The Original

摘要

The National Air and Space Museum is fortunate to have the artifact that inaugurated the aerial age―the 1903 Wright Flyer. The craft that hangs in the central place of honor in the Museum's Milestones of Flight gallery is the actual airplane that clattered over the wind-swept beach at Kitty Hawk on that historic December mom-ing one hundred years ago. The Wrights' first airplane is an icon of ingenuity and technical creativity. It is not only the centerpiece of the Museum; it is also one of the signature artifacts of the Smithsonian Institution. But, of course, when Wilbur and Orville built and flew the Flyer in 1903, it was not a national treasure. To the Wrights, it was essentially a research tool; they built it merely as one step in the process of creating a practical airplane. Its transformation into a priceless piece of American heritage, displayed in the nation's capital, would take some interesting twists and turns.