Chanute established a procedure for pressure-treating wooden railroad ties with an antiseptic that increased the wood's lifespan.

Establishing the first commercial plants, he convinced railroad men that it was advantageous to expend funds treating ties to extend their service life, thus reducing replacement costs.

...let us hope that the advent of a successful flying machine, now only dimly foreseen and nevertheless thought to be possible, will bring nothing but good into the world; that it shall abridge distance, make all parts of the globe accessible, bring men into closer relation with each other, advance civilization, and hasten the promised era in which there shall be nothing but peace and good-will among all men.

He published his findings in a series of articles in The Railroad and Engineering Journal from 1891[7] to 1893, which were then re-published in the influential book Progress in Flying Machines in 1894.

At the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, Chanute collaborated with Albert Zahm to organize a highly successful International Conference on Aerial Navigation.

Chanute was too old to fly, so he partnered with younger experimenters, including Augustus M. Herring and William Avery.

The testing was in the dunes along the shore of Lake Michigan near the town of Miller Beach, Indiana, just east of what became the city of Gary.

[2] These experiments convinced Chanute that the best way to achieve extra lift without a prohibitive increase in weight was to stack several wings, an idea proposed by the British engineer Francis Herbert Wenham in 1866 and realized in flight by Lilienthal in the 1890s.

Chanute based his "interplane strut" concept on the Pratt truss, which was familiar to him from his bridge-building work.

Following Chanute's ideas, Pilcher built a triplane, but he was killed in a glider crash in October 1899 before he could attempt to fly it.

Chanute helped to publicize the Wright brothers' work and provided consistent encouragement, visiting their camp near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in 1901, 1902, and 1903.

His open approach led to friction with the Wright brothers, who believed their ideas about aircraft control were unique and refused to share them.

I told him I was sorry to see they were suing other experimenters and abstaining from entering the contests and competitions in which other men are brilliantly winning laurels.

He is represented in the Frieze of American History detail The Birth of Aviation, in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda in Washington DC.