First Look: Joe and the amazing box

Enamored with all things aviation after earning his private pilot certificate at age 34, Porus offered to buy the box. He paid $5, took it home, cleaned it up, and used it to store his aircraft and flight training manuals. Nearly 30 years later, Porus was touring the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historic Park in Dayton, Ohio, when he saw a display featuring a box that looked just like his. He described it to a museum employee; the box, the museum guide said, would be priceless.

Porus was not quite sure what to do. He contacted the Smithsonian Institution, the Dayton museum, and others to have the box authenticated. All agreed it was probably authentic. Then the British television program History Hunters, a show that had been canceled but was attempting a revival, contacted Porus. The show producers came to interview Porus, put a $5 million insurance policy on the crate while they took it offsite to authenticate it, and planned to have the box be the first story in the proposed pilot program.

The film crew took the box to the Glenn Curtiss Museum in nearby Hammondsport, New York. There, chief curator Rick Reisenling told them some startling news: This was a rare, purpose-built crate that was probably made between 1916 and 1929 and used as a tool kit or to store documentation—by Wilbur and Orville Wright. In fact, Reisenling showed Porus a photograph of Orville Wright with Amelia Earhart standing next to a crate similar to his, maybe even the very one they were examining.

He described it to amuseum employee; thebox, the museum guidesaid, would be priceless.The film crew interviewed Porus in his Oakland, New Jersey, home and discussed the authenticity with Reisenling, who told them he had never seen a complete box from an aviation company from this period and he did not believe it was an ordinary shipping container. “This is as rare as it gets,” said an enthusiastic Porus. “They’ve been filming here since 7 a.m. I had a crew of 15 people here including some network brass. Also had an anthropologist, aviation historian, and a professor from Penn State.”

That was in late October. The show has not been scheduled and Porus still has the box. Sotheby’s of New York has offered to sell it. But he’s waited 30 years, so Porus will wait a little longer and see if his story restarts a TV show. “My goal is really not in the sale,” he said. “I’m hoping to have it displayed at the Air and Space Museum in Washington. Right now, this is thought to be the only one in existence, so I think it should be seen and not locked away in some private collection. So that’s my goal.”

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