DATE: Friday, October 24, 1997              TAG: 9710240767

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: BY CATHERINE KOZAK, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NAGS HEAD                         LENGTH:   74 lines

WINDS WRONG FOR WRIGHT FLIGHT FILM FAMOUS BROTHERS' OUTER BANKS FEAT BEING REPLICATED FOR TV PRODUCTION.

Famous brothers' Outer Banks feat being replicated

for TV production. Outer Banks winds weren't much more cooperative for filmmakers Thursday than they were for the two brothers from Ohio years before.

``It's just like the Wright brothers,'' said producer Michael Barnes of WGBH-TV, a public television station in Boston. ``There's a lot of waiting.''

Barnes and six crew members were at Jockey's Ridge State Park to film test flights of replicas of three gliders the Wrights used before their famous 1903 flight. They'll try again when the wind picks up.

The NOVA production will document the evolution of the creation of the successful flying machine by following the design and construction of the kites and gliders that educated the brothers.

The replicas of the 1900, 1901 and 1902 gliders were lined up on the grass behind the Jockey's Ridge visitors center, where the crew set the stage for their builder, Rick Young, to talk about the machines.

Young, a Richmond restaurateur and flier, made the craft with the help of his partner, Ken Hyde. They jointly own the The Wright Experience, a company they started about three years ago. Built of ash, spruce and cotton muslin held together by cable and waxed linen cord, the machines will be demonstrated nationwide as part of the ongoing events planned as a buildup to the huge centennial celebration in 2003.

No one has ever tried to replicate the machines, Young said. But he said they're important to understanding the story of the Wrights' success.

``One of the best ways to figure out how they did it is to reproduce it,'' he said. ``There's just so many things that don't occur to you. There's just incredible watertight engineering.''

Young said a Boeing engineer he knows was ``amazed'' at the design complexity involved.

Young and his daughter conducted successful test flights of the gliders at Jockey's Ridge earlier this week.

Young, who began studying and building aircraft reproductions 20 years ago, said he has been working closely with the First Flight Centennial Foundation - he's on the board - and with the Smithsonian Institution's Air and Space Museum. Although he declined to say how much the gliders cost, or how much money he has received, he said he is seeking a corporate sponsor to bankroll construction of the replicas. A total of four gliders and five power machines will be completed before the centennial, he said.

The machines, built in Richmond, illustrate the process of trial-and-error that the brothers endured while deciphering the embryonic science of aeronautics. The 1900 glider, with a 17-foot-long, 5-foot-wide wingspan, had a forward rudder but could not carry enough weight. So it was demoted to a kite.

The following year's glider - with a 22-by-7 foot wingspan - had problems with too much wing curvature. Then, the 1902 glider - with a 32-by-5 foot wingspan - was designed with a more efficient wing. It also included, for the first time, a tail - which was initially fixed but later altered to move.

Barnes said the $750,000 production, for now titled ``Inventing the Flying Machine,'' is scheduled to be completed in 1999. Once he's done at Jockey's Ridge next week, he plans to travel to Virginia sometime in the future to document the flying of the power plane. But, so far, he said he has no plans to do any filming in Ohio, the brothers' home state where they built bicycles and also conducted many tests.

``It's an important film for us, and this is why we're putting these resources in it,'' Barnes said. ``I think by using their very accurate reproductions it really helps us get inside the heads of the Wright brothers.

``It's been a fascinating project to work on. I feel very lucky and it's been a fun film.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

DREW C. WILSON/The Virginian-Pilot

A NOVA film crew works Thursday at Jockey's Ridge State Park to

produce a documentary on the Wright brothers and their first flights

near Kitty Hawk in 1903. Here three glider replicas are used as

props. KEYWORDS: WRIGHT BROTHERS MOVIE

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