CommonLit
Common Lit: "The Wright Brothers: Air Pioneers" by David White
A learning module that begins with the biography "The Wright Brothers: Air Pioneers" by David White, accompanied by guided reading questions, assessment questions, and discussion questions. The text can be printed as a PDF or assigned...
Other
Wright Brothers Aeroplane Co.: Aviation's Attic
Explore this virtual museum and learn the history of the Wright brothers and their determination to fly.
Smithsonian Institution
National Air and Space Museum: Wright Brothers: Engineering the Wright Way
Great interactive provides students with an opportunity to use engineering skills to design and test airplane wings based on the methods of the Wright brothers. Step into the workshop and design a set of wings that will fly your glider...
Other
Symposium Papers: Following the Footstpes of the Wright Brothers
A compilation of symposium papers that have been presented on the Wright Brothers which includes details about their lives, invention, and historic flight.
Smithsonian Institution
National Air and Space Museum: Wright Brothers: Who Were Wilbur and Orville?
Classroom activities, interactive experiments, timelines, and other artifacts that celebrate the Wright brothers' first flight.
Scholastic
Scholastic Instructor: 100 Years of Flight
Learn more about the first "100 Years of Flight" when you explore this article. It features resources, historical background knowledge and more.
PBS
Pbs: Technology and Discoveries
Biographical survey of people who had an impact on 20th century technology and science, including Wallace Carothers, Rachel Carson, Lee de Forest, Henry Ford, Jay Forrester, Grace Murray Hopper, Guglielmo Marconi, William Shockley,...
Smithsonian Institution
National Air and Space Museum: Wright Brothers: Invention of the Aerial Age
Biographical details about the Ohio-born Wright brothers, who ushered in the aerial age with their invention of the first powered airplane.
The Franklin Institute
Franklin Institute: Flights of Inspiration
Franklin Institute site showcases the first flight taken by the Wright brothers. Follows the Wright brothers plan to achieve first flight as they used their failures to win them success in aviation.
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: The First Flyers [Pdf]
"The First Flyers" is a one page, nonfiction, reading passage about the Wright brothers and their obsession with flying. It is followed by questions which require students to provide evidence from the story; it includes: determining main...
Other
Open University: First Flight: The Wright Brothers
A look at what the Wright Brothers accomplished. Includes information on the scientific experiments that they conducted, and the 1903 flyer they built to protect themselves from injury as they both learned how to fly.
PBS
Pbs: American Experience: The Wright Stuff
Companion website to the PBS documentary on the Wright Brothers and their contributions to aviation.
NASA
Nasa: Biography of Orville Wright
Provides an interesting biography of the life and accomplishments of Orville Wright. The highlight of this site is the terrific historic photos throughout the text.
Curated OER
National Park Service: Aviation: From Sand Dunes to Sonic Booms
Features 100 aircraft, airfields, research labs, military installations, battle sites, launch facilities, and other places that tell about people and events that made the U.S. a world leader in aviation. Highlights of this travel...
Read Works
Read Works: The Amazing Flying Machine
[Free Registration/Login Required] An informational text about the Wright brothers inventing the airplane and how that led to other aircraft inventions. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading comprehension.
Famous Scientists
Famous Scientists: Wilbur and Orville Wright
Learn about the Dayton, Ohio brothers who are credited with inventing and flying the world's first successful airplane.
Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Learning Lab: Stories of the Wrights' Flights
This lesson plan has students read primary materials from the Smithsonian collection written by the Wright brothers, and compare and contrast them to secondary sources, such as newspaper stories from the next day. There is background...
The Franklin Institute
Franklin Institute and Science Museum: First Flight
Experience the first flight, through words, pictures, and actual quotes from the Wright Brothers about their real life experiences prior to, during, and after the successful flight.
Library of Congress
Loc: The Dream of Flight
The Library of Congress has opened its vast resources and created an exhibition commemorating the centennial of flight. The library uses "some of its rarest and most significant materials," to present this aviation history exhibit. Be...
Library of Congress
Loc: The Dream of Flight
The Library of Congress has opened its vast resources and created an exhibition commemorating the centennial of flight. The Library uses "Some of its rarest and most significant materials," to present this beautiful website. Be sure to...
The Henry Ford
Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village: Wright Brothers
Brief history of the lives and accomplishments of Wilbur and Orville Wright. Includes a chronology of major events from Wilbur's birth in 1867 to Orville's death in 1948.
Smithsonian Institution
National Postal Museum: Art of the Stamp: Kitty Hawk (1903)
View the artwork for a U.S. postage stamp issued in 1998 to commemorate the Wright Brothers first flight near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Includes a detailed paragraph about the famous flight.
Siteseen
Siteseen: American Historama: Wright Brothers Facts
Learn numerous fun facts about the first powered airplane flight by the Wright Brothers and the Birth of Aviation.
PBS
Pbs: Who Made America?: Innovators: Wilbur and Orville Wright
Two self-taught Midwestern brothers broke the barrier of the air, succeeding where others with government grants and engineering degrees had failed, and shaping the course of the twentieth century.