Cape student's Wright effort captures moment of history

A fragile wood-and-cloth airplane, an important gust of wind. Two bicycle-building brothers from Ohio, one lying face down inside the rudimentary craft as it slowly leaves the earth and the other in awed movement on the ground.

Nineteen-year-old Matt Benson's creation captures one of the most famous and momentous split-seconds in history -- man's first powered flight by Orville and Wilbur Wright, an event that marks its centennial anniversary today.

Benson's work is a scale model of the Wright Brothers first flight on Dec. 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, N.C. The model uses dowel rods for the plane's skeleton, wires for suspension, muslin cloth for the wings and carpenter's glue to hold it together.

"It wasn't easy," Benson said. "But I liked working on it. I liked that I was making something that actually happened, that was historical."

Along with 25 other students, Benson made a model as part of his social studies class at the Alternative School in Cape Girardeau. His was selected as the best one and will be on display today at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport in honor of 100 years of powered flight. The model will be in the airport lobby for at least a few weeks.

Benson's teacher, Randy Barnhouse, selected Benson's model because of its detail.

"Matt's probably got 40 to 45 hours in that little plane," Barnhouse said. "I steered him along, but he did it pretty much by eye. He'd try something and if it didn't work, he'd try something else. Matt was very attentive to detail and doing it right. He really seemed to enjoy doing it also."

Benson was sent to the Alternative School after losing credit at Central High School because of excessive absences. But in this social studies class, he said he learned a good deal about the flight of the Wright brothers.

History can fill in the blanks. On that morning, the Wright Flyer, crafted by the two brothers, lurched into the air for 120 feet, launching the aviation age. There were several attempts before that.

Benson had his own setbacks.

"I couldn't get the wings to fit together and I couldn't get the dowel rods to fit together," he said. "But I figured out that just by whittling down the ends, it all came together."

But he wanted to make sure Barnhouse got some of the credit.

Barnhouse said it was a good way for the students to learn about the historic day. "We used some duplicate historic photographs and looked on the Internet," Barnhouse said. "When the students got frustrated, I told them it was frustrating at times for the Wright brothers too. I think they learn more with hands-on lessons like this."

Today, Benson will get to see his model in place for the first time at the airport. Afterward, Barnhouse is taking him out to lunch.

"I'm really pleased with myself," he said. "I didn't think I could do it this well. But I like it. Maybe it's a little bit how the Wright brothers felt."

smoyers@semissourian.com

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