Beschreibung:

WRIGHT, ORVILLE. Typed letter signed ("Orville Wright" to Senator Hiram Bingham, Dayton, Ohio, 20 February 1928. 1 page, small folio, on Wright's personal letterhead stationery. ORVILLE REFUSES TO EXHIBIT THE 1903 FLYER IN THE UNITED STATES An outspoken letter regarding the fate of the Wright's 1903 flyer. Carefully preserved since the Kitty Hawk flights, that historic aircraft had been sent on 31 January 1928 by Orville to England, to be displayed at the Science Museum in London. Wright had chosen this course to protest the Smithsonian Institution's stubborn denial of credit to the Wrights for the first successful manned powered aircraft flights. Senator Bingham and Congressman Lindsay Warren spearheaded a Congressional movement to construct a fitting memorial to the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk. A $50,000 appropriation introduced by Bingham "breezed through committee, passed both houses, and was signed into law by President Coolidge on March 2, 1927" (Tom Crouch, The Bishop's Boys; A Life of Wilbur and Orville Wright (New York, 1989), p. 506 When Bingham's committee learned Wright was sending the aircraft overseas, they reacted quickly, in hopes of reversing his decision: "I have your telegram...asking whether I would be willing to place our first aeroplane at Kill Devil Hill, if an adequate memorial building were erected there; and urging my approval....I also had a telegram several days ago from Congressman Lindsay C. Warren on the same subject. I answered Mr. Warren that I did not think Kitty Hawk would be a suitable place for permanently exhibiting the machine since it is too inaccessible and the plane would be seen there by comparatively few people. Under ordinary circumstances the number...would not have been so important, but under present circumstances it is important as a means to help overcome the adverse propaganda put out by the Smithsonian. Some years ago the Smithsonian started a campaign to take from Wilbur and me credit for work of which our first aeroplane was the outgrowth. "I have sent the machine to the British Museum because that is about the only place where it will be seen by as many people and will have the prestige it would have had in our own National Museum. As I cannot in this letter enter into a full explanation of these matters, I am sending you a statement I wrote...for one of the aeronautical magazines, but which I believe has not yet appeared in print. I am also sending a copy of a letter which I wrote to the Chancellor of the Smithsonian....These may give you some idea of my objections to the attitude of the Smithsonian....." The Wright's 1903 Flyer remained in England for twenty years. In 1942, the Smithsonian officially recanted certain official statements concerning the aeronautic work of Samuel Langley, the Wright's chief rival, and after Orville's death, in accordance with his wishes, the Flyer was shipped back to the United States and presented to the Smithsonian on the 45th anniversary of the first powered, sustained and controlled flight.