Wright Brothers Open the First U.S. Flying School

Having proven powered flight and secured contracts and contracts of demonstration, the Wright brothers turned to training the pilots who would fly their machines. In March 1909 they established what is regarded as the first flying school in the United States, choosing a site near Montgomery, Alabama, where mild winter weather allowed year-round instruction.

The Montgomery field, on the grounds that would later become part of Maxwell Air Force Base, gave a small number of students hands-on instruction in the demanding art of controlling a Wright machine. In January 1910 the brothers opened a second school at Pau in southern France, reflecting the strong European interest sparked by Wilbur's celebrated 1908 demonstrations.

These early schools marked the beginning of formal flight instruction. The pilots trained by the Wrights became some of the first qualified aviators in America and Europe, helping to spread the practical skills of flying at a moment when the airplane was passing from experimental novelty toward a genuine technology with military and commercial promise.