Aviators mark century of flight
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Crew members roll the replica plane down the flight rail in Kill Devil Hills.
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KILL DEVIL HILLS, North Carolina (Reuters) -- Playing the role of Orville Wright, a 21st-century aviator will try on Wednesday to reenact the first powered human flight 100 years ago before a constellation of legendary fliers.
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, the first men to walk on the moon, Chuck Yeager, the test pilot who first broke the sound barrier and John Glenn, one of the first and then the oldest astronaut, were among the pilots expected to join U.S. President George W. Bush to mark the centennial of flight.
On a muddy field in Kill Devil Hills on North Carolina's Outer Banks, 42-year-old Kevin Kochersberger will attempt to recreate the 12-second, 120-foot (36-meter) flight on December 17, 1903, in a replica of the wood-and-muslin flying machine with which Orville and Wilbur Wright made history.
Kochersberger, a flight instructor and an associate professor of mechanical engineering at the Rochester Institute of Technology, was set to try the first flight at 10:35 a.m. EST (1535 GMT), the same moment Orville Wright soared over the sand dunes 100 years earlier.
Another attempt will be made later on Wednesday before a crowd expected to number in the tens of thousands.
"We don't intend to go over 120 feet. We intend to keep the Wrights' record intact," Kochersberger said.
Organizers are not certain that the replica Wright Flyer, a 605-pound (274 kg) biplane with a 40-foot (12-meter) wingspan and powered by a 12-horsepower gasoline engine, will fly on Wednesday.
The plane, with a top speed of just 30 mph (48 kph), crashed at least once in trials but flew on other occasions.
There also were concerns that the weather could turn ugly on Wednesday after Tuesday's sunshine and calm at the First Flight celebrations in Kill Devil Hills.
"If the wings get moist it's not a problem," Kochersberger said of the replica. "If it's a torrential downpour we may have a problem."
Many of the world's aviation pioneers have gathered in the Outer Banks to celebrate the Wrights' feat, along with descendants of the bachelor brothers and of Charles Lindbergh, the first man to fly solo across the Atlantic.
The location where the Wright brothers flew was part of the area known in 1903 as Kitty Hawk, which became famous around the world as the birthplace of powered flight. But the site, in the shadow of Kill Devil Hill, is now part of the town of Kill Devil Hills, which was created in 1953.
Kitty Hawk still exists as a town just north of Kill Devil Hills.
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Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
