Join us as Dr. Rubin Battino shares a brief history of powered flight including a discussion of the Wright brothers’ 1903 Flyer, the first machine to achieve controlled powered flight, on Thursday, June 15, in Room 441 of the Dunbar Library, from 11 a.m.– 12:30 p.m.
Dr. Battino, an emeritus professor of chemistry, will present material showing how scientific the Wrights were in their approach to flying, even fabricating wind tunnels and other aerodynamic testing apparatus in their bicycle shop. He also will share what he learned by helping to construct the full-size replica of the 1903 Wright Flyer that now hangs in the atrium of the Dunbar Library.
The Wright Flyer replica was built by a volunteer group of skilled woodworkers, machinists and seamstresses led by Howard DuFour, a master model maker who headed the Instrument Shop in the WSU College of Engineering and Computer Science.
Rubin Battino served on the faculty at Wright State from 1966 to 1995. He has given presentations on the Wright brothers and their mechanic, Charlie Taylor, in the United States and abroad. He was named “Speaker of the Year” by the Royal New Zealand Aeronautical Society and was a special speaker at Farnham in England.
Dr. Battino’s talk is cosponsored by the Wright State University Retirees Association and the Friends of the Libraries. The presentation is free and open to the public, but you must register by Monday, June 12.
