Replicating the Wright Flyer

By Howard Kelem

Photos courtesy of the author

As seen in the November 2003 issue of Model Aviation.

Since we are approaching the 100th anniversary of man’s first successful flight—which took place on December 17, 1903—the time has come to tell about the construction of the Wright brothers’ “Kitty Hawk” Flyer replica.

This reproduction was built for The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey honoring our nation’s bicentennial in 1976 and was hung from the ceiling of the International Arrivals Building at the John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Thousands of people pass through the airport each day. Those who are fortunate enough to have viewed the airplane hanging in the spot previously occupied by an Alexander Calder mobile marveled at the workmanship apparent in this full-scale, accurately detailed replica of the Wright Brothers’ incredible flying machine. Almost as incredible is the process that led to the model’s exhibition.

Just before Christmas in 1975, The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey gave Donald Burns—one of its top staff members—a task that appeared impossible: reconstructing an accurate replica of the Wright brothers’ Kitty Hawk airplane.

It seemed simple enough at first, since plans based on notes that Orville and Wilbur Wright left were available at the Smithsonian Institution. When they were submitted for a cost estimate, materials and labor amounted to nearly $60,000 and completion was projected in two years.

Stunned but not stopped, Donald Burns took the problem to Lawrence Costello, who was principal of August Martin High School in Queens, New York. August Martin is a comprehensive high school that maintains a magnet program built around aerospace. I was August Martin’s key staff member for a project such as this. At the time I was the assistant principal, which included supervision and career education.

I am a former World War II pilot, and I have been associated with aviation and building airplanes for almost all of my life.

As a teacher I was instrumental in introducing aerospace to the New York City Board of Education, and now it is taught in many schools as a regular subject of industrial arts. I have many designs, patents, and teaching aids to my credit, and I have participated in many seminars and demonstrations with my Radio Control airplanes to aid in furthering aerospace education.

I was asked if I, with the help of other teachers and students, could build a replica of the Wright brothers’ airplane and have it ready in time for the bicentennial in July 1976. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity—a real aviation enthusiast’s dream come true. Where and when would I, or anybody, get another opportunity to build such a magnificent project? Even if it meant working around the clock night and day, my answer, without hesitation, was yes, and I presented my plan.

If two teachers could be assigned to the project on a full-time basis and if a group of August Martin students could be involved in construction as part of their normal school programs, I was confident that the project could be completed on time under my supervision.

However, Port Authority could only afford to pay for the replacement of one full-time teacher. The project was on the brink of disaster until I contacted City College and arranged for student teachers Henry Chu and Larry Chanin to be assigned to August Martin High School for their internships and assist with building the Flyer in their free time.

It seemed that the last obstacle had been overcome, but it wasn’t all that easy. There was tons of paperwork to do and miles of red tape to get through before the Board of Education would approve the project. Special thanks and appreciation goes to retired New York High School Superintendent Jack Zach, who worked so hard to get the endeavor approved when time was of the essence.

On February 4, 1976, the Board of Education approved the final papers and, with the pledge of cost coverage from Port Authority to Lawrence Costello, the Kitty Hawk project was officially off the ground.

Work progressed slowly initially. Teacher and expert former pattern-maker Martin Muller and the two student teachers from City College admitted that they had some doubts about the project’s feasibility, with so much time consumed by the need to manually construct hundreds of small parts that were unavailable elsewhere. Their confidence was restored when the propellers and the rudder and elevator sections began to take shape.

Howard Kelem shows August Martin High School students a Wright Flyer Scale model. They helped build the full-scale replica.

I set the goal of using the closest materials, design, and techniques as humanly possible to those that the Wright brothers employed with the original aircraft. That presented a serious problem when the need for wing fabric arose.

Fortunately Martin Muller had a helpful friend—a representative of the D.H.J. Fabric Manufacturing Company—who supplied the original fabric that the Wright brothers used. The material was hidden away in some obscure corner of a warehouse, and the company no longer manufactured it.

Martin Muller puts finishing touches on the propellers. He was a pattern maker at Sperry Gyroscope before becoming a teacher.

The construction team and I were amazed to find that very few wood joints in the Wrights’ airplane were glued; they were held together with metal straps, wire, screws, nuts, and bolts. It seemed foolish at first, but later I learned that the brothers’ design allowed for extreme flexibility. An individual portion by itself was a delicate, fragile structure; however, each section supported the other when joined, resulting in remarkable strength and resilience.

Only one modification had to be made to this replica. Since construction was done in the woodworking-shop area of the high school, it had to be designed for easy disassembly so that each piece would pass through the 7 x 7-foot doors of the International Arrivals Building at the airport. Then each piece had to fit together again and be mounted by cables hanging from the ceiling.

The simulated engine’s main body was fabricated from 1⁄32-inch aluminum. Cylinders were made from cardboard tubing. Other parts were made from wood.

The finished engine looks real. The gears, chains, and sprockets came from a bicycle shop—just like the original!

A crucial concern was the ability of the wings to support the aircraft. Obviously the Wright brothers never intended for their flying machine to hang suspended and immobile from steel cables! Doubt was quickly quieted when these pioneering geniuses’ masterly craftsmanship became apparent.

When completed by the August Martin team, the wings were not attached to the Flyer’s body. They not only supported themselves perfectly well, but they stretched out as straight as arrows. However, the Smithsonian’s plans for the original airplane indicated that the wings had a noticeable curve and were apparently designed to simulate a bird’s wing. Neither weight nor poor support accounted for this curve; it was part of the original design.

The two elevators are identical. They work in tandem and can pivot as much as 12 inches up and down. These were mounted on the front of the airplane.

The team had to cut all of the wires and start the rigging supports again. This time they were braced to include the 10 inches of negative dihedral. By this point, little doubt remained that this marvelous machine was much more sturdy and capable of self-support than it appeared to be.

Almost 14 weeks later the magnificent flying machine was nearing completion. It was a work of art, yet something seemed wrong: it looked new. The idea was to build it to resemble the original, which is now hanging in the Smithsonian Institution; the once-white fabric has faded to an almost brown color. The team experimented with many coloring agents to reproduce the aged fabric, and success was finally achieved when we used 42 cans of walnut-stain aerosol spray to cover the entire airplane.

The August Martin students embraced this project’s significance. One is shown installing the rigging.

Visitors to the International Arrivals Building invariably asked the same questions, one of which was “Can that thing fly?” The answer was a “yes” and a “no.” The display airplane contains an engine that is simulated from cardboard, wood, tin, and a variety of bicycle parts. Many are the same pieces Orville and Wilbur Wright took from their bicycle shop. As it is constructed now, the replica would not fly.

However, if an adequate power supply were added, it most certainly would fly since it follows the same tested theories of flight that led to the original flying machine and have been improved but never entirely replaced by modern flying science.

Another common question was, “How did they get it up there?” The answer—trite perhaps, but accurate—was “Very carefully!” Passage through the doors was easier than expected, even though it required 20 men moving with the precision of surgeons. Assembly took two hours, including a few lost minutes caused by a broken wing wire. The Port Authority proceeded to raise the replica to its resting place with obvious skill and concern.

When it was all over, everyone relaxed, looked up in awe, and suddenly realized that something was missing: Orville! Hours away from the dedication ceremony, no one had thought to place a reclining flying figure in the Flyer, as there is in the Smithsonian.

Resolution of that problem reflected the construction team’s ingenuity. Several quick telephone calls for a figure that reasonably resembled Orville Wright resulted in a bald female mannequin that a local department store was willing to donate to the cause. It was shaped to display the lines of feminine clothing and did not appear to resemble any kind of flier.

A donated mannequin was the starting point for a convincing likeness of Orville Wright, shown at the controls.

The team went to work modifying the mannequin as required. They appropriated a Port Authority worker’s old uniform and added a pilot’s hat, a pair of goggles, a snip or two of Henry Chu’s hair for a mustache, and a dab of makeup here and there. As quickly as that, a mirror image of the intrepid Orville Wright was strapped onto the airplane, and the remarkable moment on that eventful December day in 1903 seemed to occur again.

The replica of the Wright brothers’ flying machine was on exhibit at John F. Kennedy International Airport for 15 years. Then it was loaned to and displayed at the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City, New York, until last year when construction began on a new Cradle of Aviation Museum sponsored by the Grumman Aircraft Corporation.

The Wright Flyer reproduction has since been moved and is on display at Cole Palen’s Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in Rhinebeck, New York, where it is very much at home alongside many other famous “antique aircraft” that helped make aviation history.

Now that the story of its construction has been told, I hope that those who visit the magnificent model will be able to see some of the fine detail and expert craftsmanship evident in its construction. Its magnificence is owed to the team of teachers and students of August Martin High School.

At the same time—and no member of the team would hesitate to say it—the magnificence is the result of the enormous vision and patience demonstrated by two daring young men who were so sure that their flying machine would eventually stay aloft long enough to affirm their conviction that man could, and would, fly. It is a fitting tribute to the Wright brothers’ achievement and celebrating the 100th anniversary of the aerospace industry.