Take a good look at this picture. Imagine you're a historian trying to uncover clues about important Wright aircraft. What can you learn just by looking?
Roll your pointer over the image for a few clues.

What do the clues tell us? This is an image of the Wright "transitional" airplane, made when the Wrights were officially in business, around 1910. How can we tell?

• Vertical Four Engine: This image was made after 1906, when Orville designed the Vertical Four.
• Bent-End Propeller: The bent-end propeller was the Wright standard propeller from 1908 onward.
• Canard: The structure seems to suggest a canard, or forward elevator, on the aircraft. The "blinkers" typical of later Wright aircraft are not visible. This would date the picture to around or before 1910.
• Skid: The skid undercarriage was standard for nearly all the Wright aircraft. The Wright Model "B" of 1910 was the first to have wheels as well. However, there may be wheels on this aircraft, but hidden from view.
• Wright Company Employee: Without knowing the identity of the people in this picture, it's hard to place exactly when this image was taken. However, other than Charlie Taylor, their mechanic, the Wrights had no other employees in the aircraft business until 1910.

Like many histories without a complete written record, this kind of picture research is essential to the process of understanding the Wrights. So what is this picture actually about? This is a picture of Arch Hoxsey and Ralph Johnstone, two Wright pilots, taken in Montgomery, Alabama, at the Wright's training school in 1910.