Where is the Wright brothers’ 1903 Flyer preserved today?

The Wright brothers’ 1903 Flyer is preserved at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

The original Flyer was displayed for many years at the Smithsonian Institution after a long dispute over priority with the Wright brothers. It is now exhibited in the National Air and Space Museum’s gallery devoted to early flight, where visitors can see the fragile aircraft associated with the first controlled, sustained powered airplane flights.

The aircraft is often called the 1903 Wright Flyer or Flyer I. It was built from spruce, ash, fabric, and wire, and its lightweight construction helped make powered flight possible. The surviving machine is an original artifact, not a modern museum reconstruction.

The Flyer’s display location is sometimes confused with Kitty Hawk, where the aircraft first flew, or with the Wright Brothers National Memorial in North Carolina. Those sites commemorate the achievement, but the original aircraft is in Washington, D.C.