Author: Don Adams

As of 06/05/2023, the Wright “B” Flyer, Inc.  museum and hangar will be open for the public to visit our Wright B Flyer hangar on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Business hours are during the hours of  9am thru 12 noon. Also, orientation flights in the Wright-B-Flyer lookalike are not possible at this time.  Final FAA test flights for new modifications will soon be finished. Upon FAA acceptance,the Wright Flyer lookalike will once again become eligible for orientation flights. 

Wright “B” Flyer, Inc. will put the Valentine Flyer on Static Display at For Sam Houston on May 5 and 6, 2018. This aircraft, shown here, is a near replica for the first military aircraft that the Wright Brothers delivered to the US Army Signal Corps in 1909. It was built in the 1970s by Tom and Nancy Valentine who were living in California at that time.

Members of the Wounded Warriors Amputee Softball Team (WWAST) were in the Dayton, Ohio area on Saturday, October 14 to play two softball games at Wright State University.  For those who may not know, these are folks who lost limbs in the service of their country and then made the long arduous journey back through rehabilitation to gain a semblance of normalcy.  These wounded warriors, however, went even further, setting and achieving the goal of once again playing sports.

But on Friday the 13th of October, some of the team members didn’t play softball.  Rather, they and some of their families traveled to the Wright “B” Flyer hangar at the Dayton-Wright Brothers Airport in southern Montgomery County.  And, while at the hangar, they toured the museum and dined, and several took orientation rides on the Wright “B” Flyer lookalike.

It was an exciting experience for them.  But it was an honor for us to have made a little better, in some small way, the lives of a few who gave so much when they answered their country’s call.  The photos included here are Courtesy of Richard Smith.

The Wright “B” Half-Scale Flyer won the Trustees Award at Centerville’s 2017 Americana parade.  The award is given every year for the best float in the parade based on theme, originality and attractiveness.  This is the third time that the Half-Scale Flyer has won that award.  The Half-Scale depicts the day (May 25, 1910) when Orville Wright took his father, Bishop Milton Wright, for his one and only flight.   

Wright B Flyer contributed a year’s membership for a raffle drawing that was held at the 2017 Boys State Gymnastic Meet.  The meet was held on March 25 and 26, 2017 at the Gymnastics Training Center of Ohio (GTCO) in Franklin, Ohio.  It was sponsored by the Rings & Beams Booster Club, the parent booster organization.  The Park Ranger in the picture spoke with participants about the Aviation Trail and the National Aviation Heritage Alliance (NAHA) in the Dayton, Ohio area.

A serious engine failure occurred while flying our Wright “B” Flyer lookalike (Brown Bird) in October. This failure has necessitated extensive maintenance on the Brown Bird.  So, along with design and construction of a new aircraft, we are currently working on the restoration of the older one to flying status. We hope to have the Brown Bird flying again by April or May of this year. To read more about the maintenance effort click here.  To see more pictures, visit our Facebook site by clicking here and scrolling down a bit.

All four of the new Wright “B” lookalike wing panels arrived at the Wright “B” hangar in January 2017.  Construction of these wing panels began in February 2016 at the EAA 5 facility in Middlefield, Ohio under the leadership of project manager, Curtis Cook.  After designing and building special tools for use during the wing-panel construction, all parts were completed, assembled and shipped to the Wright “B” Flyer hangar.  To read more about the construction of the wing panels, click here.