Wright Brothers Unit Study

One of the first things we wanted to do when we moved to the Dayton, Ohio, area was to visit the Wright Brothers sites.

Huffman Prairie Flying Field is right by Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

There are historical plaques and markers explaining the history of the Wright Brothers and aviation in Dayton, Ohio.

This is a little train station platform for supplies.

The storage and repair barn

The launching area where they catapulted the plane into the air

We recently revisited Huffman Prairie to see the flowers.

When we first saw the prairie the end of June 2017, it had been really rainy and the flowers were taller and farther along in their bloom. There were even little toads hopping all around and we saw several deer.

In mid-July 2018, it’s been really hot and dry and the flowers are shorter and not as many are blooming. We saw no toads or deer, but lots of bees and butterflies.

Huffman Prairie Flying Field Interpretive Center

This ancient hill was once the burial ground of a Mound Builder Native American culture.

A gorgeous lookout, monument, and another museum.

The kids got a second Junior Ranger badge.

Huffman Dam

You can see Wright-Patterson Air Force Base on the right.

Wright B Flyer

Visit Wright “B” Flyer’s hangar and museum where you can get up close to our aircraft and meet the volunteers who designed, built, operate, and maintain them.  It’s all free!

Become an Honorary Aviator Member for $100.00 and receive a free orientation flight on Wright “B” Flyer. (We haven’t done that…yet.)

Wright-Dunbar Interpretive Center

The museum is extensive. We really enjoyed our time there!

Reading botany notebooks by Paul Laurence Dunbar and Orville Wright  – just like our Charlotte Mason nature study notebooking pages! They both were taught botany in 1887 by the same teacher – William Werthner.

The upper level includes a parachute museum.

Great photo ops with a parachute cutout and ejection seat.

The kids got Junior Ranger badges. Aaron got his Passport stamps.

We ate a picnic lunch at a little park outside the center.

The Wright Cycle Company Museum:

Orville’s last workshop façade memorial:

RiverScape Metropark

RiverScape is a gorgeous park in downtown Dayton to picnic, relax, walk, run, or bike.

They have concerts and events throughout the year.

Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum

Founded in 1841, Woodland Cemetery is one of the nation’s five oldest rural garden cemeteries and a unique cultural, botanical, and educational resource in the heart of Dayton, Ohio.

Memorial at the entrance to the Wright Brothers:

Wright Family Graves:

We also visited The National Museum of the Air Force last fall. We couldn’t even see it all. It’s HUGE!

Did you know?

The Wright brothers weren’t the first to earn their wings!
This brother team from Dayton, Ohio, did come up with the first truly controllable aircraft, we’ll give them that, but the real claim for first in flight fame goes to a German immigrant named Gustav Whitehead that occurred in Bridgeport, Connecticut. In 2013, Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft, which calls itself the world’s foremost authority on aviation history, named the August 1901 flight by Whitehead as the first successful powered flight in history, according to flyingmag.com. Jane reviewed evidence from aviation researcher John Brown that Whitehead may have made one and possibly two flights in a small monoplane of his own design (and powered by a tiny motor also of his own design) as early as 1901—two full years before the Wright Brothers.

Resources:

• Simple Living Creative Learning unit
• Study on Flight by DIY Homeschooler
• More Resources by DIY Homeschooler
• Aviation Resources from The Homeschool Mom
• Schooling a Monkey Airplane Craft
• Webquest by Garden of Praise
• Lapbook from Confessions of a Homeschooler $
• Lapbook by Knowledge Box Central $
• Resources from Homeschool Giveaways
• Documentary about the Wright Brothers
• Huffman Prairie documentary