Aviation Lecture Series - 2018-2019 Season

WACO Historical Society Aviation Lecture Series

WACO Air Museum, 1865 South County Road 25A, Troy, Ohio 45373

Tuesday, November 13 & Thursday, December 13–doors open at 6:30 p.m., speech at 7 p.m.

WACO Air Museum and Learning Center will again offer an array of compelling speakers as part of the 2018-2019 Aviation Lecture Series.

The series opened Thursday night, October 18th with professional skydiver, David Hart. As a former U.S. Army Ranger and Pathfinder, David has completed the most elite small unit leadership training in the world, spending three years in an actual Ranger Unit and an additional five years as an Army Pathfinder.

As a skydiver and co-founder of Team FasTrax Professional Skydiving (teamfastrax.org), David has accumulated thousands of parachute jumps and decades of skydiving experience, including high profile jumps into NASCAR races, Major League sports and even, symphony performances. He holds the highest ratings in his sport. David has made 100 skydives in 13 hours and has competed several times at the US Nationals. He has jumped from cargo airplanes, helicopters, hot air balloons and even off bridges.

The series will continue with “Discovery and Renewal on Huffman Prairie: Where Aviation Took Wing” on Tuesday, November 13th with author David Nolan.

Huffman Prairie, east of Dayton, was the experimental grounds for Orville and Wilbur Wright as they refined their flying machines. Though the prairie has been damaged over the years, volunteers and agencies have worked together in order to restore 114 acres of this prairie to the grassland full of wildflowers that once filled this prairie. Nolin will cover the history of this land, from glaciers to the protection of the Dayton Aviation National Historical Park, and everything in between; Huffman Prairie has seen activity by American Indians, settlers, farmers, flood control engineers, the Wright Brothers, and the U.S. Government. David Nolin, author of Discovery and Renewal on Huffman Prairie” led the land acquisition and habitat management of the Huffman Prairie State Natural Landmark.

2018 will end with popular speaker, Bill Albers of the Champaign Aviation Museum in Urbana, on December 13th with a special Christmas themed presentation entitled, ”Life & Christmas Traditions in Britain During World War II.”

All aviation lectures are free and open to the public, and are held in the Willis Wing of the WACO Air Museum at 1865 South County Road 25A in Troy, OH. Programs are scheduled to last one hour with questions to follow. Donations to the WACO Air Museum are accepted. For questions, please call 937-335-9226 or visit www.wacoairmuseum.org.