Orville and Wilbur Wright, bicycle mechanics with no formal engineering degrees, pursued controlled, heavier-than-air flight after years of failed experiments, public ridicule, and the deaths of other would-be aviators.

In their faith that human ingenuity could conquer the air and open an entirely new dimension of travel, they built their own wind tunnel, refined wing designs, and risked their lives on the dunes at Kitty Hawk.