This article from NYTimes.com has been sent to you by psa188@xxxxxxxxx /-------------------- advertisement -----------------------\ IN AMERICA - NOMINATED FOR 6 INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARDS IN AMERICA has audiences across the country moved by its emotional power. This Holiday season, share the experience of this extraordinary film with everyone you are thankful to have in your life. Ebert & Roeper give IN AMERICA "Two Thumbs Way Up!" Watch the trailer at: http://www.foxsearchlight.com/inamerica \----------------------------------------------------------/ The Wright Brothers’ Centennial Re-enactment Falls Flat December 17, 2003 By DAVID E. SANGER KILL DEVIL HILLS, N.C., Dec. 17 - After all that, Orville and Wilbur had better luck a hundred years ago. The replica of the Wright brothers' 1903 Flyer did not take off at 10:35 this morning - there was not enough wind. And when an attempt was finally made two hours later, the plane ran down a wooden rail modeled after the kind the Wrights used, its nose tipped upward, and then it fell into a puddle. And so the living heroes of American aviation history, Neil Armstrong and John Glenn, Buzz Aldrin and Chuck Yeager, stood in the rain and mud with thousands of others to honor a feat that could not be reproduced a century after the first controlled, sustained flight. Instead, they heard from a former pilot in the Texas Air National Guard, George W. Bush, who took two helicopters and Air Force One to get to these dunes on the Outer Banks. "The Wright brothers' invention belongs to the world," Mr. Bush said, standing before a giant mural of the Flyer in midflight, "but the Wright brothers belong to America." The White House had considered using the centennial event, and the celebration of the spirit of exploration that surrounded it, to announce a grand new mission for the American space program - perhaps a return to the moon. But they encountered issues that the Wright brothers could scarcely have imagined - from arguments over what kind of mission NASA can handle and what American taxpayers would be willing to pay for it - and now an announcement, if it comes at all, would likely be part of the State of the Union address on Jan. 20. Instead, Mr. Bush hailed the fliers and tweaked their doubters. "The New York Times once confidently explained why all attempts at flight were doomed from the start," said Mr. Bush, who makes little secret of his view that the American news media is filled with naysayers. "To build a flying machine, declared one editorial, would require `the combined and continuous efforts of mathematicians and mechanicians from one million to 10 million years.' " "As it turned out, the feat was performed eight weeks after the editorial was written," he said, to laughter and applause. Mr. Bush said that "everyone who was here at that hour sensed that a great line had been crossed and the world might never be the same." But with a politician's sense that history is rarely if ever repeated, he left the fields in Marine One before the centennial moment. And then, at 10:45 a.m., 10 minutes after the exact moment of flight, he looked out from his office aboard Air Force One as the 747 buzzed the field, swooping in over Kill Devil Hill, the dune where the Wrights tested their gliders. Then the president's plane slowly banked over the flat field where the Wrights' wooden biplane lifted off a century ago. By way of comparison, Air Force One is 231 feet long - not quite twice the 120 feet that Orville Wright managed to fly on that first, 12-second run of the day, with Wilbur running alongside. (By late that day, Wilbur flew 852 feet in 59 seconds.) The replica of the Flyer, with its small engine, needs winds of at least 10 miles per hour to get off the ground, and gusts that run above 22 miles an hour can make it impossible to control. The disappointment among the crowd was palpable. Thousands had come to witness the moment, bringing small children along, bundled in rain slickers. But the relatives of the Wright brothers said that simply being on the field, a hundred years later, was enough. Amanda Wright Lane, the great grand-niece of the fliers, told those who braved the weather that her famous ancestors "may have the best seats today: the view from above." http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/17/national/17CND-FLIGHT.html?ex=1072691819&ei=1&en=ddaea3b510cd6482 --------------------------------- Get Home Delivery of The New York Times Newspaper. Imagine reading The New York Times any time & anywhere you like! Leisurely catch up on events & expand your horizons. Enjoy now for 50% off Home Delivery! 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