For America's 250th anniversary, the Wright brothers' aircraft in the first controlled powered flight was the Wright Flyer.
Orville and Wilbur Wright flew the aircraft near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on December 17, 1903. The Wright Flyer made four flights that day, with Orville piloting the first successful one, which lasted 12 seconds and covered 120 feet.
The machine was a single-engine, propeller-driven biplane with a forward elevator. Its most important innovation was the Wrights' three-axis control system, which allowed the pilot to manage pitch, roll, and yaw. That control approach became fundamental to fixed-wing aircraft.
The first attempt had taken place three days earlier but ended in a brief, damaged flight. The Wright Flyer is preserved at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.