Utah replica to fly on Wright centennial

The centennial of flight will get a special twist in Utah on Wednesday when a Tremonton man will pilot an updated replica of the Wright brothers' first flying machine.

Wayne Larsen, who owns a Brigham City flight service, is scheduled to fly the plane that day at the Brigham City Airport, provided the weather cooperates. Dec. 17 is exactly 100 years after Wilbur and Orville Wright's first flight at Kitty Hawk, N.C.

But Larsen almost certainly will stay aloft longer than Orville's 12 seconds, and the flight should cover more distance than that trip's 120 feet.

According to a press notice from Utah State University, the approaching centennial of powered flight prompted students and professors at the Logan university to design and build a flying replica of the Wright Flyer using space-age material. Work on the project was carried out by students of mechanical and aerospace engineering as well as some studying aviation technology.

With help from the USU College of Engineering and Space Dynamics Laboratory, they built the replica using Kevlar and graphite, composite materials manufactured in Utah. The completed plane has been flying at air shows and special demonstrations since last March.