"If we all worked on the assumption that what is accepted as true is really true, there would be little hope of advance." - Orville Wright
They were two brothers who owned a company making bicycles. On the surface, one wouldn't think of that experience as the best for attempting to solve a problem that had plagued many for years: how to create a vehicle that could fly. Yet, their work on bicycles gave them mechanical expertise and knowledge of control and balance that was needed for a moving vehicle. It also provided them with the necessary funds.
For the brothers, flying had been an interest since their childhood days after their father brought home a "helicoptere," which was a toy that could fly. But it was around 1899 that 28-year-old Orville and 32-year-old Wilbur Wright "became seriously interested in the problem of human flight," as Wilbur would later say.
The brothers were aware of the many risks and difficulties that would be present in the journey of building a flying machine. Wilbur wrote,