Come to Huffman Prairie Flying Field Saturday, Sept. 6th for a day of family fun and activities during Aero Carnival 2014. Admission is FREE!

When: 10:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 6

Where: Huffman Prairie Flying Field, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base

Activities: Aircraft displays, bouncy houses and games, hay rides, hot air ballooons, radio controlled aircraft and much more! Go here for details.

The WACO Historical Society's annual WACO Vintage Fly-in is scheduled for Sept. 12-14 at Historic WACO Field in Troy. WACO rides, a pancake breakfast, children's activities, a parade of WACO aircraft and more are scheduled. General aviation fly-ins are welcome.

Please see WACO's fly-in poster for more details.

The National Aviation Heritage Alliance (NAHA) named architect Steve Brown as the winner of the Ivonette Wright Miller Award at its 2014 annual meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 26.

NAHA also awarded its Wick Wright Award to the Dayton Foundation and its PROPS (Partner Recognition of Phenomenal Support) Award to Dayton History.

Also at the meeting, NAHA recognized the 30th anniversary of the National Heritage Areas, a National Park Service program that began on Aug. 24, 1984 when then President Ronald Reagan signed into law the establishment of the Illinois and Michigan National Heritage Corridor. Please read NAHA's news release for more details.

Wright "B" Flyer Inc. has launched a project to replace its venerable lookalike of a 1911 Wright Model B flyer.

The one-of-a-kind airplane has been a flying symbol of Dayton's aviation heritage since 1982. Now, the all-volunteer organization has decided to plan for the future with the encouragement of a substantial gift. The organization is developing a fundraising campaign for the project. Please read Wright "B" Flyer's announcement for more details.

An effort to gather the stories of Wright Company factory workers has uncovered information about one of the first women in the world to work in the aircraft industry.
 
Ida Holdgreve, born in Delphos, Ohio in 1881, worked as a seamstress for the Wright Company in Dayton from 1910 to about 1915, according to information provided by a distant cousin. She sewed the surfaces for the company's wood-and-fabric airplanes.
 
The job made Holdgreve a pioneer aircraft manufacturing worker in the first American factory built for the purpose of producing airplanes. She and her co-workers were the first Americans hired and trained for specialized aircraft manufacturing jobs.
 
Wright State University's online collection of Wright Company images includes a photo of Holdgreve sewing at a large table in a corner of the factory. It's a popular image in books and blogs about the Wright brothers. But information about her was lost for decades. Read NAHA's news release for more about the rediscovery of Ida Holdgreve.

Growing up in a family of pilots made a deep impression on Nathan Foley, an adjunct instructor at Bowling Green State University. Many of his sculptures reflect the aerodynamic shapes of airplanes and space vehicles.

Foley's work gained notice locally when one of his works, a sculpture titled "Three and One Wings" made of wood, wire and bird bones, took first place in a sculpture competition at the Rosewood Arts Center in Kettering.

"Three and One Wings" will be on display at Rosewood through September. A group exhibition is scheduled for next year at the Fitton Center for the Creative Arts in Hamilton. You can see more examples of Foley's sculptures in his online portfolio.

Author and photographer Dan Patterson will speak at the Engineers Club of Dayton on Tuesday, Sept. 9 at 7 p.m. as part of the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park lecture series. His topic will be the Lafayette Escadrille, a squadron of volunteer American pilots flying for the French Air Service in World War I.

Dan has published over 31 books in his career, many of which were met with international acclaim. Dan was honored in 2003 as the National Aviation Hall of Fame's first winner of the Harry B. Combs Award for Excellence in the Preservation of Aviation History.

The event is free and open to the public. The Engineers Club is located at 110 E. Monument Ave., Dayton. Please see the National Park's announcement for more details.

NATIONAL AVIATION HERITAGE AREA

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