Orville lived to see the airplane transform the world and change
people's lives.
He saw the first regular airmail service introduced in 1918, the first
nonstop transcontinental flight in 1923, the first round-the-world
flight in 1924, the first polar flight in 1926, and the first nonstop
flight across the Atlantic in 1927. He witnessed two world wars in which
the airplane played a critical role. He saw the earth shrink as the jet
engine replaced propellers. He lived to see airplanes that flew faster
than the speed of sound, and planes whose wings stretched farther than
the distance of his first flight at Kitty Hawk.
There were moments when he looked back wistfully to those long-ago days
when flying was still a dream that he shared with his brother. He once
said, "I got more thrill out of flying before I had ever been in the air
at all--while lying in bed thinking how exciting it would be to fly."