AVIATION CLUB members were treated to a discourse last week at the Institute of Directors by General Jack Dailey, Director of the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum Washington. General Dailey”s theme of course was the impending 100th anniversary of the first ever controlled powered by Wilbur Wright, but he kept his audience enthralled by the connection the Wright Brothers have to the UK. When Orville Wright fell out with the Smithsonian over the credibility of Langley”s unsuccessful attempt to fly it was the Science Museum in London that he turned to for help and accommodation. Back in 1899 the brothers enthused over the work of Sir George Caley, nearly 100 years earlier and his serious attempt to get into the air. The Smithsonian was founded by a disenchanted Englishman, living in Italy. Like the brothers he had fallen out with the establishment only to be totally vindicated with the passing of the years. The articulate Jack Dailey served in Vietnam and has flown both British and US versions of the Harrier.
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