The San Diego Air & Space Museum is honoring flight pioneers Orville and Wilbur Wright by running an exact replica of the engine designed to help them invent powered flight.
The ceremony will take place at 9:45 a.m. Tuesday, to mark the anniversary of their famed flight at Kitty Hawk, N.C. on Dec. 17, 1903.
The running of the replica engine will be exactly 121 years to the day after the Wright Brothers made the first powered flight in human history. Their engine was designed and built specifically for them by Charles E. Taylor.
The Wright Brothers – two of the most iconic figures in the history of aviation – were inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame at the museum as part of the hall’s inaugural class in 1965.
“Orville and Wilbur Wright and Charles Taylor are three of the giants in aviation innovation and technology. By inventing powered flight at Kitty Hawk on Dec. 17, 1903, the Wright Brothers set all of the amazing accomplishments in aviation and space exploration the world has seen since in motion,” said Jim Kidrick, the museum’s president & CEO.
Since 1963, the Hall of Fame has honored the world’s most significant pilots, crew members, visionaries, inventors, space explorers and more.
The San Diego Air & Space Museum is California’s official air and space museum and education center, an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution and the first aero-themed museum to be accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.
