Thousands of men
had thought about
flying machines
and a few had even
built machines which they
called flying machines
but these were guilty of
almost everything
except flying.
...the Wright Brothers
We visited the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. The 1903 Wright Flyer is one of the most iconic artifacts in the Smithsonian. It represents a moment of great triumph as Orville and Wilbur achieved the first successful flights of a powered, controlled, heavier-than-air flying machine in December 1903.
The Wright Flyer was installed at the Smithsonian in 1948. It is the real Wright Flyer but in 1984 and 1985 the museum did conservation work on the Flyer. The Flyer currently doesn't look old and people sometimes make the assumption that it is not the original airframe.
My favorite exhibition room was dedicated to the Wright Brothers-The Invention of the Aerial Age. The exhibition explores who Wilbur and Orville Wright were, what they achieved and how they did it and the world's reaction to their revolutionary invention during the first decade of human flight.
There was so much to see in this museum and I took lots of photos but chose to post this one. The museum will be getting a complete makeover both inside and out. They will be redesigning every exhibition and the new Wright Brothers exhibition will open in 2022. I just might need to go back again...plus, it is one museum in two locations. The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia is the other location. We did not have time to see it.
You can read more below about the Wright Flyer and the Wright Brothers...
Great quote and this looks like a quality display! Go Wright, young men!