From the Outer Banks to Mars: Piece of the Wright Flyer to make history on the red planet

March 23, 2021 Sam Walker
Orville Wright makes the first powered, controlled flight on Earth as his brother Wilbur looks on in Kill Devil Hills on Dec. 17, 1903. [photo by John Daniels of U.S. Life-Saving Station Kill Devil Hills/courtesy Library of Congress]

A piece of the Wright Brothers airplane that made the historic first flight on planet Earth is about to make another historic first flight on planet Mars.

According to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a small piece of material that covered the wing of the aircraft, Flyer 1, that made four flights on Dec. 17, 1903 at Big Kill Devil Hill is onboard the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter.

An insulative tape was used to wrap the small swatch of fabric around a cable located underneath the helicopter’s solar panel. Ingenuity is scheduled to attempt the first powered, controlled flight on another planet next month.

An illustration of NASA’s Ingenuity Helicopter flying on Mars. [courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech]
The Wrights had been using the same type of material – an unbleached muslin called “Pride of the West” – to cover their glider and aircraft wings since 1901.

“Wright Brothers National Memorial is fortunate to have a piece of original fabric and wood from the Wright Flyer on display in its visitor center,” said National Park Service spokesperson Mike Barber. “The items were taken to the surface of the Moon by the crew of Apollo 11 in 1969.”

From our sands, to the red sands. What a journey!

.
About Sam Walker 1512 Articles
Sam Walker was news director for OBXToday.com, Beach 104, 99.1 The Sound, Big 94.5 WCMS and Z 92.3 from August 2011 to March 2022.
Facebook Instagram Twitter