Wilbur Wright was born on April 16, 1867, in Millville, Indiana. Together with his brother Orville, he would achieve what centuries of inventors had failed to do. Build a machine that could carry a person through the air under its own power. The Wright brothers did not start as scientists. They ran a bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio. But they were brilliant observers of how things worked. They studied birds and noticed that birds twisted their wings to turn in the air. This idea, called wing warping, became the key to their success. Other inventors had tried to fly by building wings that stayed stiff. The Wright brothers built wings that could bend. They also built a wind tunnel in their shop. It was a simple wooden box with a fan at one end. Inside, they tested over two hundred different wing shapes. Their careful testing told them exactly which shape would lift the most weight. On December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, their aircraft lifted off the ground. The first flight lasted just twelve seconds and covered 120 feet. By the fourth flight that day, Wilbur stayed in the air for fifty-nine seconds and flew 852 feet. The age of flight had begun.