100 year anniversary on 15 February 2010
Seven years after their historic first flight at Kitty Hawk in 1903, Wilbur Wright was scouting locations suitable for a flight school. The idea was to train a number of pilots who could in turn teach flying to the wealthy individuals who were expected to buy the airplanes manufactured by the Wrights. Perhaps it is important to note how the commercial aspect of aviation was already rising to the surface just a few years after the success of the Wright Flier…
Wilbur was looking for a place with mild temperatures, not too strong winds and a flat surface. He visited several cities in the South, including Augusta, Ga. and Jacksonville, Fla. before coming to Montgomery, Alabama in February 1910. Frank Kohn owned a cotton farm just northwest of the town and this turned out to answer all of Wilbur’s requirements. The location for the flight school had been found.
The State of Alabama went out its way to offer incentives to the Wrights to settle there. They were offered land, lumber for buildings including a hangar, cars and trucks, hotel accommodation and even water.
The local media saw their arrival as a never ending source of news stories but relationship with the brothers soured somewhat when the papers realized juts how serious Wilbur had been about not wanting publicity. This however did not prevent thousands of spectators turning out regularly once their aircraft started flying.
Although the primary aim had been pilot training, the brothers did come up with a number of important innovations during their time there. A stabilizer was added to the airplane and they conducted a number of night flights, an absolute first.
The weather gods were not kind to the brothers however. Due to this and also some technical problems, in the end only two pilots completed their training before the brothers packed up and moved to Ohio.
The cotton farm on which the Wright flight school had been located was sold to the US military during WW I. To-day it is part of Maxwell Air Force Base which also houses Air University, an officer training facility.
Only a white marble marker standing on the base remains as a reminder of the first US flight school and its unique creators.
