Wilbur circles Huffman Prairie for 39 minutes, outflying all of 1903 and 1904 combined

By the fall of 1905, the Wright brothers had already made dozens of brief hops that ended almost as soon as they began. On October 5, Wilbur Wright climbed into the Wright Flyer III at Huffman Prairie near Dayton, Ohio, and circled the field for 39 minutes and 23 seconds, covering 24.2 miles before setting down. It was longer than every flight of 1903 and 1904 put together. The machine that had injured Orville in a nose-dive crash in July now turned, circled, and held altitude on command…