On December 17, 1903, their plane flew for 12 seconds and for a distance of 120 feet (37 m). The flight took place at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, USA.

Orville and Wilbur Wright were raised in Dayton, Ohio. Before building their airplane, they operated a bicycle repair and sales shop. They made their own bicycles.

The brothers chose Kitty Hawk to fly their planes because it was an isolated town on North Carolina's Outer Banks that had steady winds and sand dunes on which they could glide and land gently. The brothers' first two gliders failed. Later that year, the brothers built a wind tunnel in which they tested over 200 wing and airframe designs.

Returning to Kitty Hawk, they began test flights in 1903. The planes accelerated on a monorail track and flew into the air.

During the next few years, the brothers developed more sophisticated planes. They later formed the Wright Company, which built and sold their airplanes.

The Wright brothers' famous airplane is on permanent display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., USA.