Dusenberry crashed during a practice flight in preparation for a re-enactment next week of Wilbur and Orville Wright’s historic demonstration of practical flight at Huffman Prairie.
The 48-year-old Dover resident had completed one practice flight and was on a second when the replica plane crashed, leaving the aircraft face-down in the middle of the field, its tail sticking up in the air.
Air Force spokesman Derek Kaufman said Dusenberry “was engaged in a second flight when he hit pretty hard.”
Dusenberry was taken to the hospital by CareFlight medical helicopter.
“The patient is awake, but he is in critical condition,” hospital spokeswoman Nancy Thickel said Thursday afternoon. “I don’t know what the extent of his injuries are.”
Neil “Skip” Raymond, a trustee with the National Aviation Heritage Alliance, which organized volunteers in support of the practice flights, said Dusenberry had been aloft for perhaps 20 seconds and was flying at 15 to 20 feet when the plane went down.
“It was going straight as an arrow, then straight down,” Raymond said.
Dusenberry, an Ohio Department of Transportation engineer who built and flies the replica plane, had been practicing for the re-enactment flight scheduled for Monday, Oct. 5. He and the plane also went down during an Oct. 5, 2007, re-enactment flight at Huffman Prairie. He escaped injury then.
Because of Thursday’s accident, the National Park Service said it has canceled the Monday re-enactment and a community breakfast that was to have preceded it. Affiliated educational events for school children from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday at Huffman Prairie will go on as scheduled, Ranger Julia Frasure said.
Huffman Prairie is part of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. The Air Force manages the field, which is also part of the park aervice’s Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park.
Huffman Prairie is the field where the Wright brothers made the Oct. 5, 1905, flight that showed their flying machine was practical.
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