Wright Brothers
An Engineering Challenge: Designing Wright "B" Flyer's "Silver Bird"
Tuesday, October 07, 2008 Categories: Aviation
heritage | Air Shows
and aerobatics
UPDATE::
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
A one-of-a-kind lookalike of the Wright
brothers’ first production airplane is making its
public debut from Monday through Wednesday, October
6-8, at the National Business Aviation
Association’s (NBAA’s) annual convention in Orlando,
Fla. (NBAA news release.)
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.”
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
Tuesday, July 15, 2008 Categories: Aviaton
heritage
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
Monday, January 28, 2008 Categories: Books and
writing | Aviaton
heritage
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.
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.