Wilbur Wright.
‘A flyer capable of carrying a man’
The Wright brothers’ negotiations with the British government
1906
With a firm place in history’s hall of fame, the Wright brothers have come to dominate our view of early aviation. For 12 seconds on 17 December 1903, Orville Wright took to the air above Kitty Hawk beach, North Carolina, in the world’s first powered and controlled heavier-than-air flight, while his brother Wilbur looked on. The significance of the Wrights’ achievement, however, was not very keenly felt at the time. In the years that followed this flight the brothers spent as much of their time trying, and often failing, to convey the importance of their findings to potential investors as they did tinkering with wing angles. This letter, written by Wilbur, forms part of protracted negotiations with the British War Office, and details one such attempt to get the money they needed to turn their findings into a business.
Initial discussions between the Wrights and the British were opened in late 1904 and continued into 1905, but failed to make any progress. A letter from the Wrights to the War Office in November 1905 sums up the stalemate, with the Wrights unwilling to divulge anything more than photos and witness statements without a contract in place, but the British equally reticent about signing a contract without more information. With the prospect of any kind of deal looking bleak, the Wrights came back to the British with a refined offer in May 1906. The Wrights offered a flyer, instructions for its use, the data required to progress the design and, most importantly, ‘the confidential disclosure of the original discoveries in aeronautical science’.
This, according to Colonel Superintendent Capper, showed ‘a much more practical intention of coming to terms’. As head of the Army Balloon Factory in Farnborough, the closest thing the British had to an aviation research outpost, Capper took the lead in the negotiations and so was an important man for the Wrights to please. Unfortunately, Capper’s praise ended there. He remained unconvinced, and requested further details from the brothers.
The result was this letter of 10 July 1906, personally signed by Wilbur. In a way that was characteristic of the Wrights’ correspondence up to this point, it continued the sales pitch without adding much that the British didn’t already know. Discussions with the French government are noted, perhaps appealing to a sense of cross-Channel rivalry, and regards are sent to Capper and his wife who had been received with ‘special pleasure’ when they visited two years previously, but specifics are avoided.
It was at this point that Lieutenant Colonel Gleichen, the British Military Attaché in the USA, was asked to contact the Wrights in a more direct attempt to flesh out the details of their offer. A letter was duly sent and, at last, in a letter of 31 July 1906 the details emerged: it would cost the British $100,000 for a flyer and the rights to reproduce the plane and an extra $100,000 for details of the science behind it. For Capper, this marked the end of negotiations, with, in his mind, the prices being ‘out of all proportion to the benefits to be gained’. Gleichen was less dismissive, visiting the Wrights personally and producing a report that noted that they had ‘little or none of the usual braggadocio of the Yankee inventor’ and reiterated their achievements to date. This fell on unsympathetic ears. Capper asked Gleichen to formally decline the Wrights’ offer in November 1906.
Undeterred, the Wrights would try to persuade the British Government once more in April 1908. Capper, still at the helm of the Balloon Factory, asked again for their terms before expressing some of his own, which included five separate trials testing speed, altitude, duration, capacity and observation potential. There were, however, more horses in the race by this point, a couple of which were from Capper’s own stable. One of these, Samuel F Cody, made the first powered, heavier-than-air flight on British soil in October of that year at the Balloon Factory’s site in Farnborough, making the Wrights’ offer redundant in the eyes of the British government.
With their fame growing and contracts with the US government signed, it’s unlikely that the Wrights were too disheartened by this rebuff. A change of tack saw them carry out demonstrations across the world, turning them into international celebrities and wealthy businessmen by the end of the decade. Meanwhile, in Britain, with the government ceasing funding in early 1909, official attempts at heavier-than-air aviation stalled. It wouldn’t be until the First World War that the significance of this new form of flight was widely recognised by the establishment.
