7 Wilbur and Orville Wright 7having retarded the advance of flight technology by bringing
suit against other talented experimenters. The era of the
lawsuits came to an effective end in 1917, when the Wright
patents expired in France and the U.S. government created
a patent pool in the interest of national defense.
Orville Carries on the Legacy
Exhausted by business and legal concerns and suffering
from typhoid fever, Wilbur died in his bed early on the
morning of May 30, 1912. Wilbur had drawn Orville into
aeronautics and had taken the lead in business matters
since 1905. Upon Wilbur’s decease, Orville assumed leader-
ship of the Wright Company, remaining with the firm until
1915, when he sold his interest in the company to a group
of financiers. He won the 1913 Collier Trophy for his work
on an automatic stabilizer for aircraft, and he worked as a
consulting engineer during World War I, helping the
Dayton-Wright Company plan for the production of for-
eign aircraft designs and assisting in the development of a
pilotless aircraft bomb.
One of the most celebrated Americans of his time,
Orville received honorary degrees and awards from uni-
versities and organizations across America and Europe.
He remained active in aeronautics as a member of the
National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (1920–48)
and as a leader of other organizations, notably the advi-
sory board of the Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Fund
for the Promotion of Aeronautics. Orville disliked public
speaking, however, and enjoyed nothing more than
spending time with friends and family in the privacy of
his home and laboratory in Dayton or his vacation
retreat on Georgian Bay, off of Lake Huron in Ontario,
Can. During the last four decades of his life he devoted