The Wright Flyer made the first sustained powered flight by a controlled heavier-than-air machine.
Orville and Wilbur Wright flew the aircraft near Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, on December 17, 1903. The machine was a single-seat biplane powered by a 12-horsepower gasoline engine and controlled through the brothers’ wing-warping system.
The Wright Flyer completed four flights that day. Orville made the first flight, covering 120 feet in 12 seconds, while the fourth and longest flight traveled 852 feet in 59 seconds.
The aircraft is also called Flyer I, the 1903 Flyer, or the Kitty Hawk. It should not be confused with the later Wright Flyer III, which became the first practical airplane and is preserved at Carillon Historical Park in Dayton, Ohio.