1898. In 1908 the Wrights demonstrated their airplane to the U.S. Army's Signal Corps at Fort Myer, Virginia. In September of that year, while circling the field at Fort Myer, Orville crashed while carrying an army observer, who died from his injuries and became the first fatality from the crash of a powered airplane. On July 25, 1909, French engineer Louis Bleriot crossed the English channel in a Bleriot XI, a monoplane of his own design. Bleriot's channel crossing made clear to the world the airplane's wartime potential, and this potential was fu
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