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In 1973, a number of air-minded individuals at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base decided to built a flyable lookalike of the Wright brothers’ first production aircraft. The project began in 1975. Research revealed that detailed construction drawings of the original Wright B Military Flyer did not exist, so the planners decided to use the non-flying, highly modified Model B in the Air Force Museum as a template. Important modifications to this airplane included ailerons instead of wing warping and a control wheel instead of the original control levers. Modern engineering and materials were used to design and build an airplane that would look like a Model B but meet modern airworthiness standards. The result was a robust aircraft with a steel structure and a modern aircraft engine. Its empty weight is 3,400 lbs., compared to the 1,400 pound loaded weight of the machine on which it’s based. |
