CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Dec. 15 (UPI) -- If nothing else, the eclectic mix of people now gathering near Kitty Hawk, N.C., speaks to the transformation of American society since the invention of powered flight, the 100th anniversary of which is being celebrated this Wednesday.
Among those gathering to celebrate the event will be actor and pilot John Travolta, who is serving as the master of ceremonies and who plans to fly his Boeing 707 as part of the commemoration honoring the Wright brothers.
So many private pilots are expected at the event, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association built a new airfield at the Wright Brothers National Memorial on Kill Devil Hills, which is where the brothers moved after conducting a test season at Kitty Hawk. Even so, there will not be nearly enough room for all the aircraft, so most will be landing at the nearby Dare County Regional Airport, which is charging as much as $900 for the best tie-down spots for the week-long party.
Most of the rest of the 200,000 or so expected attendees will jockey for elbow room aboard commercial aircraft flying into Norfolk, Va., or Raleigh, N.C, then face a two-hour to four-hour drive to the once-desolate sand dunes, which stretch along the Atlantic Coast on North Carolina's Outer Banks.
"This is the best Christmas present I've ever received," gushed author Mark Eppler, who was just getting started on a long drive from Milford, Ohio, to Kill Devil Hills when contacted by United Press International for an interview.
Eppler, who turned the Wright brothers' success story into a salient strategy for excellence and achievement in business, is scheduled for some book-signings, but mostly he wants to hang out, as he says, with friends and kindred spirits.
The flock includes dozens of astronauts, as well as retired Brig. Gen. Chuck Yaeger, the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound, and members and youth groups affiliated with the Experimental Aircraft Association. The highlight of the festivities, which began Saturday, is expected to be a recreation of the historic flight, which lasted just 12 seconds.
Ken Hyde, founder of the Wright Experience in Warrenton, Va., oversaw a team that has spent the past four years building a historically accurate replica of the 1903 Wright Flyer.
"I have often been asked why we are doing it. The answer is because nobody has done it, and it needs to be done," said Hyde.
The team, which includes NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., and Old Dominion University in Norfolk, discovered first-hand how the Wright brothers went about solving the formidable problems of flight. The brothers, who shared a bicycle building business in Dayton, Ohio, took issue with current theories of the day that focused on greater propulsion systems and conquering instability as the doorways to creating a flying machine. The Wrights instead focused on learning how to control instability not vanquish it and how to maintain balance.
"Flying the Wright Flyer is like trying to keep a bicycle upright in three dimensions," said Robert Ash, the program test manager.
The replica takes to the skies at 10:35 a.m. ET Wednesday.
For Eppler, it all boils down to the true legacy of the first flight.
"Most people will say that what the Wright brothers achieved was the death of distance," said Eppler, author of The Wright Way: Seven Problem-Solving Principles from the Wright Brothers. "But what they really achieved was the death of impossibility."
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Irene Mona Klotz covers aviation and space for UPI Science News. E-mail [email protected]
