Toymaker of Hawthorn Hill

Though profoundly shy, Orville was the “fun” Wright brother—fond of jokes and pranks and given to tinkering with toys, two of which bookmarked the younger Wright’s career. The first plaything sparked his and Wilbur’s fascination with heavier-than-air flight, the other brought Orville, late in the arc of his journey, into a new chapter of a multifarious life.

The Wrights’ odyssey into aviation began with a toy helicopter. The miniature contraption, which was fashioned of wood and paper, got its power from a twisted rubber band that drove a propeller. French aviation pioneer Alphonse Penaud had invented this gizmo in 1870, extrapolating on a version called the “Chinese top” made in 1796 by Englishman George Cayley. Cayley’s device used a whalebone spring to spin a feathery propeller whose rotations carried the device aloft. A serious experimenter, Cayley wrote of aviation in detailed letters that laid the foundations for later scientific inquiries. Cayley’s work was well known to any flying enthusiast, whether Penaud or Wilbur Wright

“Helicopter,” from the Greek , meaning whirl or spiral, had been coined in 1861 by