Orville Wright Fly's the Connie

 

OROVILLE WRIGHT FLY's AGAIN!

After all of the fanfare and press coverage of the historic flight on April 17, 1944, the Constellation was flown up to Dayton Ohio at Wright Field where Oroville Wright boarded the new super-plane 41 years after his historic flight of the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk , North Carolina. This must have been an incredible thrill for the pioneer of powered flight to again climb into the vast cockpit and control over 8,000 horsepower! Quite a leap from his flimsy flying machine of only 12 horsepower wouldn’t you say?

Caption reads,

This was another red-letter day in the life of the Constellation. At Wright Field, headquarters of the AAF Material Command. Oroville Wright, who piloted the first heavier than air flight 41 years ago, boarded the Connie for a demonstration hop. The wing span of the Constellation is 123 feet, three feet longer than the distance the pioneer aircraft designer and flyer covered in his historic first flight in 1903. Wright sat at the controls of the Connie for a few minutes. Later he commented: “I guess I ran the whole plane for a minute but I let the machine take care of itself. I always said airplanes would fly themselves if you left them alone.”

 

Oroville Wright quote in TWA Skyliner Magazine spot, May, 1944.

Images above courtesy WHMCKC

 

Above is what Oroville saw when he stepped

into the cockpit of the Connie. WOW!

(courtesy airliners.net)

 

 

 

Image courtesy Jon Proctor, 2013

 

 

It’s just a wonderful thing to know that Orville, on the final flight of his life, flew this giant airliner Jack Frye originally conceived in 1937. For Jack Frye to have this connection in aviation history is a very special privilege to have been a part of.