The Wright Brothers, Wilbur and Orville Wright, were pioneers of aviation. They opened a bicycle shop and taught themselves about flight by studying the work of previous aviation pioneers like Otto Lilienthal. Through experimentation and building miniature gliders, they developed theories on how to control an aircraft. On December 17, 1903, the Wright Brothers achieved the first successful controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight, flying 120 feet in 12 seconds near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Their innovations included creating their own wind tunnel for testing and devising a pulley control system for the aircraft.
