Jacob Wisdom, 12, left, takes a photo of Jenny Bewley and her son, Jared, 12, at the Lawrence Municipal Airport. Jacob and Jared participated in a program for at-risk kids that included a ride in small planes on Saturday.

A simple adjustment of a mathematical equation thrust the Wright Brothers into the history books, and lifted their accomplishment of being first in flight as one of the most important of the 20th century. In that spirit of perseverance, four Lawrence students were rewarded Saturday for achieving academic goals they set at the beginning of the school year.

They gathered at Lawrence Municipal Airport, where several single-engine private planes awaited the young pilots, who would take the controls of a plane for the first time.

The students, Nick McCracken, a sixth-grader at Quail Run School; Hannah Brewer, a ninth-grader at Southwest Junior High School; Jacob Wisdom, a sixth-grader at Broken Arrow School; and Jared Bewley, a sixth-grader at Schwegler School, are members of the Wright Flight program, a branch of the Working to Recognize Alternative Possibilities (WRAP) initiative that places Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center clinical social workers in some schools.

Dewayne Burgess, a retired Air Force pilot and director of Wright Flight for Kansas and Missouri, said the program is a way to motivate children by exposing them to the exciting world of aviation.

“One of the things that we would hope as an unintended consequence is that you expose the kids to career opportunities,” said Burgess, who noted students take a nine-course primer in the history of aeronautics – from the precarious beginnings of the Wright Brothers to space exploration. The goal, he said, is for children to realize that even historical luminaries like the Wright Brothers failed, but they persevered.

Julie Heatwole, a WRAP social worker at Langston Hughes and Quail Run schools, called the opportunity to fly “a huge accomplishment for each student.” It’s a reward for achieving academic goals and passing a cumulative Wright Flight exam.

“The biggest thrill that I get out of the program is when they get off of the plane,” she said. “They have big smiles. They have so much fun.”

Saturday may be the last time Lawrence area students enjoy the chance to fly with Wright Flight. Funding for WRAP at the elementary level is set to expire at the end of the school year. If Tuesday’s vote for the $679,000 local-option budget passes, the program may have a future at the city’s junior and senior high schools, though next year’s budget has yet to be finalized. There are no plans to continue WRAP in the elementary schools.

But school board elections were not on the minds of the young aviators Saturday.

Hannah had a few butterflies in her stomach before she climbed into the cockpit. But she’s learned that flying is a simple concept.

“It’s really exciting,” she said. “Since I’m diabetic, this is something I can’t do any other way.”

Nick, 12, said his favorite planes are F-14 fighter jets and B-2 bombers. But Saturday, he would take the reins of a Piper Arrow, which he piloted over Lawrence. He flew above Clinton Lake, where he saw silt flowing in the current, and over Kansas University’s campus.

“It was pretty good,” he said before correcting himself, adding, “It was great.”

When he took over the controls, Nick was more excited than nervous, and he was surprised that a little elbow grease was required to fly the plane.

“I felt that it was harder to move around the controls that I thought it would be,” he said. “When I turned, it took a little bit of (effort) to actually roll the plane. I thought it would take only a little bit of it to turn (the plane).”

Now he thinks he would like to be a commercial airline pilot.

“I thought it was pretty exciting to fly,” he said. “I thought it was special just to have that chance to fly a plane, instead of driving a car.”