'It was a bidding war to the last': Cole Center will be the home of replica Wright flyer

ZANESVILLE − It was right up to the wire but Ron and Erin Cole were the official buyers of the 1905 Wright Flyer III Replica and one authentic replica Wright Glider during the Memorial Day weekend online auction by Kiko Auctioneers.“It was a bidding war to the last. It was pretty amusing,” said Ron, who captured the win at approximately 6:10 p.m. The auction closed at 6 p.m., but every bid that came in after 6 p.m. restarted the clock for another two minutes. “I’m lucky to have Erin as my partner. She was more ferocious than me. ‘I don’t lose,’ she said.”Ron, who built his career as a product development engineer, artist, and designer for numerous companies including Disney, Boeing, and NASA, among others, said they had a budget in mind, but went four times over it, snagging the 1905 Wright Fyler for a little over $47,000. They got the Glider $1,600.

“It’s absolutely worth it,” said Ron, who, along with Erin, both serve as officers for the Artist Colony of Zanesville (ArtCOZ), which hosts the community's First Friday Art Walks, Y-Bridge Arts Festival, and Holiday Art Fest, among other area art activities and shows.The flyers were part of the estate of Mark Dusenberry, who died in 2022. Dusenberry’s story was highlighted in The Times-Reporter before he passed, where he said his work in building the replicas was inspired early on by books about Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and aviation pioneers Orville and Wilbur Wright.By 2003, Dusenberry had finished building a working copy of the 1905 Wright Flyer III, which he flew in 2005, 2007 and 2009 at Huffman Prairie. The 1905 Flyer was also used in a 2008 movie about the Wright brothers, "On Great White Wings." Dusenberry last flew the 1905 model on Oct. 1, 2009, when it crashed during a practice flight for the re-enactment of a historic flight made by Wilbur Wright 104 years earlier at Huffman Prairie. The crash left him a paraplegic but didn’t stop him from rebuilding the flyer and then building replicas of the Wrights’ 1911 Glider.Ron said he will not attempt to fly it.“It’s perfectly safe to fly straight,” said Ron. “But you can’t turn it. When you attempt to turn, you literally pull on wires and it warps the wings. Much like the wings of birds. Then it starts to slip and loses lift very quickly and slides toward the ground in the direction you’re trying to turn it.”Instead of trying to fly straight only, Ron said he will make it the centerpiece of his newest venture with wife, Erin - the Cole Center. The couple currently own Cole’s Aircraft, which features authenticated parts of historic aircraft with Ron's original art, in downtown Zanesville. Last summer, they purchased the former Montgomery Ward building on Fourth Street and are now rehabbing it to turn it into a COSI-like interactive history and STEM nonprofit organization. This will be the Cole Center.Ron said the 1905 Flyer will be located on the first floor once it opens. They’ll also take the clothes from the mannequins they received in their auction purchase and create a photo opportunity for visitors and at fundraising events.

But ultimately, it’s the craftmanship of the Flyer that Ron hopes visitors will admire most.“While it’s technically a replica, it was built to its exact specifications down to the last screws,” said Ron. “Everything was custom built to the exact Wright family drawings.“It’s really an amazing confluence of factors for us to have something like this.”

This article originally appeared on Zanesville Times Recorder: Replica Wright flyer finds a home in Zanesville