Monument to Powered Flight (Montgomery, Alabama)

 monument, interesting place

This is a full-scale stainless-steel sculpture of the Wright Model B aircraft first flown at this site in 1910. The original idea for the monument was proposed by then Lt Col David McFarland, Chief of Warfare Studies, at Air Command and Staff College. The proposals and approvals to build the monument were supervised by Lt Col Hank Staley, Chief of Communications at ACSC. Col Ed White led the effort to raise money for the $200,000+ project. It was dedicated in the fall of 1985, the 75th anniversary of the Wright brothers flights at a cotton field on the Kohn Plantation. On 25 May 1910, the first night flights in the world took place at the site. The Monument is the centerpiece of Maxwell Air Force Base, the home of the Air Force Air University.