The Gift of Flight: How Two Brothers Impacted Two Travelers

What if the Wright brother's hadn't figured out human flight?

Really think about that for a moment.

It was a question that came up on a recent trip to Ohio.  We packed up and decided on a day trip to Dayton to visit family.  Carillon Park was our destination.  

Located just on the edge of Dayton, the park is an incredible spot to walk history.  If you have been to Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan, Carillon Park has the same feel on a smaller scale.  We spent the day wandering in and out of houses and buildings, learning about the various ways Ohio played a role in history across the nation. 

The draw however, was the Wright Brother's Plane.  

The Wright Brother's National Museum sits at the back of the park as an official park of the National Park Service.  Information within the museum states this location has more artifcats from the Wright brothers than anywhere else in the world.

The shop itself is a replica, as the orginal does sit at Greenfield Village in Michigan.  

The tour through the museum is well done with amazing information to learn.  The docents are kind and engaging, walking through each section of the museum and sharing the story of Orville and Wilbur's journey toward man-powered flight.  Just before you get to the end of the museum, there is automation presentation that is engaging and incredibly informative.

And then you get to step into a room filled with history and and that question you've been pondering....

The orginal plane that first took flight for 39 minutes sits at the end of the tour in a room to itself.  We were told that at least 80% of the plane was orginal, and that Orville had been onsite when they had given it to the National Park to help piece it back together.  

Wait? What?  He was there?

​Yep - because flight at the time wasn't even 100 years old.

It's in that moment the question becomes real.  If two brothers hadn't decided to risk their lives to fly a plane, two teachers wouldn't be able to stand across the ocean on a break and teach about the world.

Because that's the reality.  Flight changed the world in more ways than could have ever been antcipated.  While countries and governments saw flight as an advantage for conquest, others were beginning to see flight as a way for people to move about the country.  In just under 20 years, the world moved from Orvilles first flight of 39 minutes across Dayton, to commerical airline flights with international crossings.  A google search will give you an increidibly interesting history of commericalized flights.

Flight has moved people around the world in 24 hours or less, on trips that would have taken months to years in the past.  You could be in England on a Sunday for Roast, in Paris for lunch on Wednesday, and in Rome for wine the following Saturday.  Yes, it would be a rather quick trip, but the point is, it's possible.

And for two teachers, who have spent their lives in education, travel has opened a whole new world in education.  The idea of being able to teach others about traveling, about the world we live in, about it's incredible history and innovation, is only possible because of two brothers. 

Two brothers took on the concept of flight, to allow the future to take on the world.

For that, these two teachers are extremely thankful. 

​We'll continue to do our best to take on the world.

More fun in Ohio:

Hocking Hills

Cuyahoga National Park