Historic Wright flight goes wrong

Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina

The propellers spun and the replica plane rolled along a track, but then it collapsed ignominiously into a puddle just as its nose was pointing up to the sky.

The attempt had already been delayed by about three hours after a heavy downpour at Kill Devil Hills in North Carolina.

The re-enactment was originally scheduled for 10:35am (1535 GMT), exactly 100 years after the brothers made their first tentative hops through the air with a delicate contraption fashioned in their bicycle shop.

President George Bush was on hand before the attempt to re-enact the flight timed to take place exactly a century after the brothers made their first attempts at flighttentative hops through the air with a delicate contraption fashioned in their bicycle shop.

"On the day they did fly, just like today, the conditions were not ideal," Bush told a crowd of about 30,000 at the Wright Brothers National Memorial.

"The Wright brothers hit some disappointments along the way. There must have been times when they had to fight their own doubts," he said.

Torrential downpours hit Kill Devil Hills earlier and light winds after the rain forced organisers to postpone the event's highlight, an attempt to re-enact the 12-second flight that took place at 10:35am on December 17, 1903.

The replica of Orville and Wilbur Wright's Wright Flyer needs more than 10 mph (16kph) of wind to fly.

An associate professor of mechanical engineering at the Rochester Institute of Technology Kevin Kochersbergerwill attempt to duplicate Orville Wright's historic flight over the sand dunes in a replica of the primitive 605-pound (274kg biplane built of spruce, ash and muslin.

The craft has a 12-metre wingspan and is powered by a 12-horsepower engine. "We don't intend to go over 393 metres. We intend to keep the Wrights' record intact," Kochersberger said.

The reenactment was to be part of a week-long celebration of the first century of powered flight that lured a galaxy of the world's greatest aviators, including Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, the first men on the moon, Chuck Yeager, the pilot who first broke the sound barrier, and John Glenn, the former senator and astronaut.

"These past 100 years have brought supersonic flights, frequent space travel, the exploration of Mars and the Voyager 1 spacecraft which right now is moving at 39,000mph towards the outer edge of our solar system," Bush told thousands of rain-soaked spectators.

"This day, however, is one for recalling a heroic event in the history of our nation and the story of mankind.

"Here at the Wright Brothers National Memorial, we remember one small machine, and we honour the giants who flew it," he said.

Even if the weather improved, organisers were not sure the Wright Flyer replica would fly. The plane, with a top speed of just 30mph crashed at least once in trials but flew on other occasions.

The location where the Wright brothers flew was part of the area which was known in 1903 as Kitty Hawk and which became famous around the world as the birthplace of powered flight.

But the site, in the shadow of Kill Devil Hill, is now part of the town of Kill Devil Hills, which was created in 1953. Kitty Hawk still exists as a town just north of Kill Devil Hills.