The Burlington International Airport is gearing up for its 100th anniversary celebration in August, and now a replica of piece of local aviation history is hanging in the rafters.

On August 14th, 1920, the first plane landed at the Burlington Airport. It was a day that marked an important piece in the building's history, but airport leaders say the start actually came eight years before that.

"The imagination of what could be with aviation began with this aircraft," said Gene Richards, the director of aviation at the Burlington International Airport.

It's a Burgess-Wright Model F Biplane built in 1911. The pilot, George Gray, named it 'UP,' and in 1912 he flew it from Plattsburgh, New York, to Burlington, Vermont.

The flight marked the first-ever over Lake Champlain. "He put on a show for the UVM students and did a bunch of tricks, also known as barnstorming. He did, you know, somersaults and loop-de-loops," said Erin Desautels, an organizer of the celebration.

The people of Burlington had never witnessed anything like it. Before that day, most had only seen planes in pictures. "People ran out into the street because what is that noise? What is happening above our heads?" said Desautels.

Airport officials say their research shows it was out of George Gray's flight that the Burlington Airport was born. "So without it, there was no airport, there was no landing strip. They used the lake. So that is what made people start dreaming," said Richards. "What is aviation about? We need an airport. We need to be a part of this," Desautels added.

Officials got the plane's blueprint from the Smithsonian and hired Barre artist Mike Turner to build an exact replica scaled down to half its original size, with a wingspan of 19-feet and 16-feet long, tip to tail. It took four months to build but countless hours of research to design. "So a lot of reading, a lot of collecting pictures, sorting through the pictures," said Turner.

But Turner says it's challenging to nail the details without the real thing, so he took a trip to the New England Air Museum in Connecticut where he got his hands on an original Wright Brothers engine. "I was right up close. I couldn't have made the replica engine without that opportunity," said Turner.

His creation now hangs in the lobby, where he hopes flyers will appreciate the part of the airport's history that made it come to be.

"I just can't wait for them to just stop and stare at it and just want to know more. If we don't tell this story, no one's ever going to know about it," said Desautels.

Within the next month the airport is releasing a book detailing its 100 years. Officials also have a documentary in the works that they've been developing for two years. And by August 2020, the walls above the ticket counters will don historical images.