8. First Flyer‘s Final Flight

Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • Orville Wright, the first person to fly a powered aircraft, took his last flight as a passenger with Howard Hughes aboard a Lockheed Constellation in 1944 at age 73.
  • He died four years later, in 1948, from a heart attack at the age of 77.
  • His brother, Wilbur Wright, had passed away much earlier in 1912.
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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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