It looked like miserable weather in Kitty Hawk--a cold rain, as the president spoke. I doubt if they got off the reenactment of the flight.

Though some were hoping for a major space policy announcement, most of the indications were that it would come later. I suspect that the policy is still being worked out, and they didn't want to rush it just for an anniversary.

He did get in a nice dig at the Gray Lady, pointing out their editorial after Langley's disastrous first flight into the Potomac, in which they declared that one to ten million years would be required to develop an airplane. The Wrights flew a few weeks later. It was as dumb an editorial as their one a few years later, in which they said that Goddard was ignorant of physics.

Maybe my last Wright piece will be about risk, and risk aversion.

Interestingly, we have an institution called Langley Research Center alive and kicking.
Im not aware of a Wright Center or even Wright Fund or Wright Award or anything.

From one of the NASA pages:
Samuel Pierpont Langley was one of the most prominent American scientists one hundred years ago....He competed with the Wright Brothers to build the first manned airplane that could fly under its own power. [b]Unfortunately[/b], Langley lost this contest.

I wonder why thats so unfortunate ?

Interesting that NASA names itself after the losers in contests. Hmm, I wonder if that might explain some of NASA's actions lately.

Well, there is a Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

In Dayton, Ohio...