An army of 35,000 aviation buffs, President George W Bush among them, will descend on the sand dunes of North Carolina today to mark the centenary of the first controlled flight by a heavier-than-air craft – the Wright brothers’ 12-second hop. Mr Bush is due to deliver what has been billed as a “major announcement” on space exploration, hoping to sweep aside a dismal few years for the once-proud American aviation and space industries, still reeling from by such disasters as the September 11 hijackings and this year’s loss of the space shuttle Columbia.