Wright Brothers
Original 1908 Vintage Historical Aviation TYPE 1 Photo  

Wilbur Wright, "Early Airplane Crash at Le Mans"

Here's another Amazing Ultra-RARE GEM you won't see anywhere else but Here!   

1908 Wilbur Wright, "Early Airplane Crash at Le Mans" Exceptional Photograph

1908 Vintage photograph of Wilbur Wright's plane after it made a crash landing at Le Mans, France during an early demonstration in Europe. A beautiful image in great shape, the photo has a nice handwritten caption on the back.

Size: 4.25x6

Designation: Vintage 1

* See enlargeable images above  (Note: Last three images of Wilbur not included, but just for reference)

Provenance on back:

Photo taken by the famous turn of the 20th century photographers The Brown Brothers started in 1904.  Three of their stamps on the back seems to go in chronological order from bottom photographer's stamp with a 1900 circa address.  Then the pre zip code era stamp in middle, and then for the photos 3rd permission release stamp with zip code.

LeMans Crash BIO:

Shortly after Kitty Hawk, it was decided that Wilbur would go to France, and Orville to Washington, D.C. for the scheduled (and necessary) demonstrations. Despite all the attention, a major public performance by the Wright Brothers had not yet been conducted. When Wilbur unpacked the crates containing the two-seat "Model A" Flyer in Le Mans, France (125 miles SW of Paris), he was furious. The Flyer was in shambles, with 12+ ribs broken, one wing ruined, the cloth torn in countless pieces, radiators smashed, propeller axles broken, and essential wires, seats, nuts, and bolts missing (the damage had been done by beyond-careless French customs inspectors).   

​      It would take a lot of time to re-construct the Flyer, and Wilbur wouldn't have Orville or Charlie Taylor to help. Wilbur had to do almost all the work himself since the French mechanics were not his equal, and he didn't have any schematics for the French to use as a guide for them to learn-on-the-job. Staying late one night, a radiator exploded, and Wilbur was hit with boiling water on his left forearm and chest. Leon Bollee, the Frenchman that was the most helpful to Wilbur (e.g. arranging the testing grounds) was there, and immediately applied picric acid, which minimized the extent to the burns.

     Another month would go by before Wilbur could use his left arm . . . all the while Wilbur's stress level increased. By August 1908, Wilbur's reconstructed plane was different than that of any other Wilbur (or Orville) had flown, so it would be dangerous to even test the Flyer . . . and it had been only 3 months since Wilbur's nasty crash at Kitty Hawk.

Picture  On 8 August 1908, the 8th day of the 8th month of the 8th year of the 20th Century, those at the Le Mans racetrack were nearly all from the area, and were festive, as if they were going to see a thrilling horse race. The press from Paris, London, and New York City were there as well, waiting to see Wilbur and his Flyer. Ernest Archdeacon of the Aero-Club de France told anyone that would listen that Wilbur would fail, making a point-by-point analysis of he thought was wrong with the Flyer.

     On "Game Day", Wilbur showed no visible signs of nervousness; he took his time getting the Flyer ready. Hart Berg, one of Wilbur's powerful patrons, announced that no photographs would be permitted, the press freaked-out, but when Wilbur agreed to allow photos soon on another day, the reporters calmed down. At 3 pm the Flyer was wheeled out of the work shed into the sunshine, with Wilbur fussing further over his plane. Wilbur then "walked the field", making sure the catapult, track, and wind were all in order.

     At that point, Berg, Bollee, and others helped mount temporary wheels on the Flyer, and the plane was positioned on the wooden track. At 6:30 pm, Wilbur announced to Berg, Bollee, et al that "I'm going to fly", and took the left seat on his Flyer. After getting out of his seat to double-check on an engine adjustment, Wilbur released the trigger, the weight of the catapult dropped, and he advanced down the rail and into the air.

* See images above

     The crowd cheered as Wilbur flew towards a row of tall poplars, where Wilbur banked left and turned in a graceful curve, and started flying back to the grandstand. Wilbur maneuvered to fly another full circle at an altitude of 30-35 feet before coming down for a landing only 50 feet from where he had taken off. Wilbur flew for 2 minutes and covered 2 miles; the crowd was hardly able to believe what they had just witnessed. I wasn't the duration of the flight that excited the crowd, but what Wilbur did during the flight that amazed.

     Wilbur, much to his dismay, experienced a mini Lindbergh-like reception by many in the crowd, but even Wilbur was swept up in the post-flight euphoria. After a bit, Wilbur, very calmly, but with a beaming smile, put his hands in his pockets and walked off whistling. In less than 24 hours, Wilbur's flight was headline news everywhere. Even Archdeacon, the vocal critic in the crowd before the flight, publicly admitted that he was wrong. Despite the clamoring requests, Wilbur refused to fly the next day, which was a Sunday.

* See Picture above

       On Monday, 10 August 1908, Wilbur resumed his demonstrations in front of a crowd that numbered over 2000 people. Wilbur's performance surpassed that of Saturday; here he featured sharp turning movements before trees, drawing oohs-and-ahs from the crowd. On another flight, Wilbur made two giant figure-eight maneuvers in front of the crowd, landing exactly at his point-of-departure . . . flying figure-eights was the stuff of daredevils in 1908.      

​     On 13 August 1908, Wilbur circled the field several times in his longest flight yet at Le Mans. And, before the largest crowd assembled to that point, Wilbur flew at 100 feet altitude to lessen distractions for himself. Ironically, Wilbur then made a mistake (basically he was showing-off) and flew far too low, and the left wing hit the ground. The result was a pretty nasty smash-up, but Wilbur was uninjured. The crowd screamed in delight all the same; one French aircraft designer told a New York Herald reporter that Wilbur was as superb in his accidents as he was in his flights.

​     Wilbur was Lindbergh-before-Lindbergh, a hero to all. With demonstrations delayed due to repairs, Wilbur had a chance to appreciate his situation, and enjoy some of the attention. Wilbur accepted an offer from the French army for a larger demonstration field which was also much safer. Wilbur would be able to fly up to four miles in a straight line without crossing anything worse than bushes . . . on 21 August 1908, crowds arrived by special train, and were in much greater number than at Le Mans