Orville and his brother Wilbur, self-taught bicycle mechanics from Dayton, Ohio, solved the problem of powered heavier-than-air flight that had defeated formally trained engineers. Orville piloted the first successful flight at Kitty Hawk on 17 December 1903 — 12 seconds, 37 metres. Within a decade their invention had become a weapon of war; within fifty years it had made the world smaller than the Roman Empire.

• Nationality: US
• Roles: inventor