To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brother's first flight, I went out during lunch today to see the original Wright Flyer at the National Air and Space Museum. They've taken the flyer down from its hanging place in the main Hall of Flight and wrapped an exhibit around it: The Wright Brothers: Aerial Age Begins. The flyer is now at floor level in a second floor gallery where you can inspect it from just beyond arm's reach.

The exhibit offers a rare opportunity to study the finely-crafted and brilliantly-engineered flying machine up close. I didn't have much time to look at the exhibit's info panels and many historial artifacts (including a rare Wright bicycle), so a trip back is certain. I did run into my buddy of 20 years, Bea Mowry, who is the design director of the museum. She's been working almost 'round the clock to get the displays for new Dulles Extension ready.

A TV news crew from Dayton, Ohio was taping a segment on the Wrights, and the museum had two men dressed as the brothers speaking in character to answer questions for visitors. I walked by the Apollo Lunar Module on my way out of the museum to feel the magnitude of how humans first achieved powered flight and later set foot on the Moon in the span of a lifetime.

- mike lee - washington, dc