A Toy that Changed the Future
November/December 2026
In the fall of 1878, Milton Wright returned from his travels on church business with a gift for his two youngest sons that would play a role in changing the course of human invention.
Orville Wright retold the story in a 1908 article for The Century Magazine.
Their father entered the room of their home in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, holding something concealed between his hands:
“Before we could see what it was, he tossed it into the air. Instead of falling to the floor, as we expected, it flew across the room till it struck the ceiling, where it fluttered awhile, and finally sank to the floor."
The brothers were captivated by the machine and nicknamed it “the Bat.” It was a toy helicopter designed by French aviation pioneer Alphonse Pénaud in 1870. Constructed from bamboo, cork and lightweight paper, it was powered by a twisted rubber band that drove twin counter-rotating propellers.
Wilbur and Orville flew the toy incessantly until it broke. They fabricated replicas, experimenting with different sizes and materials, but the larger sizes did not fly as well as the smaller ones, presenting the brothers with the weight-to-power ratio which they would not solve until years later when they successfully made the first powered, controlled and sustained heavier-than-air airplane flight at Kill Devil Hills, NC in 1903.
The vision two boys had in their youth took twenty-five years to become reality. Trial and error, mistakes, frustrations, ridicule, discouragement, even despondency could not dissuade them from their belief that mankind would one day fly manned craft through the skies.
Your God-given vision may be slow in materializing but keep working on it. Learn from your mistakes. Deflect the critics. Keep your eyes on Jesus – “the author and finisher of our faith.”
Dr. Lynn Hardaway
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