The Wright brothers designed, built and flew a series of three manned gliders in 1900–1902 as they worked towards achieving powered flight.

On 23 September 1900, Wilbur wrote from Kitty Hawk, "My idea is merely to experiment and practice with a view to solving the problem of equilibrium.

In 1924, Orville wrote, "...we retained the elevator in front for many years because it absolutely prevented a nose dive such as that in which Lilienthal and many others since have met their deaths."

Subsequently, Wilbur made about a dozen free flights on a single day, concluding the season's test efforts.

The brothers abandoned the glider when they broke camp on 23 October, and it eventually disappeared in the region's severe storms.

The fabric covering of the wing components was given to the wife of helper Bill Tate, whose family Wilbur first stayed with at Kitty Hawk in 1900.

Afterwards, Wilbur wrote, "longitudinal balancing and steering were effected by means of a horizontal rudder projecting in front of the planes.

The brothers fixed the trouble, but the wings still produced much less lift than expected, and wing-warping sometimes made the glider turn opposite the intended direction: it was the discovery and first description of adverse yaw.

They had observed that the drag, or resistance of the total frame when it was carrying no weight and was therefore flown at a very flat angle of attack, was very much less than they had anticipated, perhaps more than half less."

Convinced this coefficient value was in error, they derived a smaller value 0.0033 from their experiments, explaining why the encountered less lift, and drag, than originally computed, and expected.

This was their first glider to incorporate yaw control by use of a rear rudder, and its design led directly to the powered 1903 Wright Flyer.

The brothers wind tunnel tested about 200 wing configurations, varying the aspect ratios, curves, cambers, dihedral, and anhedral in monoplane and multiwing combinations.

The glider included a hip cradle to control the wing warping, and two, fixed, vertical rudders, each measuring about 1 foot (0.30 m) by 6 feet (1.8 m).

They built the components of the glider in Dayton and completed assembly at their Kill Devil Hills camp in September 1902.

[5] The new rudder was ready by 6 October, measured 5 feet (1.5 m) high, 14 inches (36 cm) wide, and had left or right movement of 30 degrees.

After their successful powered flights, they put the glider back in storage at camp before returning home for Christmas.

When they next visited Kitty Hawk in 1908 to test their improved Wright Flyer III, Outer Banks weather had taken its toll: the storage shed and glider inside were wrecked.

Today a salvaged piece of wingtip from the 1902 Glider is preserved at the National Air and Space Museum a few feet from the 1903 Wright Flyer.

General characteristics In 1911 Orville Wright returned to the Kill Devil Hills with a new glider, accompanied by his English friend Alec Ogilvie.

On October 24 Orville soared in the glider above Kill Devil Hill in a 40 miles per hour (64 km/h) wind for 9 minutes 45 seconds, far exceeding the brothers' previous gliding durations.

The Virginia Aviation Museum[8] at Richmond International Airport is home to the Wright 1899 Kite, the 1900, 1901 and 1902 gliders and the 1903 Flyer, all built by Young.

[11] A team led by Nick Engler of the Wright Brothers Aeroplane Company has also built replicas of all three gliders.