We had a couple hours to kill in Dayton, so we decided to visit the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park, which celebrates the Wright Brothers who lived and worked in the city. Our first stop was Huffman Prairie Flying Field Interpretive Center, where the brothers improved the airplane from a gimmick to a practical machine. We ran into a small problem — although the web site said it would be open every day, it was closed. A sign on the door of the visitor center said it was closed on Mondays and Tuesdays after November 3. That’s fine. They probably don’t get enough traffic to make it worthwhile to be open. But it would be nice if they updated the Internet.
Anyway, it was 8 degrees out, with a windchill of about -20. I jumped out to take a photo of the monument and look at the field, which I don’t think I actually managed to find. It’s down the hill and to the left from where I took this photo.
The monument, which was dedicated on August 19, 1940 (Orville’s 69th birthday) reads:
In commemoration of the courage, perseverance and achievements of Wilbur and Orville Wright. Through original research the Wright Brothers acquired scientific knowledge and developed theories of aerodynamics which with their invention of aileron control enabled them in 1903 to build and fly at Kitty Hawk the first power-driven man-carrying aeroplane capable of flight.
Their further development of the aeroplane gave it a capacity for service which established aviation as one of the great forward steps in human progress.
As scientists Wilbur and Orville Wright discovered the secret of flight. As inventors, builders and flyers they brought aviation to the world.
We’d found out that Huffman Prairie was closed, contrary to the web page, but surely the main visitor center for Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park would be open, right?
Wrong. We checked. I took a quick photo of The Wright Cycle Company, one of the actual buildings in which the brothers operated their business. They worked here from 1895 to 1897. (The building in which they actually designed their plane has been moved to Greenfield Village in Michigan.)
All the National Park sites celebrating the Wright Brothers were closed, so there was nothing left for us to do but find one of the many monuments scattered about town.
This one is next to the Dayton Engineers Club, built by a group of inventors from the city. Orville Wright was president for a while. A statue has been built next door, showing Wilbur flying the 1905 Wright Flyer while Orville runs alongside and tries to hand him a chair.
Sunday night’s snow had left several inches on Orville’s face. I tried to scrape some of it off, but it was caked on pretty solidly.
Four inches of snow and temperatures in the single digits in mid-November pretty much brought things to a halt in Dayton. For example, there was nobody in the park along the Great Miami River, right across the street from the sculpture.
