Mark Dusenberry
Celebrate 102 years of practical flight
Friday, October 12, 2007 Categories: Aviaton
heritage
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.
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