The city’s plan to restore the Wright Brothers’ former plane manufacturing site is taking flight.
News Center 7’s Mike Campbell talked with city leaders and people living near the West Third Street location about the restoration work that is about to get started.
City leaders passed a plan at the commission meeting on Wednesday that allows for environmental testing on the site to make sure everything remains safe. But it’s the work to restore the hangars where the plane building happened that has everyone excited.
Steve Gondol said, “It has been a long process, but we’re really excited that we have all this underway.”
The site consists of a half-dozen hangars that were used for the first mass production of airplanes in the early 1900s. Fire destroyed the roofing on a couple of the buildings in 2023.
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News Center 7’s Mike Campbell talks to city leaders about the excitement of turning the old manufacturing site into a tourist attraction on News Center 7, starting at 5:00.
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Dayton Congressman Mike Turner toured the site a few months after the fire. He convinced Congress to set aside around $ 4 million for the efforts to rebuild.
“All of us are lockstep in terms of advancing the work on those hangers,” Gondol said.
Dayton city leaders are pleased that this project will remind everyone that Dayton is the birthplace of aviation. And the restoration of the hangars will allow people from around the country to see that.
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