The History: Wilbur thanks Octave Chanute for his letter of May 17th and the pamphlets Chanute enclosed. He tells Chanute he will reflect on his advice. However, for now Wilbur does not have time for aeronautical experiments since this is the busy season for their bicycle shop and Wilbur does not want to be distracted from his business. At this point he will develop a basic plan and decide on a location for his experiments.

Wilbur tells Chanute that he would like to visit him in Chicago. Until that time, he tells Chanute that he will not impose on him by contacting him frequently. However, Wilbur would like to stay in touch with Chanute and pass on relevant information from his experiments and would like to "have the benefit" of Chanute's advice as his experimentation plans develop.

It is important to note the Wrights commitment and keen sense of priorities as businessmen. They worked on their flight experiments during the slow seasons at the bicycle shop - not all the time. In many ways this makes their accomplishments more amazing since they only worked on aeronautical investigations during their "spare time" between 1899 and 1902.

Orville and Wilbur were very close. However, if there was one complaint Orville had it was that he felt his older brother used the word "I" when he meant "we". Wilbur would infer that "he" had done something when he should have said that both "he and Orville" had done something together. You may have noted that in these letters to Octave Chanute, Wilbur does not mention that his brother Orville is experimenting with him. However, in these early experiments Wilbur may have been more involved than Orville.