Following the Footsteps of the Wright Brothers (continued from page 9)

The Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, Detroit, Michigan

Away from the hustle and bustle of the motor city of Detroit in nearby Dearborn is the Henry Ford Transportation Museum and Greenfield Village. In the village you will find the original Wright bicycle shop where the brothers crafted the Kitty Hawk flying machine. Right next door is the very house the Wrights grew up in on 7 Hawthorne Street.

Henry Ford had a tremendous interest in aviation and became a friend of the Wrights. Being an eccentric, Mr. Ford decided he wanted the shops and homes of the great inventors of the time in one spot for all to see. With Orville's blessing, he moved both the house and the bicycle shop from Dayton to Dearborn. The original foundation is still in Dayton and is one of the sites on the Aviation Trail. There is also one of the Wright Bicycle shops in Dayton, but the workshop they spent the most time creating the flyer is the one moved to Dearborn. You can also see Thomas Edison's laboratory among many other historic buidlings.

The museum is going to open a special exhibit in September honoring the centennial of flight. For more information you can go to their website at http://www.hfmgv.org/default.asp or call 313-982-6001.

7 Hawthorne Street as it sits in Greenfield Village.

Bicycles were their business.

In the back of the bicycle shop is a recreation of the development of the flyer as it probably looked before the 1903 flight.

And Beyond...

At the end of this month my family and I will be going to our nation's capitol, Washington D.C. That means I will definitely be making a stop at the Smithsonian and will feast my eyes on the real 1903 flyer for the first time. I will probably stare in awe as I have with the other places I have been where the brothers once stood, and wonder how they might have looked as they created the marvel of the airplane that we love so much. I am thrilled my son is growing up to appreciate the determination and sacrifice real heroes like the Wrights made, and hope he will pass that torch on to a new generation. I also will be going to Kitty Hawk in December for the centennial and will report back then. So get out there an take in some of your aviation ancestory! It's a lot closer than you think. If you have any stories you would like to share concerning the centennial of flight, please send it to me to post in your Wing Tips newsletter.

– Keith Marshall, kmsoars@att.net