Wright Bros replica crashes/..Two dead

[Kip Powick]

(CNN) -- A replica of a 1910 aircraft built by flight pioneers Orville and Wilbur Wright crashed Saturday in a field near Springfield, Ohio, killing the two men aboard, the Ohio State Highway Patrol reported.

The aircraft was reported downed shortly before 11 a.m., the agency said in a statement. It had taken off from Springfield Beckley Municipal Airport.

Police identified the dead men as Don Gum, 73, of Beaver Creek, Ohio, and Mitchell Cary, 65, of Yellow Springs, Ohio.

The cause of the crash remained under investigation, according to the highway patrol. It's looking into the incident along with the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board.

The plane, owned by Wright "B" Flyer Inc. of Dayton, Ohio -- a volunteer nonprofit group -- was a copy of a Wright Model B aircraft produced seven years after the brothers' celebrated first powered flight.

It began test flights in June and performed well, according to a press release on the organization's website.

The organization designed the plane to resemble the 1910 edition, but built it so that it could be more easily taken apart and shipped to international events, the company said in the June press release. It was built with a modern engine, controls and materials, the organization said.

Gum and Cary were members of the group's board of trustees and Cary was a former president, CNN affiliate WHIO-TV reported.

"Mitch and Don were highly competent pilots with extensive experience flying Wright 'B' Flyer airplanes and other experimental aircraft," WHIO quoted president Phil Beaudoin as saying.

[Guest alkaid]

Apparently, it is not very easy to fly. I met a man at a museum in the U.S. who had helped build and fly one of these replicas. He said something along the lines of having 20 flights in the machine for a total of 2 minutes flight time.