Less than a decade after the Wright Brothers success of inventing, building, and flying the world’s first successful motor-operated airplane, Orville Wright began experimenting with a pontoon structure under the plane so that it could take off and land on water.
On Tuesday, August 20, 1912, almost 115 years ago, famed inventor and aviator Orville Wright’s life almost ended tragically testing a Wright hydroplane on an experimental flight in Moraine. The hydroplane took an unexpected plunge into the Miami River when making a turn. The plane was flying south in the morning to a point near the Moraine Pinnacles.
Several Wright hydroplanes (seaplanes) recently built in the factory here were sent east before being tested. Only two days after his 41st birthday, the experimental flight was Orville Wright’s first flight attempt in this plane. The hydroplane was about 20 feet off the ground when it suddenly dropped into the river. Orville was lucky. Due to the shallowness of the Miami River at that area, Orville suffered a hard blow over one eye but held on to a crosspiece and was not thrown from the plane. His hat was knocked off and floated downstream. Other than bruises, Orville fared better than a crash he had four years earlier in 1908 where he broke his left leg, three hip bones, four ribs and dislocated a hip.
Two men from a nearby camp and a farmer helped pull the battered hydroplane out of the water. The cause of the wreck – a workman had failed to attach the wiring to one of the blades of the plane. Two days later the Dayton Herald newspaper reported that Orville stated that “experiments will be continued with more vigor than ever”.
Orville continued experimental flights after the plane was repaired. Wright continued to improve the hydroplane and performed over 100 flights along the Miami River in Moraine and West Carrollton within the next year. In fact, to celebrate Dayton’s 1913 Fourth of July Festivities, Orville scheduled to fly a hydroplane over the Miami River west of the Fairgrounds as part of the celebration.
