Emporia ? Daniel Page reached back and threw his glider. It flew high and long, sailing 10, 20, 30 … 34 feet and 7 inches before finally coming to rest.

That put the little paper plane off the course and over the top. Page won a $10 gift certificate to the Emporia Municipal Airport, living proof that flight can pay.

“I did it in about 30 minutes,” Page said as he retrieved his glider from the concrete floor. “I just figured it out right.”

Page and his classmates had a chance to consider how far aviation has come since Orville and Wilbur Wright “figured it out right.” On Dec. 17, the 100th anniversary of the first powered flight, 45 Emporia High School students went to the Emporia Municipal Airport to study planes and flying a little more closely.

Much of students’ work had to be done outside normal class hours, such as building the gliders or creating a skit about some of the most famous figures in aviation history. That’s because the timing was a little off — the anniversary came at a stage where the “team” of students (several classes with a common set of teachers) was concentrating on life sciences rather than aerodynamics.

Even so, it was too good a chance to miss.

“They would much rather be building a model airplane and flying it than learning the stages of mitosis,” said science teacher Marilyn McComber during a break in the activities. “With a 100-year anniversary, you can’t pass that up.”

Much of the morning was spent learning abut the opportunities in flight. Students learned what it takes to be an airplane mechanic, a Civil Air Patrol member, a skydiver or, of course, a pilot. That last is a path some might be ready for sooner than they think — with appropriate training, a pilot can fly solo by 16 and receive a private pilot’s license at 17.

“The hardest thing is learning to land,” flight instructor Jan Gallagher said. “If you can stand on a basketball, in the wind, scratch your head and rub your tummy at the same time, maybe you can land an airplane.”

Don Tevis, manager of the Emporia Municipal Airport, tells a group of Emporia High School sophomores how an airplane flies. The students took a field trip Dec. 17 to the airport to commemorate the 100th anniversary of powered flight.

Students also reviewed the basic principles of lift discovered by Bernoulli: namely, how shaping a wing just right can make air move faster over it than under it, sucking the airplane upward.

The afternoon was mostly given over to history. Students portrayed aviators such as Bessie Coleman, Alan Shepherd and the Wrights.

Just as they wrapped things up, one more famous figure joined the party — Kansas’ own Amelia Earhart, portrayed by historical re-enactor Ann Birney.

“Amelia” apologized for not changing out of her flying duds, recalling a lecture the pilot had given in Atchison.

“I heard later that a young reporter asked Mr. William Allen White what he might have to say to me if he’d had the chance to meet me,” she said. “The ‘Sage of Emporia’ said he would advise me to take a comb into the cockpit with me and use it before I got out.”

Birney has been portraying Earhart for about seven years.

Scholar-performer Ann Birney portrays aviator Amelia Earhart for a group of Emporia High School students. Birney performed for the students Dec. 17 at the Emporia Municipal Airport to commemorate the 100th anniversary of powered flight.

“Do you fly to your presentations?” one student asked.

“No,” Birney laughed. “Not yet.”

For some students, this might be their first and last look at aviation.

But some others may be sticking around awhile. Stephen Elizardo, 15, said he was considering going into the Civil Air Patrol

“There’s a lot of work involved and determination,” Elizardo said. “I believe in the long run it will pay off.”