Re-dedication of Barnaby Plaque and Presentation

Date: October 17, 2011
Contact: Outer Banks Group, 252-473-2111

As part of the SOARING100 celebration, on Saturday October 22, 2011 the National Park Service and the Soaring Society of America will hold a re-dedication ceremony for the Ralph Barnaby Soaring Plaque and the Barnaby Lecture at the Wright Brothers National Memorial Visitor Center.

Walking down the sidewalk on the south side of the visitor center of the Wright Brothers National Memorial one sees a bronze bas-relief entitled, "They taught us to fly." The recently restored plaque shows the images of Wilbur and Orville Wright and their gliders of 1901, 1902 and 1911. The Soaring Society of America presented the plaque to the National Park Service during the 60^th anniversary of the Wrights' first sustained, controlled, powered flight on December 17, 1963.

The Barnaby plaque as it is known was created and designed by Ralph Barnaby who broke Orville Wrights' 1911 world's soaring record in America on August 18, 1929 at Cape Cod, Massachusetts.For this achievement Ralph Barnaby received glider pilot license #1 from the National Aeronautic Association signed by Orville Wright.

Following the re-dedication ceremony, the prestigious annual "Ralph S. Barnaby Lecture sponsored by the National Soaring Museum will be given at the Wright Memorial National Memorial Visitor Center.The speaker for the 40^th Barnaby lecture will be Darrell M. Collins. The titled of his lecture is "A legacy of Greatness - The Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk."

Wright Brothers National Memorial is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. For more information call 441-7430.