Where on Earth is the Real Wright Flyer?
" 'How can you talk if you haven't got a brain?' "I don't know, but some people without brains do an awful lot of talking."-- L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz A display of the claimed "Wright Flyer I" at the Smithsonian Institution Ask almost anyone where the original "Wright flyer" is and the answer will be, "At the Smithsonian, of course. Everyone knows that!" Well, sometimes "everyone knows" what they actually don't know. I saw the claimed "Wright flyer" myself years ago. It confronted you then, suspended overhead at the entrance of the Smithsonian's Art and Industries Building. At the time, who knew that no other plane is permitted to intrude on your view of the flyer or compete with its primacy? Who knew that there was (and still is) a contract that the Smithsonian had made with the Wright estate/family that specifies how it is to be displayed, inclu