Gossamer Condor celebration coming to Minter Field

The Minter Field Air Museum will be offering free tours of the Gossamer Condor, which flew the first human-powered control flight. The flight took place in Shafter at the Minter Field Airport. An anniversary celebration will be held on Saturday, Aug. 24, with a banquet at Hodel's Country Dining in Bakersfield. The dinner will honor those involved in the project, as well as give attendees a chance to relive a part of aviation history.

Gossamer Condor Pilot Bryan Allen; Sam Duran, flight manager of Paul MacCready's Gossamer Albatross, and Janice Brown Sullivan, pilot of Paul MacCready's Solar Challenger,.are expected to attend.

According to Ronald Pierce, director of the museum, the event will be the first time in over a decade in which participants of the event will have been together.

Attendees will be able to meet and listen to key figures in the project that is compared to the Wright Brothers' breakthrough at Kitty Hawk.

The Minter Field Air Museum will be offering free tours of the location of the historic 1977 flight to North Carolina. Visitors will be able to see and talk to the people that were there and made it happen on Aug. 23, 1977. Newly released Super 8 movies taken the day of the record-breaking human powered aircraft flight will be shown.

For more information,contact the Minter Field Air Museum at 661-746-2111.