Some Aeronautical Experiments by Wright, Wilbur - 1903

Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1903. With 4 photographic plates on 2 sheets. [2], 133-148pp. 8vo. Original printed wrappers. Some minor splitting at head and tail of spine, overall near fine. Housed in cloth chemise and slipcase. With 4 photographic plates on 2 sheets. [2], 133-148pp. 8vo. Wright's seminal report on he and his brother's glider experiments at Kitty Hawk which would lead directly to the first flights of 1903.

"Some Aeronautical Experiments," was the Wright brothers' first publication on aeronautics. The paper describes the brothers' progress over three seasons of glider flight at Kitty Hawk. Wright presented this paper to the Western Society of Engineers at the urging of Octave Chanute, who was to a large degree responsible for encouraging the Wright brothers' early work and who authored the introduction.

The report was originally published in the Journal of Western Society of Engineers for December, 1901 and in a very rare separately-published offprint from that journal. Wright revised the report for inclusion in the Smithsonian Report for 1902, of which the present is the rare separately-issued Smithsonian offprint. Includes four plates featuring eight photographs of gliders in action.