DAYTON, Ohio — The National Aviation Heritage Alliance (NAHA) and its partners will celebrate the 112th anniversary of the Wright brothers’ first powered flights with a series of events in the Dayton area on Dec. 17.
Between 10 and 11 a.m., NAHA officials and Ohio Rep. Rick Perales will join officials from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park on Wright Memorial Hill for the annual commemoration.
Perales will present House Concurrent Resolution 8, sponsored by him and passed by both chambers of the Ohio legislature, repudiating Connecticut for claiming the Wright brothers were not the first to fly a powered, heavier-than-air machine. NAHA supported the resolution.
NAHA officials will also announce the winner of the fourth annual Mitch Cary-Don Gum Memorial Aviation Scholarship, an award of $1,500 toward a pilot’s license.
Greg Herrick, owner of the Golden Wings Flying Museum in Blaine, Minn., and a nationally recognized restorer of rare aircraft, will be guest speaker.
At 10:35 a.m., the exact moment of Orville Wright’s first powered flight at Kitty Hawk, N.C., pilots from MACAIR Aviation at Greene County-Lewis A. Jackson Airport will fly over the ceremony in a four-airplane formation, weather permitting.
At 2 p.m., NAHA will open the unrestored Wright Company Factory — America’s first airplane factory — for the final monthly tour of the season.
At 6:30 p.m., Herrick will speak about “Saving Airplanes and Telling their Stories” as keynote speaker at Aviation Trail’s annual First Flight Anniversary event, scheduled this year at Dayton History’s Carillon Historical Park. Herrick’s museum includes approximately 30 restored rare aircraft, including the first airplane owned by the National Park Service, a 1927 Fairchild FC-2W-2.