On Dec. 17, 1903, Orville Wright made the first successful flight on the beaches of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. He and his brother, Wilbur, made three more historic flights that day.
Now, 118 years later, some of the last remaining wing coverings from that original Wright Flyer have been donated to Carillon Historical Park in Dayton, Ohio.
The Wright brothers covered their flying machine’s wings with “Pride of the West” muslin purchased at the Rike Dry Goods Company in downtown Dayton.
Amanda Wright-Lane and Stephen Wright, the Wright brothers’ great grandniece and nephew, have donated the family’s largest five foot wide sections of the muslin that covered the lower left wing of the 1903 Wright Flyer to Carillon Historical Park.
After the 1903 flight, the Wright brothers stored the airplane in a shed behind their home on Hawthorn Street in Dayton. In 1926, before he sent the airplane to England for display at the British Science Museum, Orville put new muslin on the plane and put the original muslin in storage. After his death in 1948, the original muslin was given to members of the Wright family.
“The fabric represents a tangible connection with one of the most spectacular achievements in human history,” noted Brady Kress, Carillon Park’s president. “Our museum’s founder, Edward A. Deeds, worked closely with his friend Orville Wright to establish at Carillon Park what is now the Wright Brothers National Museum. Carillon Park’s collection contains more three-dimensional Wright family artifacts than any other institution in the world, and displays much of it in its Wright Brothers National Museum complex at Carillon Park. We are thrilled to add the 1903 muslin to this collection.”