8. First Flyer‘s Final Flight

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.