If they can put a man on the moon...

Replica of Wright plane crashes during anniversary flight
ASSOCIATED PRESS

DAYTON - A replica of the Wright brothers' plane crashed Friday during a demonstration to mark the 102nd anniversary of the flight the aviation pioneers said displayed the first practical flying machine.There were no injuries, but the replica of the 1905 Wright Brothers Flyer III was damaged.

It's odd that after over a century of powered manned flight, we struggle with the ability to replicate the original airplanes. I'm sure the Wrights crashed plenty of times (I remember that Orville almost lost his life in a crash during an early demonstration for the Army), but they apparently took some elemental secrets of their aircraft with them.
Obviously the original designs left a lot to be desired and improved upon, as any subsequent aircraft demonstrates. But the act of flying them is probably just as much art as it is science, something that's lost in reverse engineering.