September marks the 112th anniversary of the first full-scale public flight of the airplane built by the Wright Brothers under contract to the U.S. Army Signal Corps, dubbed Signal Corps No. 1. In September 1908, at Fort Myer, Virginia, over a period of several weeks, Orville Wright demonstrated the capabilities of the plane to government officials and the public.

In December 1907, the U.S. Army issued Signal Corps Specification Number 486, an advertisement for a heavier-than-air flying machine that had to be supported entirely by the dynamic reaction with the atmosphere, which also had to be sufficiently simple for an intelligent person to learn its operation in a reasonable amount of time. The machine had to carry two people, remain in the air for an hour, carry sufficient fuel to fly 125 miles, and had to average 40 miles an hour in a speed test. The contract was signed with the Wright Brothers in February 1908, and they were given 200 days to supply the machine, with another 30 days for testing.

The Wright Brothers delivered the plane in August 1908 to Fort Myer, and trials were set for September to prove that all specifications were met. The trials led to world-record setting flights, but also to tragedy. Orville set a world record by flying for more than an hour on September 9, 1908. On September 17, while flying with Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge, the plane experienced mechanical failures which sent the plane crashing to the ground. Orville Wright was badly injured by the accident, though he survived. Lieutenant Selfridge became the first person to die in an airplane crash.

The crash would delay the Army’s acceptance of the airplane, but by the following summer, the Army officially accepted and bought the plane, paying $5000 over the initial price since the official average speed exceeded the specifications. In 1909, the Army began training two pilots at College Park, Maryland, and started its aeronautical mission.