Huffman Prairie, In 1904 and 1905, The airplane was Perfected Here

 

After the success at Kitty Hawk, Orville and Wilbur Wright needed to be closer to the Cycle Shop, their machine tools and their toolmaker, Charlie Taylor.

 

He built the world’s first successful aircraft motor, and the first with a cast aluminum block.  Took their design and machined it all on a lathe and a drill press

 

They built the Flyer II in 1904 and spent the entire season of flying weather struggling with poor performance and new challenges, like weather and changing winds.  Finally exceeded the flight times from 1903, and then began to really fly.  The first to fly in a complete circle.

 

Invented the launch catapult system to shorten the take-offs and wind issues.

 

In 1905 built the redesigned 1905 Flyer III, designed to be much more stable.  Flight times began to increase,  but still had control issues.  On July 14th, 1905, Orville has a dramatic crash, while escaping serious injury, Flyer III was rebuilt again and extended in length and control area surfaces to increase stabilty even further.

 

After a long period of nasty Ohio thunderstorms they began to fly again in early September and flight times went from 12 to 18 seconds to minutes . . . 2 then 5 then 8 and then 10 minutes and more.  The first Figures of 8 and extended flight times.  October 5th saw Wilbur fly for     over 40 minutes, until he ran out of fuel.

 

They had achieved their goal, a practical and reusable flying machine.