THEY look fragile and rickety - and indeed they are - but they launched the technological revolution that eventually took men to the moon.

Together, they mark the beginning of manned flight and powered flight - and now they can be seen side-by-side for the first time ever.

The replicas of the Wright Flyer and the Cayley Glider are unique in that they have both actually flown in the past, just as the originals did.

Although meticulously restored they will probably never fly again, but on Sunday enthusiasts will be able to examine the flying machines for themselves when the Yorkshire Air Museum celebrates 100 years of flight.

Orville and Wilbur Wright first got airborne in 1903. Their frail-looking aircraft flew 120ft in North Carolina, in the US, and spawned man's conquest of the skies.

Four years ago, with the help of a £10,000 National Lottery grant, the air museum, at Elvington, near York, was able to acquire a working replica that had been built by an RAF team 30 years before.

Since then, the museum has spent almost as much again on its restoration, which included reskinning all the surface areas the same ways as Orville and Wilbur did.

The replica was originally built in Yorkshire - the county which makes a serious claim to be the birthplace of manned flight thanks to Sir George Cayley, of Brompton Dale, near Scarborough.

In 1849, he constructed a full size triplane of his design, in which a ten-year old boy was "floated off the ground on a descending hill".

It was the first time mankind had flown in a fixed wing aircraft and the historic event took place at Brompton Dale.

In 1852, Cayley designed another glider, known as the Governable Parachute. A full size model was never built at the time but the design survived.

The next year, at the age of 84, Cayley built what he called his "new flyer". It was in this machine that the first adult flew, but no papers of this design have survived.

However, in the early 1970s the Governable Parachute was finally built and flown successfully and that too has since been acquired by the museum.

A museum spokesman said: "This is hugely exciting for us. We are the only museum in the world to display these two aircraft. There is already international interest in the aircraft and the celebratory events that the museum is undertaking."

The Wright Flyer will be officially rolled-out on Sunday at the 100 Years of Flight Show, which is part of the Royal Aeronautical Society's national celebrations.