Hindersonville North Carolina — After 20 months of diligent work, 84-year-old Donald “Rube” Waddell brought his three-quarters scaled model of Wilbur and Orville Wright’s Flyer to the Western North Carolina Air Museum this past weekend.
The original flyer made its first successful flight on Dec. 17, 1903, and while it only went about 120 feet, Don Buck, former president of the museum, said its longest run went closer to 750 feet.
Buck said he is overjoyed to have the replica at the museum, hoping it will attract residents to come check it out with their families and infect children with “the flying bug.”
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The model of the world’s first powered plane was created by Waddell, a W.N.C. Air Museum member, using plans and measurements sent from the air museum in Washington, D.C., which he had to personally scale back to three-quarters size.
“They were trying to do the 2003 original flight at Kitty Hawk and about 10 years later I wondered how in the world did they build it and how in the world did they make it fly?” Waddell said.
The retired Air Force pilot, who served in Vietnam flying RF-4 Phantoms doing aerial reconnaissance work, enjoys making planes and working on antique cars, according to Buck.
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