KILL DEVIL HILLS, N.C. — A 100th-anniversary attempt to re-create the Wright brothers’ first flight flopped Wednesday when a delicate, wood-and-muslin replica of their airplane failed to get off the ground and splashed into a mud puddle.
On a rainy day when the winds on North Carolina’s Outer Banks were uncharacteristically calm, a team of engineers tinkered with the plane and waited in vain for the breeze to pick up before they finally gave up trying to match the feat of the two self-educated bicycle mechanics from Dayton, Ohio.
"Well, if this were easy, I guess everyone would do it," said Tom Poberenzy, president of the Experimental Aircraft Association, a group of aviation enthusiasts that had a hand in building the painstakingly accurate reproduction.
In what was supposed to have been the climax of a six-day celebration of the historic Dec. 17, 1903, flight, the rickety flyer roared its engine and began the slow crawl down the 200-foot wooden launching track, rising just 6 inches for about a second before hitting the sand.
The plane, created at a cost of $1.2 million, twisted awkwardly before stopping with its right wing pushed into the sand, leaving a snapped crosswire and broken fitting.
About three hours later, after repairs to the engine and front wing assembly, organizers rolled the plane out to its runway to wait for the rain to ease and the wind to pick up.
Using a crew including Wright descendants to help move the plane into position, pilot Kevin Kochersberger, wearing a crash helmet and 1903-era necktie, lay with his hands on the controls, waiting for a gust of wind that never came. Kochersberger shrugged with resignation as the team called it quits and let the engine sputter to a stop.
"Unfortunately, the conditions that Wilbur and Orville could wait for, we couldn’t," said Ken Hyde, who led the reproduction team. "I would have liked to have seen the aircraft fly, but I don’t control the weather."
The plane has achieved flight twice before in three practice runs, covering 100 and 115 feet.
The reproduction — 605 pounds, with authentic spruce ribs and a wingspan of 40 feet — matched the brothers’ work down the thread count of the muslin covering its wings, and the frustration it produced was also historically accurate.
Orville and Wilbur Wright crashed their flyer at least once before pulling off their successful flight at Kill Devil Hills, not far from Kitty Hawk.
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