8. First Flyer‘s Final Flight

Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • Orville Wright, the first person to fly a powered aircraft, took his final flight as a passenger in 1944 with Howard Hughes on a Lockheed Constellation when he was 73.
  • He passed away four years later in 1948 at the age of 77 from a heart attack.
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In 1944, the first person to fly a powered heavier-than-air craft made one last flight, hopping a ride with Howard Hughes aboard a Lockheed Constellation. Orville Wright was 73 years old. (His brother Wilbur had died in 1912 of typhoid fever.) Four years after his literal final sortie, Orville took his figurative last flight, dying of a heart attack at the age of 77. 

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