Saturday, July 24, 2010

Golden Flyer


Our astronomy club had a group tour of the Cradle of Aviation Museum today, where we got a guided tour of the collection, and saw an IMAX movie about the Space Station. This particular airplane caught my eye, because is used bamboo in its construction. Turns out, it was built by Glenn Curtiss, of Hammondsport, NY, and was the first airplane to fly over the Hempstead Plains on Long Island, back in July 1909. How different were these first airplanes, compared to now! It only had a 25 horsepower engine, and its top speed was 45 MPH. This is a reconstruction built by museum volunteers.

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