Wright Flyer Movie

[lazair]

With Thanks to Steve Robards,


Wright Flyer

For all those interested the Wright Flyer made two short flights
down the 2000ft runway at Narromine Australia. On Saturday morning
after a dedication from Dr Buzz Aldrin.
The registed full size replica had cost over $250,000 to research
and build. A certificate of approval and permit to fly were issued
only on the preceding Monday, leaving little time to do some testing
before the weekend. On Friday they had mechanical problems that took
until a few hours before the start of the airshow to fix. About 10am
the wind had dropped enough to do tenative runs down the runway to a
hight of 15ft at times coping with the slight gusts passing through
but well under control. With the wind direction the Flyer was quite
a long way from the crowd and made for shakey full zoom footage from
the camcorder. The flyer taxied under it's own power from the
display area and to the active runway it was at least three quarter
of a mile plus the backtrack for the second run then back to park
were it started would have put a couple of miles on it. it was man
handled at the end of the runway to turn it round 180 deg. The
replica did everything a aircraft was supposed to do. Further test
flights will continue with involvment of university of New South
Wales After flying off the required hrs it will be flown at Airshows
around Australia. Aparently the Flyer will not become a "hanger
queen" The two flights reminded me of the performance and control
of the early ultralights the speeds seemed the same. A few photos
are on the www.lazair.com forum and a couple of short videos in a
few days.
So if anyone is interested a couple of guys at Narromine have a set
of fully approved plans for a Wright Flyer Model A. Did not seem all
that hard to build either. Maybe they will sell copies one day.
I do belive i wittnessed a great reachievement in aviation history.
A very exciting day had by all.

[uscgairdale]

Wow, that's really neat!.......I would like to see some footage of it flying.

Dave

[ozzie]