First cargo flight re-enacted 25/10/2010
The National Aviation Heritage Alliance, which took two and a half years to build a replica of the Wright B Flyer aircraft, successfully completed the 68-mile commemorative flight from Wright Patterson Air Force Base, which takes in the Huffman Prairie Flying Field where the Wright Brothers’ original flight began, to Rickenbacker Airport.
In 1910, aviation pioneers Orville and Wilbur Wright accepted an order from an Ohio businessman to fly 80 kilos of silk cloth along the route. They charged him $5,000; that's an enviable rate today, but the equivalent now would be $120,000.
The replica airplane has a 40 horsepower engine, an improved version of the one that powered the Model A Ford.