Last Wright’s

I don’t really know why I find this so astonishing.

April 26th 1944

“I guess I ran the whole plane for a minute but I let the machine take care of itself,” Wright said of the experience. “I always said airplanes would fly themselves if you left them alone.”
Wright also pointed out that the Constellation’s 123-foot wingspan was longer than the distance of his first flight, which had travelled just 120 feet.

Orville died January 30th 1948 aged 76.

By wallycacsabre – mig1, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=59596165

I find it astonishing that he would have experienced the first powered flight and seen in his lifetime such dramatic developments. Prototypes like the MiG-15 and the B-47 flew in the month before his death.