The Constellation of Orville

On this date in 1944, Orville Wright took the controls of a United States Army Air Force Lockheed C-69 Constellation during a short demonstration flight over Dayton, Ohio. It was his first piloting experience in 25 years. Below is an excerpt from This Day in History site:

After the flight, Wright said, “It was absolutely marvelous. . . You can say that I ran the whole thing. Put exclamation points and question marks around that—because all I had to do was just let it take care of itself. . . I enjoyed every minute. I guess a ran the whole plane for a minute. But I let the machine take care of itself. I always said airplanes would fly themselves if you left them alone.”