[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSK_Acs107Q[/embedyt]
After flying too long on a low battery ET the drone decided to land about a mile away in a far far pasture so I had to run all the way and made it just in time before landing in the wet snow.
Airplane Factory
[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKwdxKZnnq4[/embedyt]
Had some extra time so I visited the Wright Brother’s first airplane factory. It was abandoned but open so I took a quick tour. Glad to see they are not going to let it be destroyed and will be making it a national museum.
Here is a little more information about the building from the
National Aviation Heritage
The Wright Company factory is closed to the public now except for special tours once a month. But work is underway toward the goal of opening it to visitors as a unit of the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park.
The factory is located on the former Delphi Home Avenue plant in Dayton, Ohio. The Wright Company factory was the first in America built for the purpose of manufacturing airplanes. Once restored and open to the public, the factory will complete the story of the Wright brothers’ invention, development and commercialization of the airplane in Dayton.
Wilbur Wright (1867-1912) and his brother Orville (1871-1948) built their first experimental airplanes in the back of their bicycle shop at 1127 W. Third St. They incorporated the Wright Company in November 1909. The company operated temporarily in rented space until Building 1 was completed in 1910. Building 2 was erected in 1911.
The Wright Company produced 13 different models of airplanes, and it introduced industrial aviation to several individuals who later became prominent in aviation manufacturing. Among them were Frank H. Russell (1878–1947) and Grover C. Loening (1888–1976). Altogether, the factory turned out approximately 120 aircraft between 1910 and 1915, when Orville sold his interest in the company following Wilbur’s death in 1912.
The Wright Company buildings changed hands several times. The Dayton-Wright Airplane Company bought the buildings during World War I and named them Plant 3. It used them to make fittings for military aircraft Dayton-Wright produced at its main plant in Moraine.
General Motors acquired Dayton-Wright in September of 1919, but GM didn’t stay in the airplane business. In 1922, GM began to sell a steering wheel invented by Dayton-Wright engineer Harvey D. Geyer, a former Wright Company employee. Geyer’s steering wheel used a new manufacturing process to produce a superior wheel. The product was so successful that GM formed a new division around it—the Inland Manufacturing Division. The division started in the original Wright Company buildings but quickly expanded.
As the plant grew, Inland added buildings and enclosed the spaces between Buildings 1, 2 and three newer buildings built in matching architectural style. The factory expanded over the decades as thousands of workers turned out auto parts, first as Inland, later as Delco and finally as Delphi. (During World War II, they produced M1 carbines, tank treads and other war materiel.)
The Delphi Home Avenue Plant grew to cover 54 acres with some 1.2 million square feet of manufacturing and office space in 20 buildings. Delphi’s bankruptcy led to the plant’s closure in 2008. As a part of the bankruptcy process Delphi formed DPH Holdings, LLC, charged with disposal of excess Delphi properties.
In 2009, Congress passed a law adding the 20-acre parcel that includes the original Wright Company buildings to the boundary of the National Park Service’s Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park. Hull & Associates, Inc., an Ohio-based brownfields redevelopment company, worked together closely to clean up the site.
Hull created a special purpose entity—Home Avenue Redevelopment, LLC—to acquire the property from DPH and successfully pursue a $3 million Clean Ohio Revitalization Fund grant to help fund the cleanup, along with additional funds from DPH and Home Avenue Redevelopment. Demolition and remediation work began in early 2013 and was complete in October 2014. As demolition crews took down surrounding buildings in the spring and summer of 2014, the original Wright factory buildings came into public view for the first time in decades.
NAHA is working to raise funds to acquire the entire site. Its goal is to make the original factory buildings a unit of the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park and guide the redevelopment of the remaining property with complementary activities. The Dayton Metro Library has committed to become the first new occupant, buying seven acres at U.S. 35 and Abbey Avenue for its new West Branch library. The Fiscal Year 2017 budget submitted to Congress included $450,000 for the National Park Service to acquire the two Wright buildings. In 2016, the Ohio General Assembly approved $1 million in state capital funds to be used for acquisition and improvements. The Dayton Metro Library The City of Dayton has committed $500,000 to the project. NAHA is also raising private funds.
