Flight in the Ohio Heritage

in commemoration of the courage, perseverance, and achievements of Wilbur and Orville Wright. The monument stands on a hill overlooking what was once Terrence Huffman's cow pasture before the Wright brothers made it the world's first airirst strip. Today it overlooks the great Wright Patterson Air Force Base at Dayton, a world center of aviation progress. In the history of flight in the Ohio heritage, the place where these buildings and laboratories and runways stand is hallowed ground. For it was here that flight began in the Ohio heritage. >> [music] >> There had been some success with lighter than air machines. In 1835, Ohio's Richard Clayton set a world's record traveling 350 mi in a free balloon. In 194, Roy Nabensu of Toledo made history by building a version of the lighter than airship that could be guided. That is more or less the idea of flight is as old as man. In Greek mythology, Icarus tried it and failed. So did Leonardo da Vinci and so did a series of inventors. [music] >> [music] [music] [music] >> But the Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, like so many men before them, sought to build a machine that could be driven by its own power through the air. For eight years, Wilbur and Orville Wright spent all the money they earned from their bicycle repair business and all the time they could afford away from it trying to determine [music] the basic principles of flight. To learn aerodynamics, they built a series of gliders. [music] They discovered that by warping the wings, they could control flight. The principle of wing warping has been called the most important [music] single contribution ever made to the science of flight. By the time their first machine was ready, they had spent eight years and $1,000 developing it. The Wrights designed every component of their airplane themselves, including the engine. On the clear, brisk morning [music] of December 17th, 1903, with Orville at the controls, the plane took off and remained airborne for [music] 12 seconds, during which time it traveled 120 ft. [music] That was the beginning. And while the world was slow to accept the idea that man could finally fly, development of the airplane and the struggle to control the air and space beyond have so influenced our lives that the story of flight is a kind of history of the 20th century. Aware of this, the United States Congress created the Aviation Hall of Fame to keep the flight record, so to speak. And in 1923, the United [music] States Air Force established at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton the Air Force Museum. People come here from all over the world, half a million a year, to see and study the history of military flight. The exhibit includes nearly a hundred real aircraft, and it tells a vivid story of the men who made them and the men who flew them on urgent missions in peace time [music] and through the fires of war. >> [music] >> The story starts with the first military airplane in the world. By 198, the Wright brothers had convinced the army that their flying machine might have military significance. The first official military test of an airplane was held in 199. [music] The following year, Orville exceeded the [music] endurance requirements set by the army. He remained a loft an hour and 12 minutes and on another flight achieved the stipulated speed of 40 m an hour. The Wright brothers were paid $25,000 for the plane and given a $5,000 bonus for exceeding the specifications they had been given. By 1910, a few daredevils like Glenn Curtis, a motorcycle racer turned aviator, were making headlines. In August of that year, Curtis flew a plane like this 60 miles overwater from Cleveland to Cedar Point, achieving a speed of 60 m an hour and again drawing national attention to Ohio and aviation. Curtis became a designer and builder of aircraft and by the time of the first world war his company was building one of the most famous airplanes of all time, the JN4D, known to everyone as the Jenny. It was the training plane for the pilots of World War I. It was developed by combining the best features of two different Curtis planes, the J and the N models. Considering the stresses these planes were subjected to, their wire bracraced wooden construction was a kind of miracle of engineering and ingenuity. In flight too, the Jenny was a miraculous performer. It had a top speed of 75 mph and could stay aloft for 2 and 1/2 hours. The Jenny was used for primary flight training, but a few were equipped with machine guns and bomb racks for advanced training. After the war, deathdeying aerial acrobats and stunt flyers used jennies to put on flight exhibitions at Ohio fairs and public events. [music] [music] These popular shows were what really sold aviation to the American public. The best known flyer of that war and one of Ohio's great air pioneers was Eddie Rekenbecker of Columbus. This drawing of him by the famous Ohio artist and cartoonist Milton Kenneth is in the Aviation Hall of Fame. Reinbecker flew a plane like this. The SPAD 7. It made its initial flight in 1916 and became the fighter of World War I. Its top speed was 127 mph and it could stay a 2 and 1/2 hours. It was in 1918 that Eddie Rickenbacher first reported at the famous Hat in the Ring Squadron, the 94th. He became commanding officer of the 94th and by the end of the war was America's leading ace, having shot down 22 enemy planes and four balloons. Eddie Rickenbacher went on from there to a career that made him one of the great men of American aviation. Another famous airplane of the First World War was the DH4, [music] a British designed plane that was built in America. [music] The Wright Airplane Company of Dayton was the largest manufacturer of these planes. When the armistice was signed, 3,431 of these planes had been built. It's interesting to note that during the 19 months the United States was in World War I, the nation produced 50% more planes than Great [music] Britain did in more than 2 and 1/2 years, and Great Britain was the allies biggest producer. A DH4 carried the [music] first airman. President Woodrow Wilson was on hand to inaugurate the service in 1918. The plane was to deliver mail from Washington to Philadelphia, but for some reason the pilot got lost and the mailbag arrived by train after all. Between the wars, Americans discovered aviation. Flying became an accepted mode of travel, daring at first and then quite common place. Thousands of Ohioans who served in the Air Force in World War II come to the Air Force Museum to renew their acquaintance with the planes they flew and knew in that war. One of the best known of these is the North American T6G. It was the Jenny of World War II. Practically every American fighter pilot won his wings in this trainer. The Army Air Force alone had 10,000 of these planes [music] in service. In the museum's living album of airplanes that [music] made history, one of the great ones is the Curtis P40. While it was often outclassed in speed and maneuverability, the P40 was always in the thick of the action in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, the South Pacific. By 1944, the P40s were replaced by faster planes. But the brilliant record of the men who flew them, thousands of Ohioans among them in our heritage of flight. Another of the milestone airplanes that stirs the memories of Ohio War veterans is the B7 Flying Fortress. It was designed in 1934 to be powered by four engines when other bombers in the world had only two. It was to be America's ace in the hole against the mighty German air force. And so it proved to be. 12,700 flying fortresses were built by thousands of American men and women working long and dedicated hours on the nation's assembly lines. If one airplane can be said to have won the long struggle for control of the air, it [music] would be the B7. [music] By the time this B-36 bomber was flown for the first time on August the 8th, 1946, America had built the mightiest air force the world had ever seen. The B-36 was a dramatic symbol of that might. [music] It had a range of 10,000 mi, was powered by the equivalent of 43,000 horsepower. The B-36 was never used in combat, but its existence was a deterrent to aggressors anywhere. For the same reason, the Strategic Air Commands B-52s have by their very existence influenced the course of world history. To these mighty planes, no place on earth is beyond range, a fact well known and respected in every capital of the world. Today, planes like the Delta Dart, capable of flying 1525 mph and as high as 50,000 ft, are operated electronically. The Delta Dart is designed to fly in any kind of weather at all. Soon after the pilot takes off, the electronic guidance system takes over. With the pilot as passenger, the plane climbs to the proper altitude, flies to the attack position, fires its rocket powered missiles at enemy aircraft, breaks off the attack run, and returns the plane to the general area of the air base automatically. Then the pilot takes over control [music] and lands the plane. So you see, flight and Ohio have come a long way together, and there is much to see, much to remember in Dayton, where the Air Force keeps its memories. To make sure they will be remembered, the Air Force Museum Foundation, a nonprofit Ohio corporation, has been organized to build and equip a new museum to house with a permanence and dignity they deserve these priceless exhibits. They are in themselves a kind of history of the 20th century. Here at the Air Force Museum are living monuments to the builders and flyers who have brought flight from these humble beginnings to the awesome force and versatile service it [music] is today. in the Ohio heritage. [music] [bell] [music] [music] Heat. Heat. [music] [bell] [music]