Pages

Thursday, May 6, 2010

The Winds of Kitty Hawk (TV movie)

Was channel surfing this morning and came accross this, about halfway over when I first tuned in. The Winds of Kitty Hawk (1978)

I can't say I'm very impressed with it...but it may just be because I've never really cared for actor Michael Moriarty, who plays Orville. A favorite, John Hoyt, plays professor Langley. Interestingly, in checking the IMDB, I see that it won an Emmy.

In any event, as usual, historical events our changed to help add drama to the mix. The story switches between the Wright brothers working on their craft, and Samuel Langley working on his. And they are each "racing against the other."

However, the Wright brothers were working in secret on their project - I doubt if Langley had even heard of them until after 1905.

Still, the scenes of the Wright flyer "in action" are worth watching... although you can tell at times it's a dummy on board the craft rather than one of the actors.

1 comment:

Timothy R. Gaffney said...

You might be interested to know that the airplane used in "Winds of Kitty Hawk", a replica Wright Model B, is now owned by Wright "B" Flyer Inc. in Dayton, OH. It is not flown, but in March WBF took it to San Antonio, TX, for the 100th anniversary of Army Lt. Benjamin Foulois' first solo flight at Fort Sam Houston. It was taxied on the parade field where Foulois flew while another WBF replica flew overhead. It was on display at Farnborough in 2009. It is now used mainly as a static display on Huffman Prairie near Dayton, where the Wright brothers flew after Kitty Hawk. You can see pictures of the flyer in San Antonio at AviationDayton.com.