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E-mail Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2011 > October > 06 > Entry
WSU honors namesake
FAIRBORN — The future of Dayton and the Miami Valley have never been more inextricably linked to the “flying machine” invented by Orville and Wilbur Wright.
“Don’t think of it as a history; think of it as a future,” said Amanda Wright Lane as she marked “Wright Brothers Day” at the university named for her great-grand-uncles. “Nothing has changed the world more than aviation.”
The celebration was organized by the Wright State University Marketing Club to recognize the day Wilbur Wright flew the Wright Flyer III on Huffman Prairie for 39 minutes — Oct. 5, 1905. He soared until the plane ran out of gas, proving extended flight was not only possible, but practical.
The Wrights’ innovative spirit is still alive in Dayton and Ohio in spite of recent tough times, Wright Lane said. “You dream it, Ohio can make it,” she said. “We need to tell people we still build things in Ohio.”
That is evident at area businesses and schools with ties to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, which is developing the cutting-edge research and businesses for the future of the aerospace industry, she said.
The events were aimed primarily at students who will be needed to undertake the research of the future, university officials said. Kyle Boze, president of WSU’s marketing club, hoped the day of events would remind fellow students of the heritage that led to the university’s founding. “For an event like this to link the Wright brothers and Wright State, hopefully it will build school spirit,” Boze said.
The heart of the university student union was filled with a mix of artifacts and technology inspired by the Wrights’ invention. The family’s papers, diaries and report cards sat feet away from “micro air vehicles” no larger than a bird.
“We wouldn’t be here without them,” said Ty Helentjaris, a senior studying mechanical engineering. “Technology (the Wrights inspired) might be used to fly on other planets some day.”
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