Flight at Fort Myer

In the first few years after their landmark flight in 1903, the Wright Brothers still had a great deal of work to do. They tinkered with their design, made more test flights, and began to show off their aircraft in public. Soon enough, the U.S. government got interested, and by 1908, the Wrights were in the running to meet the War Department's new specification for a heavier-than-air flying machine. Their efforts paid off 100 years ago this month, when the 1909 Wright Flyer was selected to be Signal Corps Airplane No. 1--and thus the world's first military airplane.

This image shows a slightly earlier edition of the Flyer in September 1908, in a key demonstration at Fort Myer, Va., that helped lead the way to winning the government contract. On September 9 of that year, Orville Wright kept the plane in the air for more than an hour, which was one of the War Department's requirements. The other requirements included carrying a passenger for at least 125 miles at a speed of 40 miles per hour, being steerable in all directions at all times, and landing without damage.