliance, and as great modesty, seeing the right clearly, pursuing it steadily, he lived and died.”

After Wilbur's death, Milton also died in his sleep in April 1917, at age 88. Though he didn’t have any illness or disease. Milton had been very active, preoccupied with reading, writing articles for religious publications, and enjoying his morning walks. 

Orville succeeded to the presidency of the Wright Brothers Company upon Wilbur and his father’s death. He made his last flight as a pilot in 1918 in a 1911 Model B. He retired from business and became an elder statement of aviation—serving on various official boards and committees including the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). 

His sister, Katherine married Henry Haskell of Kansas City—a former Oberlin Classmate in 1926. Orville was disappointed by this Sister’s decisions and refused to attend the wedding. But he finally agreed to see her in 1929—just before she died of pneumonia. 

Orville Wright served in the NACA for 28 years. 

Sadly, Orville also died at the age of 76 on January 30, 1948—over 35 years after his brother and 40 years after his father’s death—following his second heart attack—having lived from the horse-and-buggy age of the dawn of supersonic flight!

Victory and Wisdom

The Wright Brothers' flights single-handedly helped in many World Wars. 

But imagine not having the flights to go from one place to another and to move the weapons, essentials, and aid kit through it? I’d say, we would’ve lost millions of more lives than what we actually did in World War I and II. 

It was all possible because of the Wright Brothers. 

The Wright Brothers’ story teaches us that if we dedicate ourselves to something even if it’s extraordinary, and give our 100% effort to it, we can achieve or make the thing possible—regardless of who says what. It was their relentless work and persistence that made flying airplanes come true.

The Wright Brothers' obsession and immense love for the craft made aviation possible. When everyone was thinking about the two-dimensional path—traveling from road to road, city to city, and state to state, they came up with the idea of a three-dimensional path—flying in the air. 

No one thought what the Wright brothers did was ever possible. 

What’s more…every single business they ever built—they had no prior experience in. They started the printing business, did they have prior experience? Nope. They started the bicycle business, did they have prior experience? Nope! They started the aviation business, did they have prior experience in aircraft and flying? Nope, not at all.

It was all trial and error. 

And instead of getting a job somewhere, like for example instead of starting the printing business, they could’ve first done jobs somewhere as a journalist—to gain experience. But nope, they didn’t. They directly went on building the business. Instead of working at some cycle store as a worker, they directly went for selling and building their own cycle. And instead of joining some institutes to learn the basis of aviation first, they directly went into inventing flight. 

Because they knew the only thing that was doing the thing WAS THE DOING THE THING. 

If you’re building something for the world to use, give it your 100%, dedicate yourself to it, and have a strong belief that one day you’ll make it happen. You don’t need any degree or prior experience. Don’t listen to what other people say, just keep doing what you’re doing. However, whenever you need feedback and help, just ask for it. Because if you don’t, you’ll lack the perfection you want in your work. 

And as Steve Jobs said…Don’t settle. Stay hungry, stay foolish!

Lesson Learned

If you want to do something different in today's generation, people will ask you about your credentials and degrees, and if you don’t have one, they’d say “No, you can’t do this, you can’t do that, first get this, get that etc, etc.” They’ll advise you about all the BS that don’t need in the first place to accomplish your goal and mission. 

This is the time you have to remind yourself about the Wright Brothers. The Wright Brothers started many businesses—from the printing press to bicycles to aircraft—none of them they had any prior experience in! 

But guess what, they succeeded. 

Building things for people isn’t about the degree, credentials, or prior experience,  it’s about persistence, self-belief, and love for the craft. And this is what the Wright Brothers’ story teaches us about building things in the modern world. 

You don’t need anyone's permission to do something unique, different, or great, but it’s just that you have to be curious enough to do the work, do the research, put in the effort, and have an immense love for the craft so that you can keep doing it until your heart stops beating. 

Today the Wright Brothers aren’t with us, but their work will never be forgotten.

Thanks for reading, catch you in the next one!