Preserving the History of Flight

Over the Back Fence Magazine | Summer 2004

Fragile wings of courage and curiosi­ty changed the world in just 12 short seconds when Orville Wright flew 120 feet.   It was on December 17, 1903 about 10:35 a.m. on the cold wind swept sand dunes of Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina where a camera cap­tured the moment.  Little did Orville and Wilber Wright know that their invention was the first step toward breaking the sound barrier and walking on the moon.

The Wright brothers produced and repaired bicycles. They were extremely thin, known for their starched collar suits and were profoundly shy around women and never married.   But, they were far more than bicycle makers; they were mechanical wizards that became the aeronautical engineers of their time. A simple wind-up toy had triggered the Wright's imagination of flight. Orville and Wilbur had to be secretive of their inventions to keep ahead of competitors and to secure a patent for their flying machine. It took four years of arduous nonstop work and revolutionary think­ing to achieve those 12 seconds that altered the world's future.

This past year The Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park and area museums hosted over 650,000 visi­tors to observe the 100th year of the first manned flight.   "This park began as a grassroots effort by local people who felt Dayton was losing its history," explains Julia Frasure, park guide. "The local residents formed The Aviation Trail Inc., a non-profit organi­zation that began with a small group of volunteers to identify aviation sights around Dayton. Thus far, they have identified and preserved 47 sites. The National Park consists of four major cornerstones: the Wright Cycle Company Complex, the Paul Laurence Dunbar House, the Huffman Prairie Flying Field, and the Carillon Historical Park."

The Wright Cycle Company Complex

is located in the West 3rd Street Historical District and consists of The Wright Cycle Company building, the Wright-Dunbar Interpretive Center and Aviation Trail Visitor Center. The Wright Cycle Company building still stands as a reminder of the Wright brother's humble beginnings. They built bicycles, which became the trans­portation craze at the turn of the centu­ry, and helped in their inventive think­ing. The Visitor and Interpretive Centers are located within the Hoover Block Building, which once housed Wright & Wright, Job Printers.   Orville had dropped out of high school at the age of 17 and became a printer's apprentice.  He began his own printing business after Wilber helped him build a printing press using scrap materials with buggy parts and a tombstone. Soon they were in the printing business publishing their own newspaper, WEST SIDE NEWS.

The historic Hoover Block Building exhibits a replica of the original print shop and is dedicated to the history of flight. The Wright-Dunbar Interpretive Center explains the connections and timeline of history.   "An interpretive center is more than just a museum that displays artifacts, it explains things, and there are interactive displays to educate the visitor," explains Julia.


The Paul Laurence Dunbar House

Another connection to the Wright Brothers is the literary genius Paul Laurence Dunbar, known as the African-American Voice of the Heartland.   Dunbar had attended school with the Wright brothers and was a famous poet. He had published 21 books and was the editor of another local newspaper entitled, Dayton Tattler, which the Wrights printed. Visitors can view his personal effects along with his Remington typewriter with his last unfinished poem.  The Paul Laurence Dunbar House, now a cornerstone of the National Historical Park is located at 219 Paul Laurence Dunbar Street.

Huffman Prairie Flying Field & Huffman Interpretive Center

The third major cornerstone of the National Park is the Huffman Prairie Flying Field and the newly constructed Huffman Interpretive Center (2380 Memorial Road), which is located on the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. At the Huffman Interpretive Center one can view the Wright Memorial from an overlook about 2 miles away from the flying field.  The Center's focus is on how the Wrights perfected their flying machines and how they were part of the founding of America's Air Force.

The Huffman Prairie Field, where the very first fully maneuverable flight in history occurred, is located at Gate 16A on the Air Force Base. This is sacred land for many pilots.   By 1910, after testing various working designs, the Wright Brothers came up with the Wright Flyer III and began the Wright Company School of Aviation, training 119 pilots (four of whom were women). At the flying field one can view a fully reconstructed flight hanger located on the original site and the derrick catapult system, which they used to launch the planes from a rail system.  This was needed due to the un-predictable winds in Ohio unlike the first Kill Devil Hills flight.  The catapult system was the forerunner to the system used to launch fighters from naval aircraft carriers today.

Carillon Historical Park & John W. Berry Sr. Wright Brothers Aviation Center

The fourth cornerstone to the National Park is the Carillon Historical Park, located at 1000 Carillon Blvd., where the John W. Berry Sr. Wright Brothers Aviation Center is located. The original 1905 Wright Flyer III air­plane is housed there along with numerous items like two original 1904 propellers, the very camera that took the first flight photo and the Singer sewing machine that was used to make the wing coverings.  Also connected to the center is a replica of the Wright's fifth and final bicycle shop.   In this reconstruction one may view an origi­nal Van Cleve bicycle (only 5 known in existence) produced by the Wright brothers and see wind tunnel testing equipment that helped them to master the mathematics of flight. The park also offers 25 historical buildings and structures situated on 65-acres.  The towering musical Deeds Carillon is the tallest in Ohio and a major landmark for Dayton.   Director Sharon Smith stresses, "It is our hope that people leave with a great sense of the inven­tiveness that came from the Miami Valley.   So many inventions came from this area.  We try to project that energy and mindset to invoke creative thinking."

For further information on the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Park, contact the park headquarters at: P.O. Box 9280, Wright Brothers Station, Dayton, OH 45409.
Pkone: (513) 225-7705 or visit their website at: www.nps.gov/daav