Seventy years ago, Orville Wright and Amelia Earhart were honorary guests at the grand opening of the Franklin Institute Science Museum’s Aviation Hall in Philadelphia. Their legacy lives on at the Franklin Air Show, a fully renovated exhibit devoted to the history of powered flight coinciding with the centennial of the Wright Brothers’ Kitty Hawk liftoff Dec. 17, 1903.
The 5,000-square-foot exhibit–designed to simulate an air show, with clouds on the ceiling, a runway on the floor and the roar of aircraft above–features more than 20 interactive devices in three environments: an aircraft hangar, a pilot training area and a landing surface.
Visitors can negotiate a 360-degree roll in a flight-training simulatoror construct their dream plane with a computer. Central exhibit is a restored 1911 Model B Flyer, thought to be the most structurally intact of any Wright plane.
The museum, located at 222 N. 20th St., is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Telephone is 215-448-1200. Web site is www.fi.edu. Entry: $12.75; ages 4 to 11, $10.
New park in Scotland
A vast area in the Highlands of Scotland has recently been designated the largest national park in Britain.
The 1,467-square-mile Cairngorms National Park is the second area in Scotland to be given national park status. (The first national park, Loch Lomond and the Trossachs, named in 2002, is 720 square miles.)
In the sparsely populated terrain of the Cairngorms (11.7 people per square mile), visitors will find mountains (52 summits, including four of Scotland’s five highest peaks), high plateaus, wide valleys, winding rivers, lochs, and forests interspersed with farms and settlements. Ptarmigan, curlew and snow bunting are among the birds in the park, along with such animals as red deer, red squirrels and mountain hares.
Other attractions include castles, Scotch whisky distilleries and museums. There are specified trails, such as the Victorian Heritage Trail–with sites like Balmoral Castle, the Scottish home of the royal family, which is open from the end of March through July–as well as a malt whiskey trail and a castle trail. See www.castlesandwhisky.com for more details.
For the park, contact the Cairngorms National Park Authority in Grantown-on-Spey, 011-44-1479-873535, or visit www.cairngorms.co.uk or www.visithighlands.com.
Rent a car and ski
The Avis Ski promotion, through April 30 at participating locations, provides free use of a ski rack, $50 off a weekly rental of a sport utility vehicle or $25 off a weekly rental in any other category. Weekend rentals bring a $20 discount. The vehicles are winterized and there’s emergency roadside assistance.
The rental locations are in states with most major ski resorts. Blackout dates and other restrictions apply. The offer code is AWD K534605.
For more information call 888-754-1212 or see www.avis.com.
