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Show your pride in Ohio's aerospace industry and support aviation heritage. Your registration provides $15 to support NAHA's activities.
 
In the news

On the radar

Oct. 10: Woodland Cemetery, Mausoleum Tour

Oct. 12: Woodland Cemetery, Famous Women of Woodland Tour

NAHA partners: Want your event listed here? Post it on our Events Calendar!
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Aviation history
on the air

Hear Dan Patterson's aviation heritage  commentaries on WYSO Public Radio, 91.3 FM. 
Our partners

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The National Aviation Heritage Area is a part of the National Park Service's National Heritage Areas program.
October 10, 2013
Wright State University hosts 3rd annual Wright Brothers Day 

Students at Wright Brothers Day line up to try the Wright B Flyer simulator 
Wright State University students line up to try the Wright "B" Flyer simulator. (Photo: Timothy R. Gaffney)
Wright State University students, faculty and staff learned about the university's namesakes and saw examples of projects that reflect their spirit of innovation at the third annual Wright Brothers Day on Monday, Oct. 7.

NAHA supported the event with a Wright "B" Flyer simulator, which let students try their hand flying a Wright airplane with its unconventional controls. Wright State's Special Collections and Archives, a NAHA partner, also supported the event with a display of original Wright brothers documents and artifacts.

Organized by the Wright State Marketing Club, the event is always held around the anniversary of Wilbur Wright's 39-minute flight on the Wright Flyer III at Huffman Prairie on Oct. 5, 1905. That flight is considered the demonstration that the Wrights had built a practical airplane. 
National Aviation Hall of Fame honors legends despite shutdown
Photo of National Aviation Hall of Fame enshrinee Hoot Gibson with others
NAHF President Bill Harris (left), NASA Chief Charles Bolden, Jr., and 2013 Enshrinee "Hoot" Gibson. (Photo: NAHF)
 
The National Aviation Hall of Fame held its 51st annual dinner and enshrinement ceremony Friday, Oct. 4, despite the Oct. 1 federal government shutdown that closed the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force and the Hall of Fame's learning center, where the 2013 inductees were to be enshrined. The learning center is adjacent to the museum on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. (See the next article for more about the shutdown.)

Fortunately, the caterer for the 600-seat, black-tie event was the nearby Hope Hotel and Richard C. Holbrooke Conference Center, and its own ballroom was available. The event went smoothly, and four more air and space pioneers were added to the hall of fame's roster. Visit the hall of fame's Facebook page for more details and photos of the event.
Government shutdown continues
to impact aviation heritage sites
Photo of front of National Museum of USAF
Photo: USAF
 
The federal government shutdown continues to impact some aviation heritage sites within the National Aviation Heritage Area.

The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force closed again after opening for one day on Monday, Oct. 7, as furloughed civilian employees returned to work. A museum statement said Defense Department and Air Force officials determined that "opening the museum did not fit within the list of operations" that could be supported without new appropriations.

Some sites in the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park are also closed, including the Huffman Prairie Flying Field and visitor center, the restored Wright Cycle Company building and the Wright-Dunbar Visitor Center. But Hawthorn Hill and the original Wright Flyer III are open as regularly scheduled because they are owned and operated by Dayton History, a private nonprofit organization. Also open is the Paul Laurence Dunbar House, which is owned by the Ohio Historical Society and operated by Dayton History.

Two sites owned and operated by nonprofits are closed because of their locations. The Aviation Trail Parachute Museum is located inside the closed Wright-Dunbar center, and the National Aviation Hall of Fame is is co-located with the Air Force museum.
NAHA flight scholarship available
Photo of airplane taxiing
 
If you are between 15 and 21 years old and dream of flying, the National Aviation Heritage Alliance can get you started!

NAHA sponsors a scholarship program that will provide $1,500 worth of flying lessons towards earning a Private Pilot or Light Sport Pilot's Certificate. That's enough for the average person to learn to fly solo!

The name of the scholarship is the Mitchel Cary/Don Gum Memorial Aviation Scholarship. It is named in honor of two pilots who lost their lives in 2011 in the commemoration of the Wright brothers' invention of aviation.

Visit NAHA's scholarship page for more information.
The National Aviation Heritage Alliance (NAHA) is a private, not-for-profit corporation designated by Congress as the management entity of the National Aviation Heritage Area. The Heritage Area encompasses an eight-county area in Ohio (Montgomery, Greene, Miami, Clark, Warren, Champaign, Shelby and Auglaize counties.) NAHA's vision is to sustain the legacy of the Wright brothers and make the Dayton region the recognized global center of aviation heritage and premier destination for aviation heritage tourism.

PO Box 414 * Wright Brothers Station * Dayton, OH 45409