DAYTON — 118 years after Orville and Wilbur Wright’s historic flights in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Wright family members are donating some of the last remaining wing coverings from the original Wright Flyer to Carillon Historical Park.
According to a release, 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.
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The Wright Brothers’ great grandniece and nephew, Amanda Wright-Lane and Stephen Wright, donated the family’s largest sections of the muslin that covered the lower left wing of the 1903 Wright Flyer.
“Uncles Wilbur and Orville Wright would be pleased to know that part of their 1903 Wright Flyer, the machine that launched the Space Age, is going to be preserved for future generations by a museum of Carillon Park’s stature,” Wright-Lane said.
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Brady Kress, Carillon Park’s President, said the fabric represented a connection to “one of the most spectacular achievements in human history.