DanMargarita.com

You're probably well aware by now that last week marked the 100th anniversary of their historic flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The event was re-created at the same location last week where enthusiastic crowds gathered to watch a replica Wright Flyer taxi down a wooden track, only to plop face-down into the mud.

President Bush was on hand for the event, though he did not announce plans to revive NASA missions to the moon, which some had anticipated. Actor John Travolta, who introduced the president, volunteered to go on the first moon mission. Bush, who made no commitment to the space program and didn't stay for the actual test flight, said of Travolta "We shall call him moon man from now on." Folks, that's better than anything I can make up.

The Wrights owned a bicycle shop in their hometown of Dayton, Ohio before deciding that what the world needed was a flying bicycle. Thus, the state of Ohio has adopted the motto of their state as "The Birthplace of Aviation," which has put them in a tussle with North Carolina whom has long referred to itself as "First in Flight." Apparently, the state of Ohio doesn't feel that it has anything else to promote that they can use as a slogan. How about "Home of the Pro Football Hall of Fame" or "There's a Reason They Call it Lake Erie" or "Home of the Cayuhoga River; So Polluted That it Once Caught Fire?"

The boys began tinkering with the "aeroplane" and decided that the best place to test it was at "Kill Devil Hills" in Kitty Hawk. It is reasonable to assume that they chose this location for it's aeronautics and not its ominous sounding name. Wind currents are probably also why they chose that location over nearby "Crash and Burn Mountain" and "We're Going to Die Field."

The first successful flight lasted just twelve seconds. That was not long enough for an in-flight movie, but just long enough to view a one-panel cartoon. The flight also went a mere 120 twenty feet, which is the distance of a short pop up.

Of course, there have been great advances since then. One can now hop on a plane and be on another continent in the same day. As we learned on September 11, 2001, this technology can be misused with devastating consequences. Had the airplane never developed beyond the Wright Flyer, a plane crashing into the World Trade Center Towers would've resulted in a scratched window and a dead pilot.

The hijacking craze of the 1970's itself never would've come to be if the airplane hadn't improved it's distance capability. A hijacker's demands would've been limited. "Take this plane...across the street."

We probably also would've missed out on the airline that decided to have a "nude" flight, which by the way, would make getting through customs a lot easier.

The year 1903 saw some historic journeys. Besides the Wright's historic plane trip, Horatio Nelson Jackson made the first ever cross-country automobile trip. Perhaps it's because there are no great journeys to take, or because we've lost our collective drive, but the only journey this country is focused on in 2003 is that of Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie and their trek to Arkansas to live on a farm in the reality TV show "The Simple Life."

Despite the acclaim they received for their world-changing invention, neither Orville or Wilbur ever married proving that in the early twentieth century, as now, even being a famous inventor couldn't get you laid if your name was "Orville" or "Wilbur."

I just wonder if on that historic first flight Orville had a little bag of salted peanuts.