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Beyond Kitty Hawk

Posted by Gregory on Fri Dec 19, 2003 01:52:43 PM

In reply top Kitty Hawk posted by AIRIC on Thu Dec 18, 2003 11:49:17 PM

The US media seem to have missed the fact that two Flyers did fly on December 17, 2003.

The first one was Giancarlo Zanardo's reproduction, which took off from Guidonia airport, near Rome, at 1035 local (GMT +1). Giancarlo made two passes. On the second one, he dropped the wheels and flew along the grass runway while the Italian AF aerobatic team flew over with their tricolour smokes on. Impressive. T0 round off the day, the Italian AF Museum ran its original 1909 Wright engine, recently restored by Leonardo Sordi. A very historic engine, it was originally fitted to the Flyer in which the first Italian pilot earned his wings.
Pics are posted on the ITAF website (www.aeronautica.difesa.it).

In France, a group of engineering students from the ESTACA school in Lyon got their repro off the ground for a few seconds. The aircraft had been displayed at the Le Bourget show this year, but I have scant other details.

For those interested, I have a 1.2 Mb clip of the French Flyer doing its thing.

Gregory

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