WRIGHT brothers, Wilbur & Orville [1867-1912,] -- American inventors and pioneers of flight

A coin toss determined who would go first, and Orville won. On that chilly day in December, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, on the dunes of North Carolina's Outer Banks, Orville Wright became the first man to fly in a powered, heavier-than-air craft. Six years later...

The year 1909 saw the beginning of actual mastery of the air with practical flying machines, not balloons, but heavier-than-air apparatus, propelled by their own motors and capable of being guided and driven in any desired direction. In the light of more recent developments the accomplishments of aviators in 1909 now seem weak and insignificant, but at that time they were truly marvellous. Between July 20th and October 9th, the Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, made a number of public flights which did much to remove doubt as to the practicability of the modern flying machine, and to establish the fact that the air could be navigated with as much ease and certainty as water. [Jackman, William J.; History of the American Nation; Chicago, IL: K. Gaynor, 1913]