Bringing flight to life

摘要

The 100th anniversary of flight is lifting the profile of the Wright Brothers, and many aviation enthusiasts are attempting to build working replicas of the Flyer. Most people think there's a wealth of factual information about the brothers, whose crowning moment is enshrined on U.S. quarters from two states, but Wright enthusiasts feel there's a shroud of mystery around the way they accomplished a goal that some said couldn't be done. At the core of the celebrations of the Wright's momentous success on December 17, 1903, are a handful of attempts to recreate Wright Flyers, some authentic down to the last piece, others altered to make them a bit easier to fly at public demonstrations. As they construct their replicas, these archaeologists find historians have often created colorful descriptions that don't have any basis in fact. The brothers themselves helped create some of the misunderstanding.