December 2016 Auction Ends Thursday, December 15th, 5pm Pacific
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 12/15/2016
Sturdy steel piece from the 1905 Wright Flyer, the first reliably functional airplane which prompted the Wright brothers, after years of trial and error with their first two prototypes, to write Secretary of War William Howard Taft that an aircraft was now available for sale. After successfully flying this Wright Flyer III in the summer of 1905, including a single flight of 24 minutes long, the Wright brothers disassembled the plane in November 1905, fearing that competitors would steal their design. In 1908, they reassembled it with new controls (and took the first airplane passenger up in it), only to have it crash in a field in a solo test flight by Wilbur Wright. The Wright Flyer III never flew again, but in 1947 was repaired and assembled again by Louis P. Christman, and is now housed in a museum at Carillon Historical Park and deemed a National Historic Landmark (the only airplane named such). Only one component of the plane is known to exist in private hands aside from the cache from Christman's personal collection of which this piece was a part. Spar fitting measures 1'' square by 0.25''. Some tarnishing and rusting, else near fine. With provenance from Cowan's.
Own A Piece Of Aviation History From The 1905 Wright Flyer III Plane -- Incredibly Rare With Only a Handful In Private Hands
Click above for larger image.