Orville Wright Gets a Piggyback Ride

Mechanic Bill Conover gives Orville Wright a piggyback ride to their aircraft waiting in the Miami River, 1913. According to the documentation that accompanied the photograph, Orville often went out to fly in business clothes and shoes, whereas the mechanics wore hip boots. A flying boat had landed in Ohio’s Miami River, so a mechanic carried Orville piggyback-style and put him in the plane for a test flight so he wouldn’t get his feet wet.