First Wright Replica Flies

The Spirit of Glen Ellyn, the Wright Flyer reproduction we reported on last month, made its first flight at Bolingbrook, Illinois. Pilot Ken Kirincic had the honors and took the Flyer replica on a 136-foot flight, landing the fragile craft without incident. The Spirit of Glen Ellyn was the result of a four-year project by Wright Redux, founded by Tom Norton and Mark Miller and with engineering services donated by Packer Engineering. The team worked with information from Orville and Wilbur’s journals and from photographs, as well as from data derived from the original Flyer (hanging in the Smithsonian’s Air & Space Museum). Following a series of demonstration flights this fall, the Spirit of Glen Ellyn will be donated to Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry, where it will be on permanent display.