The Wright Stuff
NASA engineers have mounted a full-scale replica of the Wright brothers’ wood and fabric biplane in a wind tunnel at Moffett Field, Calif., to learn more about its stability, control and handling as well as the brothers’ science and engineering skills. California Institute of Technology aeronautics professor Fred Culick, 63, is to fly the replica in 2003 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Orville Wright’s historic 12-second flight at Kitty Hawk, N.C., on Dec. 17, 1903. Culick says he’ll wear a helmet and a harness. “I may be foolhardy, but I’m not crazy.”