What was the first Wright aircraft displayed by the Smithsonian Institution?

The first Wright aircraft displayed by the Smithsonian Institution was the 1903 Wright Flyer.

The original Flyer entered the Smithsonian’s collection in 1948, after a long dispute over recognition of the first powered flight. The aircraft is now displayed in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., where it remains one of the institution’s best-known objects.

The Smithsonian had previously exhibited Samuel Langley’s Aerodrome, an unsuccessful powered aircraft, and its earlier claims about Langley contributed to tension with Orville Wright. After the institution changed its position, the original 1903 Flyer was transferred for permanent display.

The artifact is not the Wright brothers’ later Flyer III, which is preserved at Carillon Historical Park in Dayton, Ohio. Flyer III was a different aircraft and the only fixed-wing aircraft designated a National Historic Landmark.