<P> Orville dropped out of high school after his junior year to start a printing business in 1889, having designed and built his own printing press with Wilbur's help . Wilbur joined the print shop, and in March the brothers launched a weekly newspaper, the West Side News . Subsequent issues listed Orville as publisher and Wilbur as editor on the masthead . In April 1890 they converted the paper to a daily, The Evening Item, but it lasted only four months . They then focused on commercial printing . One of their clients was Orville's friend and classmate, Paul Laurence Dunbar, who rose to international acclaim as a ground - breaking African - American poet and writer . For a brief period the Wrights printed the Dayton Tattler, a weekly newspaper that Dunbar edited . </P> <P> Capitalizing on the national bicycle craze (spurred by the invention of the safety bicycle and its substantial advantages over the penny - farthing design), in December 1892 the brothers opened a repair and sales shop (the Wright Cycle Exchange, later the Wright Cycle Company) and in 1896 began manufacturing their own brand . They used this endeavor to fund their growing interest in flight . In the early or mid-1890s they saw newspaper or magazine articles and probably photographs of the dramatic glides by Otto Lilienthal in Germany . </P> <P> 1896 brought three important aeronautical events . In May, Smithsonian Institution Secretary Samuel Langley successfully flew an unmanned steam - powered fixed - wing model aircraft . In mid-year, Chicago engineer and aviation authority Octave Chanute brought together several men who tested various types of gliders over the sand dunes along the shore of Lake Michigan . In August, Lilienthal was killed in the plunge of his glider . These events lodged in the minds of the brothers, especially Lilienthal's death . The Wright brothers later cited his death as the point when their serious interest in flight research began . Wilbur said, "Lilienthal was without question the greatest of the precursors, and the world owes to him a great debt ." In May 1899 Wilbur wrote a letter to the Smithsonian Institution requesting information and publications about aeronautics . Drawing on the work of Sir George Cayley, Chanute, Lilienthal, Leonardo da Vinci, and Langley, they began their mechanical aeronautical experimentation that year . </P> <P> The Wright brothers always presented a unified image to the public, sharing equally in the credit for their invention . Biographers note that Wilbur took the initiative in 1899--1900, writing of "my" machine and "my" plans before Orville became deeply involved when the first person singular became the plural "we" and "our". Author James Tobin asserts, "it is impossible to imagine Orville, bright as he was, supplying the driving force that started their work and kept it going from the back room of a store in Ohio to conferences with capitalists, presidents, and kings . Will did that . He was the leader, from the beginning to the end ." </P>

Where did the wright brothers get the idea of an airplane
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