Text: "Original fabric from Kitty Hawk 'Wright Flyer' / Certification / For: Peter M. Bowers / When Orville Wright, at my suggestion, assembled the Kitty Hawk machine for public exhibition for the first time, in 1916, at the opening of the new buildings of M. I. T. in Cambridge, he found that the original fabric could not be used and substituted new fabric of an identical material. When he died, his executors found that he had preserved some of the original coverings of the wings and entrusted several pieces of this most valuable relic to me for distribution to notable aeronautical friends. I certify that this piece was used in the first successful flight in history by Orville Wright on December 17, 1903 at Kitty Hawk, N. C. / [signature: 'Lester D. Gardner']."Creation Datecirca 1950s-1960sSubjectWright (Brothers) 1903 FlyerGardner, Lester D. (Lester Durand), 1876-1956Bowers, Peter M., 1918-2003Extent1 photograph : print, black and white ; 19 x 29 cmLanguageEnglishOriginal FormatcertificatesartifactsBibliographic CitationThe Peter M. Bowers Photograph Collection and Papers/The Museum of FlightRightsCopyright undetermined
[Certificate and fabric piece from 1903 Wright Flyer], [2008-03-31_text_003]. Museum of Flight Digital Collections, accessed 05/12/2025, https://digitalcollections.museumofflight.org/nodes/view/26291
