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Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 is the software behind the Wright Flyer simulator and cradle that helps recreate the Wright brothers' first powered flight. The Wright simulator is piloted here by Bruce Williams.

100 YEARS OF FLIGHT Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 is the software behind the Wright Flyer simulator and cradle that helps recreate the Wright brothers' first powered flight. The Wright simulator is piloted here by Bruce Williams. (Courtesy EAA)

Wright Flyer simulator recreates historic flight

Geartest.com Staff
December 16, 2003

If you've ever wondered what it was like for the Wright brothers to fly their history-making plane at Kitty Hawk 100 years ago, aviation aficionados and the general public recently had the chance to find out.

The Ontario Science Centre in Toronto hosted the Microsoft 1903 Wright Flyer simulator on the last stop of a North American tour.

"Instead of just reading about the Wright brothers . . . you can actually get into the cockpit, as it were, and experience it first-hand," said Bruce Williams, business development manager for the latest edition of the Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 software used in the Wright exhibit. "We want people to come away with a personal experience of how it worked. It brings the experience alive in a way that you don't get when you just read about it in a book."

The simulator is a full-scale reproduction of the controls the Wrights -- Orville and Wilbur -- used to control their plane on its historic first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina on Dec. 17, 1903. The hand lever, hip cradle and throttle controls connect to a PC running Microsoft's software, which in turn displays a virtual view of would-be pilots' flight on a large screen in front of them.

"Development of flight was a big step for humans, so it's more than reasonable that a science and technology centre would mark the anniversary with flight-related exhibits, the centrepiece being the flight simulation," said David Sugarman, a senior researcher at the science centre. "This is the latest flight simulation technology that is available to the public."

In addition to a wide range of regular interactive exhibits that showcase the science, technology and history of flight, for the duration of the simulator's visit, the science centre showed a special Imax film, On the Wing. The movie immerses viewers in the history of how flight developed, from insects to pterodactyls to bats and so on, to humans.

"We definitely want people to have fun while they do their exploring," Sugarman said. "We're opening minds to science and educating and entertaining in a creative way."

Vicki Davis of Parma, Ohio was on a field trip to the science centre with her family when she spied the simulator. The homeschooled 12-year-old, who has never been on a real plane, managed to stay in the air for some 23 seconds -- nearly double the Wrights' original 12-second flight.

"It's fun," she said. "I like flying games because it's like you're in the air and you can see everything."

She has no plans to become a pilot, but would like to go skydiving someday.

Dr. Gregory Millar of London, Ont., flew his single engine Piper Cherokee Six to Toronto island airport a day before the exhibit opened so he could try his hand at piloting the Wright simulator. The optometrist, who had his first flying lesson at age 10, read about the exhibit three months ago on a private pilots' e-mail discussion list and booked the day off work.

"Flying is a passion," he said when asked what prompted him to make the trip. It runs in his family. His fourth cousin, Stuart, is a former president of Piper Aircraft. And his great-grandfather's brother, Joseph Millar, witnessed a 1901 flight that some argue was really the first successful powered aircraft, but that history records as a glider.

Asked what he thought of his turn piloting the simulator, he said, "It pulls to the left."

The science centre was the simulator's only Canadian stop. From there, it went to Kill Devil Hills, N.C. for festivities marking the centenary of powered flight. It has been flown by some 250,000 people on its tour through the United States and Canada.

The cradle itself was built by the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) in Oshkosh, Wisc., which builds and flies replicas of historically significant planes at various air shows.

To ensure the planes in Flight Simulator 2004 look and fly the way the originals did, Microsoft enlisted the assistance of the EAA to develop the software, which includes nine historically significant airplanes, and 15 modern aircraft. The EAA's replicas were extensively photographed, used to record sounds and flown by the Microsoft staff working on the software, said Williams, a flight instructor with 30 years' piloting experience.