BACK TO AVIATION BASICS KIDS TO COPY EARLY-1900S FLIGHT TEST.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

LANCASTER - A 12-foot-wingspan kite version of an early Wright brothers' glider is under construction by youngsters at Sacred Heart School.

About 20 students in fifth through eighth grades are building the craft out of balsa wood with the help of engineers and others who work in or have retired from the aerospace field.

``It's interesting. I'm learning about how planes work and how to fly. I like learning how to actually put it together. I like seeing how it comes together. It's really amazing,'' said project manager Lauren Martini, a 13-year-old eighth-grader.

``I like building the elevator, and then I also like getting myself sticky with glue. It happened today with the epoxy,'' said Devin Fitzgerald, 11, a fifth-grader.

The goal is for students to build a nearly full-scale rudimentary airplane and test it, as the Wright brothers did.

The model is to be flown at a low angle to the ground, on a 300-foot tether, and to reach an altitude of 10 to 20 feet above the ground.

If all goes well, the craft will be finished in the fall and make its first flight at Lancaster City Park.

``The engineers tell me we will hold it up in the air, and just by pulling the string tighter it will take off,'' said Peggy Horner, co-principal and math teacher.

The construction project comes after the 100th anniversary of powered flight. Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first flight in a powered airplane at Kitty Hawk, N.C., on Dec. 17, 1903.

Students have been working on the project since February, getting together Fridays after school in the library.

Horner got the idea to have students build a Wright kite after attending a National Aeronautics and Space Administration event last year at Antelope Valley College.

One of the presentations was by a person who makes kits for the kite- style craft, Horner said.

Craig Griffith, a Sacred Heart parent and NASA supervisor who also was at the event, agreed it would be fun for the students to build the plane, but Horner said they would need help.

Members of a local chapter of the Experimental Aircraft Association were among volunteers to help.

``Sacred Heart approached our chapter through Craig Griffith. The chapter put out the word that mentors were needed to help out the project,'' said David Cleveland, an aerospace technical writer and editor from Littlerock.

The kite's 12-foot wingspan is one-third of the span of a 1902 Wright glider, Cleveland said.

Also helping students on the project are Bob Hoey, a self-employed consultant who was a U.S. Air Force flight-test engineer for 32 years, and Joe Dagata, a Lockheed Martin engineer.

``It's a great learning experience for the kids,'' said Dagata, a Lancaster resident. ``The timing is right with the Wright brothers. The kids are wonderful. They learn quickly and develop skills quickly.''

Also helping out is Vasquez High School senior Katie Liefeld, 17, who rebuilt a Pietenpol Aircamper with her father and is a member of the Antelope Valley Ninety-Nines, an organization of female pilots.

Liefeld said her father had helped out with an airplane-building project at the Palmdale Learning Plaza school.

``I saw him and how much fun he had, and I wanted to help out and do something like that,'' said Liefeld, a third-generation pilot who wants to become an aerospace engineer.

The Knights of Columbus in Lancaster donated the $1,500 needed to buy the kit, Horner said.

``I thought it would be a project that the students would enjoy working on. As it's developed, the kids have learned everything from how to use a saw and drill to make things all the way to actually doing measurements,'' Horner said. ``There are students who are project managers, students who check the work, workers who are building the parts.''

Horner said students who have built kite gliders at some other schools in Southern California have donated theirs to museums.

Karen Maeshiro, [phone]

karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

Sacred Heart School students work on a one-third size model of a 1902 Wright glider, to be flown as a kite. From left are Caitlin Stell, 13, and, both 14, Devon Dean and Kristina Migasi.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer