June 25, 2009
Wright's 1909 Statue of Liberty flights celebrated
Officials from the Wright Family Foundation and the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum were in New York on Wednesday to mark an upcoming centennial of flying history that started on Governors Island.
 On September 29, 1909 Wilbur Wright made the first long over-water flight in America as he took off from Governors Island and twice circled the Statue of Liberty, said Tom Crouch, the senior curator for aeronautics at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.
Just in case, a red canoe was strapped to the bottom of the plane.
The headline of The Globe newspaper pegged the elevation of the flight at 150 feet, dipping to a mere 25 feet above Castle Williams on Governors Island.
A few days later, Wright made a longer flight up the Hudson as part of the Hudson-Fulton Celebration, marking the 300th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s initial navigation of the waterway (and the first steam navigation of the river by Robert Fulton in 1807.)
Wright’s second flight, on Oct. 4, 1909, started at Governors Island, moved on to the Statue of Liberty and then extended all the way up to Grant’s Tomb. The 20-mile round-trip flight took 33 minutes, and was witnessed by a million people lining the shores, according to newspaper accounts. The river was packed with 1,600 ships that had come for the Hudson-Fulton Celebration, Crouch said.
As New York City is once again celebrating Hudson’s 1609 “discovery,” a September 12 air show is in the works for Governors Island, said Amanda Wright Lane, a great grand niece of Orville and Wilbur Wright. That air show may include a re-creation of a 1909 Wright flight.
Wilbur already has his name on a monument on Governors Island, celebrating the “early birds” of military aviation.
The plaque on the front states: “This bronze propeller was cast directly from one of the Wright brothers’ wooden propellers. Two were used to propel the first United States military aeroplane, a 1909 Wright. The original was loaned to the Early Birds, by the Smithsonian Institution, National Air Museum - Paul E. Garber, head curator.”
The back of the monument lists the names of the Early Birds, starting with Wilbur Wright.
As part of Wednesday’s event, a helicopter made a few passes along a portion of the Wright route, (though the rain made for less than perfect views.)
Related: The Wilbur and Orville Wright Papers at the Library of Congress
Picture credits: 1909 Wilbur Wright at Statue of Liberty photograph provided by the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.
All other pictures: Amy Langfield/NewYorkology. Caption for top right image: Patty Wagstaff, founder and owner of Patty Wagstaff Airshows; Tom Crouch of the Smithsonian; and Amanda Wright Lane, from the Wright Family Foundation.
June 25, 2009 9:31 AM in Arrivology, Downtown, History, Out of Manhattan, Sightsology
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