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nt George W. Bush "The power of flight has advanced in ways that could not have been imagined on December 17, 1903, and in the future, flight will advance in ways that none of us can imagine as we stand here today. Yet always, as long as there is human flight, we will honor the achievement of a cold morning on the Outer Banks of North Carolina by two young brothers named Orville and Wilbur Wright." FILE 5. File footage of the Wright brothers flight Kill Devil Hills, Outside Kitty Hawk, NC 17 Dec 2003 6. SOUNDBITE: (English) US President George W. Bush "The Wright brothers invention belongs to the world, but the Wright brothers belong to America." 7. Cutaway of John Travolta 8. SOUNDBITE: (English) US President George W. Bush "By our skill and daring, America has excelled in every area of aviation and space travel. And our national commitment remains firm. By our skill and daring, we will continue to lead the world in flight." FILE 9. Footage of the Wright brothers flight Kill Devil Hills, Outside Kitty Hawk, NC 17 Dec 2003 10. Wide shot of Wright brothers flight re-enactment about to get underway 11. Various shots of re-enactment getting underway 12. Plane attempts to take off and gets stuck in mud STORYLINE: One-hundred years after the Wright brothers' first flight, an attempt to re-create the moment failed Wednesday when a replica craft couldn't get off the ground and sputtered into the mud. The muslin-winged flyer dropped off the end of a wooden track and stopped dead in a muddy puddle. Pilot Kevin Kochersberger dropped his head in apparent chagrin and later laughed as the plane was hoisted back on the track. The attempt had already been delayed by about three hours after a downpour, and it was not immediately clear if the team would try again. Organisers took the plane back inside a tent pavilion for an inspection. The re-enactment was originally scheduled for 10:35 a.m eastern time (1735GMT), exactly 100 years after the brothers from Dayton, Ohio, made their first tentative hops through the air with a delicate contraption fashioned in their bicycle shop. Earlier, President Bush told the drenched crowd that the Wright brothers would not have been deterred by a little bad weather, adding that on the day they flew, "the conditions were not ideal." The president made a quick trip from Washington to North Carolina to pay tribute to the historic occasion, saying those who witnessed the event a century ago sensed then that "the world might never be the same." Bush said "in the future, flight will advance in ways that none of us can imagine." But he said, "for as long as there is human flight," the world will honour the achievements of the Wright Brothers. On December 17, 1903, Orville was at the controls for the first hop that lasted all of 12 seconds. He and Wilbur alternated for four flights that day; the last, by Wilbur, lasted 59 seconds and ran for 852 feet (255.6 meters). In the century since, travel by airplane has gone from a barnstormer's novelty act to such a routine that it brings more complaints than ruminations on the extraordinary fact that it simply can be done. President Bush said since the Wright brothers' historic flight, the US has excelled in aviation and space travel, adding it will continue to "lead the world in flight." But he made no additional announcements. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives ​​ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/f9f4f878c372ab9637791bc9433d9533