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Annual events would please Wright brothers, great-grandnephew says

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By Lou Grieco, Staff Writer Updated 6:35 AM Friday, December 18, 2009

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE — When the Wright brothers made history 106 years ago, the United States was 45 states large, Coca-Cola still contained cocaine, and polio vaccine developer Jonas Salk had not been born.

“We take so much of the modern world for granted,” said U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Paul Sampson, keynote speaker for the First Flight ceremony on Thursday, Dec. 17. “What a life they had.”

The annual wreath-laying at Wright Memorial Hill brought dozens of aviation fans, Air Force officials and some Wright relatives. Most stayed for a press conference afterward, during which representatives of the National Aviation Heritage Alliance partner organization revealed plans for events to celebrate flight history in 2010, some of which included:

Wright B Flyer Inc. will have a Nov. 7 flight from WPAFB to Columbus to commemorate the first transport of commercial cargo in an aircraft.
A Wright Flyer G Aeroboat exhibit will open at Carillon Historical Park.
The oldest flying DC3 will appear at the July 2010 Vectren Dayton Air Show.

Anthony Sculimbrene, NAHA executive director, said the region’s history was a “tool in the economic development toolbox,” and said alliance partners were more closely coordinating their efforts to plan activities and market the region.

For more updates and a list of links to partner organizations, go to NAHA’s Web site, visitNAHA.com.

In other developments, the National Aviation Hall of Fame announced four inductees for the Class of 2010, including the previously announced Clay Lacy, a business aviation icon and videographer for many Hollywood movies, including “Top Gun” and “The Right Stuff.”

The other three are Capt. Alan Bean, astronaut and lunar module pilot on Apollo 12, man’s second lunar landing; Warren G. Grimes, father of aircraft lighting and inventor of aircraft navigation instruments; and Noel Wien, Arctic flight expert and founder of Wien Alaska Airlines, one of the nation’s oldest.

Stephen Wright, great-grandnephew of the Wright brothers, said Wilbur and Orville would be pleased by the continued recognition in a city where they were largely anonymous in 1903.

“Obviously, that was an event that changed world history,” said Wright of Oakwood, who laid the wreath before attending the press conference. “We’re still all about aviation in this town.”

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