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There use to be an old saying people would use to express how certain they were that something would never ever happen.  They would say “when pigs fly”.  After all, who ever heard of a pig that could fly?  Only birds can fly, right?  And why is that?  Well, we heard a story about a little pig who started asking himself that very question.  He was relaxing one day enjoying the sunshine, and saw an airplane fly over.  He asked himself why some things can fly and some can’t.  He thought maybe it was the wings, airplanes had wings and birds had wings.  But the chickens on the farm had wings, and he had never seen one of them fly away.

He started thinking a lot about it, and one day the farmer dropped his phone on the ground and the little pig used it to google “how to fly”.  He saw a lot of webpages that talked about something called “lift”.  

They explained that if he could make a wing that had the right shape and attach it the right way to his airplane, he could create this “lift” he needed to fly.  But they explained the lift would have to be bigger than the weight of his airplane.  So, the little pig got to work on making plans for his airplane.

He waited until the farmer and his wife went away for a week for their first vacation in years, and he started to work building his airplane.  He “borrowed” the wood from the back wall of the farmer’s barn to build the airplane, and the engine out of the farmer’s tractor to use to power it.

 His friend the bull pulled on the chain and lifted the engine up to the airplane and his friend the billy goat gave it a good kick to push it into place.  

While his friends the cows pushed open the barn doors, he used a stack of hay to climb up into the plane.  He put on his helmet and goggles and pushed the start button

The propeller started to spin faster and faster, and the plane started to move forward.  It slowly picked up speed as it went down the farmer’s field.  The little pig pulled back on the stick and suddenly the plane leapt from the ground into the air, and before he knew it the little pig was flying.

And if you find our story hard to believe, consider this.  One of the Wright brothers, the men who are credited with achieving the first successful powered flight in what could be considered a modern airplane design, was named Wilbur Wright.  And the name of the little pig in the story Charlotte’s Web was also Wilbur.  Coincidence?  Maybe, maybe not.

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