BACKGROUND
The AIAA Western Regional Office and the headquarters for the Los Angeles Section were formerly located at 7660 Beverly Boulevard. In the early 1950's, the Los Angeles Section sponsored construction of a Wright Flyer replica as a Section project to celebrate the 50th anniversary of flight.

Various aerospace companies of the Los Angeles area fabricated components and assembled the 1903 Wright Flyer which was displayed for many years in the Beverly Boulevard building. When that building was sold in 1973, it was hoped that a special display area for the replica would become a part of the Tishman complex near L.A. Airport, the new location for the AIAA offices. When this display area did not materialize, the Section then made the Flyer replica available to the San Diego Aerospace Museum so that it could be properly displayed for the benefit of the public. The Flyer replica was destroyed in the disastrous San Diego Museum fire in Feburary 1978. However, the L.A. Section had insured the Wright Flyer, prior to its move to the museum. So out of the ashes of that disaster came the inspirational new direction for the commemorative effort known now as the 1903 Wright Flyer Project.

In 1978, in honor of the 75th Anniversary of the Wright Brothers' first flight, the Executive Committee of the Los Angeles Section, felt that perhaps the greatest tribute to the Wright brothers genius which the Section could offer, would be to reconstruct a full-scale, powered 1903 Wright Flyer and to fly it with the objective of developing a higher level of technical appreciation for its flight characteristics than then existed. Many other Section benefits could be expected to accrue, as noted later. The Wright Flyer Project concept was approved and the activity announced in the October 1978 issue of the L. A. Section Newsletter.

The original 1950's vintage AIAA Wright Flyer

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