Centennial of Powered Flight
Jun. 30th, 2003 10:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poltr1This month (July), the city of Dayton and the surrounding counties are pulling out all the stops to celebrate A Century of Flight. Invented Here. Nearly everyone knows that the Wright Brothers -- Orville and Wilbur -- were the first ones to successfully attempt powered flight.
Although the first flight was at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina -- as the people from North Carolina like to remind us -- the Wrights called Dayton their home. They had a series of bicycle shops on West Third St. (There was also one on Williams St., but it was moved to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, a number of years ago.) Their test field on the Huffman Prairie is now part of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
The Wrights are a big part of local history, if not the biggest. Naturally, the Wright flyer is the most recognized symbol around here. There is a replica of the Wright flyer at Carillon Park near downtown Dayton, and there's another replica at a small airport near Springboro, about a 15-minute drive from downtown on I-75.
For the next two weeks, there will be a festival commemmorating this historic event, at Deeds Point (where the Great Miami and Mad rivers confluence). There will be lots of fly-ins, historical exhibits, balloons, blimps, and displays of aircraft. It will all end with an annual Dayton tradition -- the Dayton Air Show, which will run from Thursday 7/17 to Sunday 7/20. This year, they'll feature the US Air Force Thunderbirds, the US Navy Blue Angels, and the Canadian RAF Snowbirds. I don't believe all three groups have ever been at the same air show before.
It should be an interesting month. And it will be "fun" to dodge the heavier-than-usual traffic.
Although the first flight was at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina -- as the people from North Carolina like to remind us -- the Wrights called Dayton their home. They had a series of bicycle shops on West Third St. (There was also one on Williams St., but it was moved to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, a number of years ago.) Their test field on the Huffman Prairie is now part of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
The Wrights are a big part of local history, if not the biggest. Naturally, the Wright flyer is the most recognized symbol around here. There is a replica of the Wright flyer at Carillon Park near downtown Dayton, and there's another replica at a small airport near Springboro, about a 15-minute drive from downtown on I-75.
For the next two weeks, there will be a festival commemmorating this historic event, at Deeds Point (where the Great Miami and Mad rivers confluence). There will be lots of fly-ins, historical exhibits, balloons, blimps, and displays of aircraft. It will all end with an annual Dayton tradition -- the Dayton Air Show, which will run from Thursday 7/17 to Sunday 7/20. This year, they'll feature the US Air Force Thunderbirds, the US Navy Blue Angels, and the Canadian RAF Snowbirds. I don't believe all three groups have ever been at the same air show before.
It should be an interesting month. And it will be "fun" to dodge the heavier-than-usual traffic.
