page_title: Wright Flyer III
section_title: Specifications (Flyer III)
hierarchical_section_title: Wright Flyer III / Specifications (Flyer III)
caption_attribution_description: English: The Ohio quarter, the second quarter of 2002 and seventeenth in the series, honors the state's contribution to the history of aviation, depicting an early aircraft and an astronaut, superimposed as a group on the outline of the state. The design also includes the inscription "Birthplace of Aviation Pioneers." The claim to this inscription is well justified -- the history making astronauts Neil Armstrong and John Glenn were both born in Ohio, as was Orville Wright, co-inventor of the airplane. Orville and his brother, Wilbur Wright, also built and tested one of their early aircraft, the 1905 Flyer III, in Ohio. On May 1, 2000, Governor Bob Taft requested design concepts from Ohioans for the state's quarter. The Governor established an 11-member Ohio Commemorative Quarter Program Committee that requested ideas from all Ohioans and received 7,289 submissions. The Committee's six favorite candidates were posted on its website for vote. Some 40,000 votes later, the top four concepts were submitted to the Mint. These include state symbols, aviation and aerospace, birthplace of aviation and the spirit of invention. From the United States Mint's candidate designs, Governor Taft selected the "Birthplace of Aviation Pioneers."
context_page_description: The Wright Flyer III was the third powered aircraft by the Wright Brothers, built during the winter of 1904–05. Orville Wright made the first flight with it on June 23, 1905. The Flyer III had an airframe of spruce construction with a wing camber of 1-in-20 as used in 1903, rather than the less effective 1-in-25 used in 1904. The new machine was equipped with the engine and other hardware from the scrapped Flyer II and—after major modifications—achieved much greater performance than Flyers I and II.
context_section_description: Data from Sharpe, 2000. p 311.
  General characteristics
  Crew: one pilot
  Length: 28 ft 0 in (8.54 m)
  Wingspan: 40 ft 4 in (12.29 m)
  Height: 8 ft 0 in (2.44 m)
  Wing area: 503 sq ft (46.8 m²)
  Gross weight: 710 lb (323 kg)
  Max takeoff weight: 710 lb (323 kg)
  Powerplant: 1 × Wrights' water-cooled, 4-cylinder, inline engine, 20 hp (15 kW)
  Propellers:  Wrights' elliptical propellers later changed to Wrights' "bent-end" propellers 2 per engine
  Performance
  Maximum speed: 35 mph (56 km/h, 30 kn)
  Range: 25 mi (40 km, 22 nmi) as of October 1905
  Service ceiling: 50 to 100 ft (15 to 30 m)
  Wing loading: 1.4 lb/sq ft (7.0 kg/m²)
  Power/mass: 0.03 hp/lb (0.05 kW/kg)
caption: Ohio 50 State Quarter features the 1905 Wright Flyer III built and flown in Ohio, as shown in the famous photo from Huffman Prairie