Did children make paper airplanes before the Wright brothers made the real one?

Question

Did children make paper airplanes before the Wright brothers made the real one?

Answer 1

Manned flight had been going on for years before the Wright Brothers made thier historic flight... Gliders were common amongst the rich and famous in Europe at the time. In fact both Orville and Wilbur had been building gliders for a long time.

What made the Wright Brothers flight in Kittyhawk so special was that it was the first manned, POWERED flight... In that the Wright Flyer aircraft had an engine and was able to maintain the flight.

In fact before that flight, not only were paper airplanes common, but small models using twisted eleastic (called at the time a "torsional engine") to spin a propellor were also flying!

the whole world was trying to get a man airborne under powered flight... The Wright Brothers beat them all to the post.

Answer 2

Actually the french made REAL planes before the wright brothers.  The wright brothers were the first to make CONTROLLED POWER flight.  The French already invented unpowered flight (glider) long before them.

So it is very possible they knew about paper airplanes (another glider).

Good luck...

Answer 3

Yes. Paper airplanes were among the Wright's inspirations.

Answer 4

that's a good question! i'm guessing they did seeing as there were kites and other objects that sailed through the sky already. they probably just didn't call them paper airplanes.

Answer 5

Actually, the were sometimes called flying birds, and they actually inspired the wright brothers to create a plane they could control.