National Aviation Heritage Area plans major events in 2009
Here is a copy of the NAHA press release.
Dayton, Ohio (17 Dec 08)—The National Aviation Heritage Alliance (NAHA) and its partners will celebrate the Dayton Region’s rich history of aviation and the Wright brothers in 2009 with several special events and programs. The upcoming year marks the 100th anniversary of the Wrights’ Homecoming Parade in Dayton Ohio, where in June 1909 the brothers returned from a very successful trip in Europe to be recognized as hometown heroes. To help commemorate that event, a number of NAHA events will be connected to that “Homecoming” theme. In 2009 NAHA will recognize the 100th anniversary of the Wrights’ sale of their first airplane to the US Signal Corps, establishing aviation as part of the United States military arsenal. The year will see NAHA members participating in a number of air shows both here and abroad, and hosting special programs throughout the Dayton Region.
NAHA partners range from the National Park Service’s Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park to smaller groups like the Experimental Aircraft Association’s chapters located throughout the National Aviation Heritage Area. The broad scope of the activities planned is a reflection of the deep roots of aviation in the area. While the Wrights were responsible for inventing the airplane, many other aviation and aerospace developments were led by pioneers who called the Dayton Region home, such as Warren Grimes, creator of the first aircraft landing light to the first man to walk on the moon, Neil Armstrong.
Some of the year’s highlights will include the launching of new Wright brothers replica aircraft and simulators, the National Aviation Hall of Fame’s 2nd Annual REEL STUFF Film Festival of Aviation in March 2009, and a greatly expanded Dayton air show, with United States Air, Trade and Technology Expo taking place in July. In addition, there will be NAHA partners in Europe participating in Wright brother centennial events in the Netherlands. Later in 2009, the Huffman Prairie will come alive with a celebration of the Wright brothers most successful flight of October 5th 1905, when they flew at will over the Prairie and were convinced they had truly perfected the airplane.
A comprehensive list of activities and programs is attached.
The National Aviation Heritage Alliance (NAHA) is a private, not for profit corporation operating as the management entity of the Congressionally designated National Aviation Heritage Area, one of 40 national heritage areas in the United States. NAHA’s vision is for Dayton to become the recognized global center of aviation heritage and premier destination for aviation heritage tourism, sustaining the legacy of the Wright brothers. The National Aviation Heritage Area encompasses an eight county area (Montgomery, Greene, Miami, Clark, Warren, Champaign, Shelby, and Auglaize counties.)
National Aviation Heritage Alliance
Partner Activities and Programs
2009
National Aviation Hall of
Fame
• 2nd Annual Reel Stuff Film Festival, March
12-15, 2009-Four action-packed days of classics,
documentaries and new feature films celebrating the
cinematic people, wonder and joy of flight.
• 48th Annual Enshrinement Ceremony, July 17-18,
2009-Two days of activities associated with the
recognition of the most important individuals in
aviation. Includes the WOW Conference (Wings of
Women) for high school age girls, the President’s
Reception and Dinner and the formal Enshrinement
Ceremony.
Vectren Dayton Air
Show
• 35th Anniversary of Dayton’s premier summer
event, July 18-19, 2009-The USAF Thunderbirds, Tora
Tora Tora, and Patty Wagstaff will headline the
Dayton Air Show in 2009. The Thunderbird appearance
in Dayton will be a “homecoming” as team lead, Lt Col
Greg Thomas, is a Wright State graduate.
• SOAR/A2 will move to a new location in 2009 (the
NAHA Pavilion) and with additional NAHA partners
helping to create a unique educational experience for
children at the Vectren Dayton Air Show.
Wright B Flyer,
Inc.
• Test flight program for “Silver Bird” will
begin in 2009-Wright B Flyer will conduct extensive
tests of its newest Wright replica with plans to have
the new plane certified for flying by mid-summer
2009. The Silver Bird was designed to be
dis-assembled and placed into a standard shipping
container to allow for transportation throughout the
world.
• Wright Simulators-Three new Wright Simulators are
being constructed by Wright B Flyer for use by NAHA
partners. The simulators will complement the existing
simulator located at Dayton Aviation Heritage
National Historical Park’s Huffman Prairie Flying
Field Interpretive Center. The simulators will be
owned by the Alliance and made available to community
groups when requested. It is anticipated the
simulators will be used by NAHA convention and
visitor bureaus at various travel and trade shows to
attract more visitors to the Dayton Region.
• Wright B Flyer will maintain a busy flying and
static display schedule-In 2009 Wright B will be at
Dayton Air Show, Air Force Material Command’s Tattoo
and the USAF Marathon along with numerous other
community events.
Dayton Aviation Heritage National
Historical Park
• 104th Anniversary of Practical Flight,
October 5, 2009-A Wright Flyer replica returns to fly
at Huffman Prairie Flying located at Wright Patterson
AFB, Ohio. Piloted by Mark Dusenberry, the public
will once again have a chance to see first hand what
the Wright brothers experienced when flying in 1905.
In addition to the flight, there will be educational
activities for school children throughout the day,
including edible Wright Flyers, paper helicopters and
model hot air balloons.
• Wright Brothers Homecoming in Wright-Dunbar
Village, June 20, 2009-Join others for music,
ice-cream and a home tour in the neighborhood of the
Wrights’ to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the
Wright Brothers Homecoming in Dayton.
• Aviation Heritage Speaker Series will see a number
of noted speakers from the world of aviation make
presentations at the Engineers Club of Dayton
throughout the year.
Wright Family Foundation
• Landmark of the Wright, 100th
Anniversary of the Dutch Centennial of Flight, June
18-19, 2009-Wright family members will participate in
commemoration of the centennial of the first flight
in the Netherlands with the formal dedication of the
sculpture of a Wright Flyer. The following day, the
Wright family will attend an air show conducted under
the auspices of the Dutch Air Force.
United States Air, Trade and
Technology Expo
• A trade show and technical conference
(Wright Dialogue with Industry) will take place in
the Dayton Region, July 13-18, 2009-The United States
Air, Trade and Technology Expo brings together
leaders in the military, civilian government,
academia, and industry to address challenges and
highlight successes across the aerospace industry
with a keen focus on second and third tier companies.
Historic WACO
Field
• 2009 WACO Homecoming Fly-In, September
18-19, 2009-WACOS and other vintage airplanes are
expected to return to Historic WACO Field from all
parts of the United States.
Ohio Historical Society-Armstrong
Air & Space Museum
• 40th Anniversary of Moon Landing, July 19-
20, 2009-Ohio Historical Society’s Armstrong Air and
Space Museum will celebrate the landing of Wapakoneta
native, Neil Armstrong on the moon. The Summer Moon
Festival on the 19th will take place on the grounds
of the museum with a number of activities planned
including an evening concert. On July 20th, the 40th
anniversary of the landing, the museum will be
selling commemorative covers with special
cancellation by the Wapakoneta Post Office. Special
admission policies will be in effect for the museum
that day.
Aviation Trail
Inc.
• Trailblazer Awards Banquet and Ceremony,
April 2009-Honors the birthday of Wilbur Wright
(April 16, 1867) and presents the Trailblazer Award
to an individual or organization that has furthered
aviation in the Dayton Region.
• National Aviation Day, August 19, 2009-commemorates
both Orville and Katharine Wright’s birthday with a
picnic luncheon.
• First Flight Dinner, December 17, 2009-Annual
dinner celebrates the Wright brothers first flight at
Kittyhawk NC in 1903.
Greene County Historical Society
• 40th Anniversary of the Moon Landing,
July, 2009-The Greene County Historical Society will
commemorate the historic landing on the moon with
exhibits at the Society’s headquarters.
Grimes Flying Lab
Foundation
• Mid-Eastern Regional Fly-In, September 12-13
2009-Grimes Flying Lab Foundation will host the
Fly-In at Grimes Field in Urbana, Ohio.
Experimental Aircraft Association
Chapter 284
• Red Stewart Field, Waynesville, Ohio Open
House and Tail Dragger Fly-In, September 5-6,
2009-Chapter 284 will host the public and present an
air show on the evening of the 5th and on September
6, the Tail Dragger Fly-In will commence. A Young
Eagles Rally will take place on the 6th.
Experimental Aircraft Association Chapter 36
• Wings and Wheels Fly-In, June 6-7,
2009 at WACO Field, Troy, Ohio
National WACO Club 50th Anniversary Fly-In, June
24-28, 2009 at Wynkoop Airport at Mt. Vernon,
Ohio
AOPA's Boyer to speak at first flight dinner in Dayton
Hosted by Aviation Trail, Inc. and the National Aviation Hall of Fame, the event will take place in the National Museum of the United States Air Force on Springfield Pike. Tickets are available to the public.
Boyer’s speech, entitled the “Past, Present and Future of General Aviation,” will follow a Wright-family-style dinner and entertainment by the Air Force Band of Flight. The Hall of Fame will announce its class of 2009 enshrinees. Yours truly will have copies of The Dayton Air Show: A Photographic Celebration available for sale.
A reception begins at 6 p.m. in the Hall of Fame's Learning Center with dinner at 7 p.m. in the museum's Modern Flight Gallery. (The Learning Center adjoins the Modern Flight Gallery.)
Tickets for the flight anniversary event are $60 a person. Requests for reservations should arrive at ATI no later than Friday, Dec. 13. Mail your check to ATI, P.O. Box 633, Wright Brothers Branch, Dayton, OH 45409.
AOPA numbers 415,000 members, representing two-thirds of all certificated pilots in the United States. Its headquarters is in Frederick, Md. Boyer, who has been AOPA’s president since Jan.1, 1991--and whose tenure concludes at the end of this year--increased its membership during that time by 33 percent. He is an 8,500-hour-plus, instrument- and multiengine-rated pilot who has flown for more than 40 years--15 of those as an aircraft owner.
Aviation Trail was organized in 1981 as a non-profit group of aviation professionals and enthusiasts who seek to foster the local area’s aviation heritage. It is developing a Parachute Museum in its headquarters, West Third and South Williams streets. The modern parachute was invented and first tested at old McCook Field in Dayton.
The National Aviation Hall of Fame was founded in 1962 to honor individuals and organizations who have contributed uniquely to America’s rich legacy of aviation achievement. Its annual enshrinement ceremony, held in Dayton each July, has been dubbed the Oscar night of aviation.
An Engineering Challenge: Designing Wright "B" Flyer's "Silver Bird"
NBAA and Wright "B" Flyer held a press conference in front of the Silver Bird on Tuesday, Oct. 2, featuring Amanda Wright Lane, great-grandniece of the Wright brothers. FlightGlobal.com posted a video of the event. Here's the link to the video (you might have to scroll the list to find it.)
Here's a news release I wrote for Wright "B" Flyer, Inc.:
Walt Hoy test-fits drive chain
The Wright “B” Flyer lookalike is the product of an all-volunteer team that designed and built the airplane in less than a year.
Dayton, Ohio-based Wright “B” Flyer Inc., which owns two other, separately designed lookalikes of the Wright Model B, decided in 2007 it needed a new airplane for a new mission: telling the story of Dayton’s and Ohio’s aviation heritage to the world with an airplane that can be shipped internationally for exhibition flights.
The first sortie of that mission is its non-flying display before an expected 33,000 business professionals at this event, which NBAA calls the world’s biggest civil aviation trade show. Dubbed the “Silver Bird” because of its silver-painted frame and white fabric, the airplane is in its final stages of construction. Its first flight is expected in early 2009.
A flying ambassador
“It will truly be a global ambassador for Dayton. There is not a single artifact you can hold, or place you can visit, or document you can read that equals seeing a Wright Flyer in the air,” said Amanda Wright Lane of Cincinnati, great grandniece of the Wright brothers and a Wright “B” Flyer Inc. trustee.
Wilbur and Orville Wright invented the airplane in their West Dayton bicycle shop at the turn of the 20th Century and formed the Wright Company in 1909 to produce military and civilian airplanes. The “B” model was the first one they produced in quantity, with more than 100 built beginning in 1910. Configured with tail-mounted rudder and elevator, it was the first Wright airplane without a front elevator, as well as the first with wheels.
Famous military and civilian air pioneers such as Air Force Gen. Henry “Hap” Arnold, magazine publisher Robert J. Collier, and aviatrix Ruth Law learned to fly in Wright “B” Flyers. The Wright Company’s exhibition team exposed thousands of Americans to flight, mainly in Model B airplanes, at air shows around the country in 1910 and 1911. A Model B made the first air cargo flight on November 7, 1910, carrying bolts of silk from Dayton to Columbus, Ohio, for a department store.
Wright “B” Flyer Inc.
Wright “B” Flyer Inc., located at Dayton-Wright Brothers Airport, is an all-volunteer, not-for-profit organization that promotes the Wright brothers’ aviation heritage. Since 1982, it has been flying its one-of-a-kind lookalike of a 1911 Army Model B Flyer at the annual Vectren Dayton Air Show and other events around the Dayton region. During summer months, it also displays a non-flying civilian Model B on Huffman Prairie in cooperation with the National Park Service and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Its airplanes and hangar-museum are a part of the National Aviation Heritage Area, an eight-county region around Dayton that includes 10 national aviation heritage sites.
Nicknamed the “Brown Bird,” the Army Signal Corps lookalike soared over the Rose Bowl and circled the Statue of Liberty in 2003. It was displayed at Tempelhof Airport in Berlin, Germany, in 1990.
But it is difficult and expensive to disassemble the Brown Bird and ship it to remote locations, especially overseas. At the same time, worldwide interest in the Wright brothers’ pioneering work has grown, and Wright aircraft are in demand. This year, the organization shipped its non-flying airplane to England for display at the Farnborough International Air Show.
In 2007, the organization launched a project to design and build a new Model B Flyer that could be loaded into a standard cargo shipping container, shipped anywhere in the world, and put together in one hour for exhibition flights. More than 30 skilled volunteers have been responsible for its design and construction, and several businesses have donated materials, parts, or fabrication services.
An engineering challenge
The organization wanted an airplane that would closely resemble the original Model B in air show flybys, but be sized to fit in a standard shipping container and be easy to assemble for flight by a small crew. It also had to be rugged and reliable enough for daily use and capable of flying in more than calm conditions. In other words, the Wright brothers’ original wood-and-fabric structure, marginal control system and primitive engine would not do. But neither would the Brown Bird, which is difficult to tear down and won’t fit in a shipping container.
In materials and construction, the Silver Bird is closer to Charles Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis airplane, said Walter Hoy, project engineer and coincidentally a native of St. Louis, Missouri. Both airplanes have steel frames, wooden wing ribs and fabric covers, he said.
“We did get into discussions on building aluminum structures. That I vetoed, because I don’t have people here who can work aluminum structures,” said Hoy, an aeronautical engineer. “With a steel tube structure, you grind the tubes to fit, you tack weld it together, and then you have a professional welder come in and weld it up. Amateurs can see how to do this. And the woodworking, we have excellent woodworkers. So it forced what we were going to build this airplane out of into chromoly [steel] and wood, not aluminum and not composite. … We don’t have composite engineers in this group.”
The project benefitted from technology far removed from the Wright brothers’ West Dayton bicycle shop. The team used modern engineering software tools for design and structural analysis. Lasers cut the ribs from plywood sheets, and laser-machining tools were used to make or finish many of the metal parts.
Hoy said the structure is stressed for 3.8 positive Gs like conventional light airplanes. The design includes a 150 percent safety margin, but the team didn’t want to sacrifice a wing to prove it. “The safety factor was arrived at empirically. … We tested it to operational loads, not to failure,” Hoy said.
Wing design
Design began with the wings, Hoy said. The original Wright wings were thin, spanned 39 feet and were lightly loaded. Also, the original Model B used wing warping for roll control. Hoy said the Silver Bird needed higher wing loading to make it more stable in turbulent or breezy conditions, and it needed shorter wings to fit into a shipping container. Shortening the wingspan to 33 feet and shortening the chord to 54 inches from 72 inches helped meet both goals while preserving the general appearance.
At the same time, a thicker wing was used for both a higher lift coefficient and gentler stalling traits. Hoy said the Silver Bird uses a NACA USA 35-B airfoil from the 1920s. The wings should give the airplane a 41mph stall speed and a 70-mph maximum speed.
The Wrights achieved roll control by twisting or “warping” the wings. Wright “B” Flyer Inc.’s lookalikes all have ailerons. The Silver Bird has two-thirds span Frieze ailerons on upper and lower wings.
“You give up structural strength with wing warping. If you build flexibility into the wing, you have given up the rigid truss and the strength associated with it,” Hoy said. What’s more, Hoy said working a lever to warp the wings requires “brute force” and greatly increases pilot workload.
Frieze ailerons help with an adverse yaw problem on the Model B Flyer. The Model B has vertical fins — the Wrights called them “blinkers” — mounted above the skids at the front of the plane. Hoy said these blinkers can increase adverse yaw, which causes an airplane’s nose to point in the opposite direction as it turns.
“If you get adverse yaw and it starts to swing the nose in the wrong direction, the blinkers will pull it more in that direction. … You need a tremendous amount of rudder to get the nose back around. Well, you don’t have tremendous rudder” on the Model B, Hoy said.
Frieze ailerons have lips that dip below the wing when they are angled up for a turn, which adds drag to the wing and counteracts adverse yaw. (Hoy thinks the Wrights used the blinkers to augment the rudders in turns by yawing first, then rolling.)
Drive train
Like the original, the Silver Bird has twin counter-rotating propellers and drive chains, although a modern aircraft engine will power them. The mahogany propellers also have the bent-end look that characterized Wright Flyer props. With the fan-cooled, Lycoming HIO-360 engine turning at 2,900 rpm, the props will turn at 1,200 rpm with the reduction accomplished by the chain sprockets, Hoy said.
The drive train includes a Flexidyne coupling between the crankshaft and the chains. Hoy says the coupling dampens power impulses that might otherwise be transmitted through the chains into the structure, risking a harmonic feedback that could destroy the airplane. Wright “B” Flyer Inc.’s Brown Bird also uses a Flexidyne coupling.
Controls
The Model B had three wooden control sticks: A side sick on the right or left to control the elevator, and a stick between the pilots to control wing warping. The top section of the wing warping stick was jointed for a rudder control.
The Silver Bird has conventional controls, with a center-mounted stick at each seat to control ailerons and elevator, and foot-pedal rudder controls. The pilot’s seat, on the left, has hydraulic toe brakes.
Volunteers
Located near Dayton and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, a region steeped in aerospace and automotive technology and manufacturing, Wright “B” Flyer Inc. has benefitted from a pool of highly skilled volunteers, ranging from aeronautical and electrical engineers to machinists and woodworkers. On the Silver bird project, ages have ranged from an 11-year-old who taught his elders how to rib-stitch wing fabric to a 91-year-old machinist who designed special tools to ease assembly. Hoy said at least 33 people have worked on the airplane at some point, although a core of eight has been involved throughout the project.
“I think the chief engineer on anything like this is constantly negotiating, trying to get it so it’s strong enough but light enough,” Hoy said. Indeed, the age-old battle between strength and weight has proved to be his biggest managerial challenge. The original Model B had a gross weight of approximately 1,250 pounds with a pilot and passenger; the Silver Bird will be about 1,000 pounds heavier.
“We had places where we had dual quarter-inch plates butted against each other. That’s a half-inch of solid steel. … I started saying, ‘Look, this is the Wright B, not the Wright B & O,’ ” Hoy said. “It’s a constant battle in building any airplane, between the structural people and the aerodynamics people who have got to lift all this stuff. It’s normal.”
Future plans
When finished, the Silver Bird will be capable of flying a pilot and a passenger, either at is home base or at air shows or other events around the world. Its flight will symbolize both the aviation heritage of the Wright brothers and the aerospace industry of the Dayton region and Ohio.
It will also provide a high-profile marketing opportunity for corporate sponsors interested in aligning their company or brand names with the most famous name and image in aviation.
“Make no mistake about it. We serve a global [aviation] market today. This airplane extends our reach in promoting our aviation heritage and Ohio’s aerospace business,” said John Bosch, chairman of Wright “B” Flyer Inc. “There’s no place in the world we can’t take this airplane.”
Dayton’s aviation heritage on display at world’s biggest air show
From left to right-Peter Cody, Eric Verdon-Roe (grandson of Alliot Verdon-Roe, founder of AVRO), Captain David Rowland (President, The Royal Aeronautical Society), Walt Hoy (Trustee, Wright "B" Flyer Inc.), Amanda Wright Lane (Great-grandneice of the Wright Brothers), Samuel Franklin John Cody. (Photo by Jessie Duckro)
The Dayton region’s aviation heritage is on display at the world’s largest air show as part of the Farnborough International Air Show's International Pioneers of Flight Pavilion today through July 20.
The National Aviation Heritage Alliance (NAHA) is participating in the 60th Farnborough International Airshow (FIA) in Farnborough, Hampshire, England, at the invitation of the air show’s producers. The producers had met Amanda Wright Lane, great-grandniece of Wilbur and Orville Wright, during NAHA’s participation in last year’s Paris Air Show in France.
“It is an absolute honor to have another country invite us and to recognize the importance of the Wright brothers. This may be a first – for multiple aviation pioneers to be celebrated together under one roof. People are walking away talking about it,” said Wright Lane.
The Pioneers of Flight Pavilion, with the help of living ancestors of great aviation pioneers, holds four accurate, full-scale replicas of early 20th century aircraft including the AVRO Biplane (1908), AVRO Triplane (1910), the Cody Flyer (1908), and the Wright "B" Flyer (1911). The original Wright "B" Flyer was designed to provide pilot training and reconnaissance for the US army Signal Corps and was used for that purpose from 1911 to 1914. The replica Wright "B" is being presented by volunteers from Wright "B" Flyer Inc., a NAHA partner, based in the Wright brother’s hometown, Dayton, Ohio. It is sponsored here by Makino, a global leader in metal cutting and manufacturing technology. Makino’s North American headquarters is located in Mason, Ohio, just south of Dayton.
Inspired by the success of the Wright brothers, Samuel Franklin Cody flew on October 16, 1908 on a field that would evolve to become the site of the FIA. This year’s participation by the Cody Flyer marks the 100th anniversary of the first flight in the United Kingdom. The AVRO company was founded in 1910 by Alliot Verdon Roe and was manufacturing airplanes in Great Britain at the same time the Wrights were building planes in Dayton.
On the show’s opening day, descendants of the three aviation pioneers — Samuel and Peter Cody, Eric Verdon-Roe and Amanda Wright Lane — gathered for the first time and met members of the international news media.
NAHA Chairman John Bosch, said FIA is an important venue for his organization. “Our presence here allows us to promote Dayton as the global center of aviation heritage and we hope, ultimately, that Farnborough visitors will become visitors to Dayton in the near future,” he said.
In addition to the Wright B Flyer 1911 replica, NAHA is presenting a simulator that allows visitors to virtually “fly” a Wright brother’s airplane over the Huffman Prairie Flying Field, the site near Dayton where the brothers perfected flight in 1904 and1905. Farnborough marks the first time this simulator, originally funded by the Wright Family Foundation in 2006, is being presented outside the United States.
FIA is the largest, most internationally attended aerospace event in the world and is a globally renowned showcase of aerospace equipment and technology. It provides a venue for the world’s civil and military aerospace suppliers and their customers to meet and finalize business transactions. More than $40 billion in orders were announced at the 2006 show.
The National Aviation Heritage Alliance (NAHA) is a private, not for profit corporation operating as the management entity of the Congressionally designated National Aviation Heritage Area, one of 40 national heritage areas in the United States. NAHA’s vision is for Dayton to become the recognized global center of aviation heritage and premier destination for aviation heritage tourism, sustaining the legacy of the Wright brothers. The National Aviation Heritage Area encompasses an eight county area (Montgomery, Greene, Miami, Clark, Warren, Champaign, Shelby, and Auglaize counties.)
Taiwanese children learn about Wright brothers
Henry Holt and Co. published Wee and the Wright Brothers in 2004. I have to admit it isn’t easy to find these days in Dayton-area bookstores, although the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historial Park stocks it in the Wright-Dunbar Interpretive Center’s gift shop. But now it’s available somewhere I never expected — Taiwan. Publisher Taiwan Emma licensed a Chinese-language version of the book. It’s out in hardcover, with a parent’s guide and an audio CD.
I don’t speak or read Chinese, so I’m not sure exactly how the book is being marketed or used in Taiwan. (I wasn’t sure Wee was really on the CD, which includes several books, until I heard the sputter of the Flyer’s engine and recognized the cadence of the text as it counted the twelve seconds of Orville’s — and Wee’s — first flight.) If you read Chinese, you might learn more by going to this page and scrolling down to the section about my book: http://www.taiwanemma.com.tw/e55.html
It’s gratifying to see one of my books published in a foreign language, but it’s more gratifying to know that I’ve helped spread the word about Dayton’s aviation heritage to another part of the world — especially one where Ohio and the Dayton region have significant economic and cultural ties.
This Chinese-language edition isn’t marketed in the USA, and it isn’t available online. I can place large orders if there is sufficient interest. Of course, it’s best paired with the English-language version! Contact me if you’re interested.
WACO Historical Society gets grant
Here's the press release:
Duke Foundation Renews Support of WACO for 2 More Years
The Paul G. Duke Foundation has awarded The WACO Historical Society, Inc. a grant of $40,000.00 to be used to provide operating support and the employment of the Executive Director of The WACO Historical Society for 2008 and 2009.
WACO President Dick AmRhein stated "The WACO Historical Society is grateful for the continued support from the Duke Foundation in an effort to move WACO to the next level of development."
Executive Director Karen Purke stated, "I am pleased that the Duke Foundation has reviewed Waco's progress in the past 2 years with favor and has chosen to renew their commitment in support of The WACO Historical Society's mission to "Preserve the Past and Inspire the Future" as showcased in our activities and events offered to the Miami Valley community."
The Paul G. Duke Foundation has been pivotal in the support of the WACO Historical Society by providing operating cost and funding the organization's first executive director. Recent development that has occurred since the foundation's involvement includes the renovation of an existing hangar , the move of the WACO Museum to the renovated space and the explanation of community programs.
The Paul G. Duke Foundation is a Supporting Foundation of The Columbus Foundation and targets grant awards for non profits in the Miami County and central Ohio regions. The Duke Foundation was founded in 1983 by Troy entrepreneur Paul G. Duke. Mr. Duke's daughter, Pat Robinson, is president of the Foundation and carries on the family's tradition of supporting the community.
The WACO Historical Society is a community based non-profit organization that has been in existence since 1978. Over the past 29 years, the 501(c)(3) organization has served a dual purpose: Preserving of the history of the WACO Aircraft and the "Golden Age of Flight" and the educating of young people in the areas of math, science, technology and history, using aviation themes as a means toward enhancing student enthusiasm and response to traditional classroom curriculum. WACO serves the Miami Valley area with The WACO Museum, educational programs for all ages and our community based events held on Historic WACO Field.
The organization is located in Troy, Ohio on a 79 acre site known as Historic WACO Field that features a grass runway specially built and designed for vintage aircraft. Historic WACO Field is in the process of evolving into a vintage airfield environment to engage the visitor on all sensory levels with the "Golden Age of Flight".
Celebrate 102 years of practical flight
Watch my eight-minute movie about the centennial celebration that was held
on Huffman Prairie in 2005, featuring comments by Historian Tom Crouch
and Mark Dusenberry's flights in his replica Wright Flyer III.
On October 5, 1905, the Wright brothers ushered the world into the age of practical flight. On that day Wilbur took off from Huffman Prairie in Greene County, Ohio, in their 1905 Flyer III. Flying circle after circle, he kept the machine aloft for more than 39 minutes, covering 24 miles in 29 laps at an average speed of 38 miles per hour. The flight marked the end of their six years of experimentation.
Huffman Prairie is now a part of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. It’s also a part of the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park and the National Aviation Heritage Area. On October 5, 2007, the National Park Service, the Air Force and the Aviation Heritage Foundation will hold a week of activities to celebrate the flight’s 102nd anniversary. The main event will be re-enactment of the flight by Mark Dusenberry in his Wright Flyer III replica.
The celebration will run from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. The field will be open to the public at 8 a.m. The main attraction will be Dusenberry's flight. The plan is for Dusenberry to make a straight-line flight with two 90-degree turns -- not a circle, but you should be able to see him bank and turn the airplane much as the Wright brothers did. (In 2005, he was not allowed to make any turns.) School programming will commence following the flight.
All events are free and open to the public, according to the National Park Service. Spectators are encouraged to bring chairs. Access to the flying field is through Gate 16A, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Fairborn, OH.
Near the prairie is the Huffman Prairie Flying Field Interpretive Center on Memorial Hill, where you can learn more about the leagacy of the Wright brothers, including the continuing research at Wright-Patterson. You can watch a film about the Wright brothes’s work and even try your hand at a 1911 Wright Flyer simulator.