What's Everybody Looking At?

Our venue has been inundated with crowds for three days, and Sunday should be the busiest! I-75 has come to a standstill each day with masses of people, all heading for the air show. We even had a very enthusiastic teacher that we talked to in Van Nuys show up here in Dayton for the festivities! We have had people who came by on Thursday..... come back on Friday..... and again on Saturday! This city loves it's aviation. Today, I parked in front of 7 Hawthorne Street. Many of our volunteers on the venue are made up of GE employees (the maker of the great posters). I found out today that the engine on that poster is the largest and most powerful that GE makes, the GE90 which powers the 777.

It's the AIAA Wright Flyer in Dayton, Ohio!  We are in the Expo Center which is "ground zero" for kids.  Kids
can get real "hands on" with the Wright Flyer flight simulator, have airplane races, talk to NASA reps, check out
the latest police cars, get your photo taken with Orville and Wilbur Wright, or get a photo of yourself as an
astronaut..... and much more.  The parents were having fun too.



I walked around the air show on Friday and saw two F-117A Stealth airplanes on display.   I was able to talk to one of
the AF troops posted at the hangar door.  Turns out, they were already aware of the "stealthy occurrances" which transpired
after the Van Nuys Air Show!  He saw my uniform and mentioned it.   Word gets around...... even if you are in stealth mode!

Here team members and volunteers man the display, answering questions and handing out those wonderful Wright Flyer posters provide by GE.

Our session at the Convention Center went great! Our AIAA 4-year Ambassadors have graduated and all say that AIAA changed their lives! We met the College students from France who built a Wright Flyer. They came to see us and take photos of the airplane and the team. They will email us a photo of their airplane. They are here participating in the Centennial events thanks to a local sponsor. I also saw the DC-3 that will be making the cross country tour.


Dayton, Ohio - Orville and Wilbur were here.......  There are at least two of these benches (that I saw) - one on Main Street in front of the sculpture; the other is at the historical Engineers Club.
The wonderful sculpture in the middle of Main Street at the Convention Center/Crown Plaza depicting the track of the first flight of 120 feet in 12 seconds is show above.



At the FAA Display venue -This is the exciting new design just off the drawing board of the futuristic Dayton Air Traffic Control Tower scheduled for completion in 2006. The office area in the two story building has criss-cross designs on the side alluding to a Wright Flyer. The tower base has a circle of lights at the base which will run up the tower depicting a space vehicle launch (the Wright Flyer and the rocket). I might have known - it's the same one who designed the LAX tower.....our very own Holmes and Narvar out of Orange County!

More later,
Marilyn

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