Ohio Fields, Carolina Seas

The creativity and ingenuity of the Wright brothers changed the world, inventing an entirely new perception of our vantage point of earth, and the ability to explore it. My father's first job, following his tour as a bombardier for the Air Force in World War II, was at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton. As young girl growing up in a small Ohio town, watching test planes whizz by in the summer sky, or formations of fighter jets filling the horizon were normal visions. An occasional sonic boom meant a lucky test pilot had broken the sound barrier. The Wright brothers and their legendary feats belong in aviation history, but at one time, they were simply local inventors, and will always remain, for many, hometown heroes. (Original images courtesy Library of Congress.)