Wright Company factory workers, rib department
Image credit: Wright State University

While the methods of Wright aircraft construction have long been mysteries, the quality of the Wright Company machines has always been considered outstanding. The key seems to have been the standards set by the Wrights themselves. Grover Loening, Orville Wright's assistant, said that Orville "directed all of the design work in the shop," and that meticulous attention was paid to each aspect of the manufacture process (Crouch, p. 412).

The contemporary images of the factory show large, well equipped departments. Clearly the factory was not set up for assembly line production - each airplane and engine was built by hand.