Viewing page 14 of 459

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

[[newspaper clipping]]

^[[1948]]

WRIGHT PLANE BACK IN U.S.

BAYONNE, N.J., Nov. 20 - (AP) - The "Kitty Hawk" came home today from 20 years exile in London.

The flimsy Wright Brothers plane, which first carried man aloft in sustained flight 45 years ago, arrived aboard the 13,000-ton carrier Palau in company of 24 of its descendants - sleek, new, deadly navy Corsairs.

It came in three wooden crates en route to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.

The Kitty Hawk, originally named the "Flyer," was sent to England after the late Orville Wright became involved in a dispute with Smithsonian Institution officials as to whether the plane was the first heavier than air craft to carry a man aloft.

Institution officials at the time ruled that a plane built by Samuel Langley should be so designated.

Return of the 600-pound biplane, was requested by Orville Wright in 1943 after Smithsonian officials reversed their original ruling and decided the Kitty Hawk should be honored as the first heavier than air craft to carry man through space.

The plane was brought from Halifax by the Palau after its removal from the liner Mauretanian which was diverted to the Nova Scotian port because of the east coast waterfront strike.

[[/newspaper clipping]]