Curtiss-Wright Corporation announced today that the company founded by three of aviation’s greatest pioneers will play a major role when the Wright Brothers’ historic first flight is recreated in painstaking detail next December along the sands of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
The international company has signed on as a major sponsor of the Wright Experience, the non-profit organization based in Warrenton, Va., that has built what could be the world’s most historically accurate replica of the famous airplane that proved powered flight by man was possible. “It’s pretty easy to build a Wright Flyer replica that looks like the first plane, but it’s very difficult to build one that is an exact reproduction,” says Wright Experience Founder Ken Hyde. “Building this flyer was the ultimate reverse engineering job with a major catch – we had to ignore what we had learned over the past 100 years and embrace the Wright brothers’ way of thinking.” The aircraft performed well in recent wind tunnel trials, a significant accomplishment according to aviation experts. The replica’s real test, however, will be at 10:35 a.m. on Dec. 17, 2003, when pilots using the model will re-enact the historic flight exactly 100 years (to the minute) later. Full Story.
