Matthew B. Sellers was among the first to experiment with gliding and powered flight. From 1897 to 1911, he conducted this research at his home and laboratory 6 miles south. In 1903, he built the most advanced wind tunnel of his day to study the lift and drag of various wing designs, and in 1908 he developed the first use of retracting wheels on a powered plane said to be the lightest ever flown. Born in Baltimore in 1869 to parents who were Kentuckians, he was educated in Germany and France and received a law degree at Harvard in 1892. He died in 1932. Among the patents he received were a 1908 airplane-type kite that became a prototype for later models, a 1909 four-wing glider that became the basis for a powered plane, a 1911 power plane with retractable wheels, and 1914 improvements in steering and wheel retraction.