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Plane flies for Wright brothers

USU students celebrate 100-year anniversary

Thr, Mar 13, 2003



The Associated Press

WENDOVER -- Utah State University students sent an updated version of the 100-year-old plane used by the Wright brothers in their first flight to the skies Wednesday.

The plane, which is powered with a Harley-Davidson motorcycle engine and built with modern composite metals, flew about 10 feet above ground for 7,000 feet. It went as high as 75 feet on a different flight. The Wright brothers" craft flew 120 feet on Dec. 17, 1903.

The professors and students who built the plane had to make some minor modifications that would make the craft flyable by modern standards.

The engine on the 2003 version is six inches forward from the spot it held in the 1903 plane. It also has two seats, to spare a modern passenger the discomfort one Wright brother had when he lay on the lower wing.

"My thought was, "If the Wright brothers were alive today, how would they build that airplane?"," said Dave Widaus, USU aeronautics professor and director of the Wright Brothers Flyer Project.

Former Utah senator and astronaut Jake Garn will pilot the plane at various stops across the country, including one in Dayton, Ohio, this summer.

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\"A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week. \"

George S. Patton

Now THAT'S a history lesson.

Thanks for sharing Thug.