The long-sought goal of erecting a huge monument to the Wright brothers at the Interstate 75 and 70 interchange has the full support of NASA, the director of NASA’s Glenn Research Center said.

NASA’s support for the project will include computer testing of the proposed 250-foot design.

“We have support of it even at the level of the administrator of NASA,” said Ray Lugo, director of the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland.

The Wright Monument, an oversized replica of Orville and Wilbur Wright’s 1905 Wright Flyer III atop a 250-foot-tall pedestal, was first proposed in 2005 by the Wright Image Group, a local nonprofit organization. The iconic marker would be visible to motorists in more than 52 million vehicles each year, and identify Dayton with the Wright brothers and the birth of aviation, officials said.

About $1 million has been raised toward the project’s estimated $12 million cost, including private donations and in-kind contributions, said Curt Nelson, the group’s spokesman.

“Confirming that the design is strong enough and built correctly to withstand high winds from all angles and severe weather of all types is a very important part of the design development stage,” Nelson said.

The Glenn Research Center plans to run tests on a computer model of the monument using NASA simulation codes that vary wind speed, direction, temperature and air density, Lugo said.

“We would run multiple runs of this code to determine what are the aerodynamic loads on this structure, which are then used as an input into the design,” he said.

Lugo said the model also could be tested using NASA codes for ice formation on airplanes to determine the effects of winter weather. The tests should be in process or completed by summer, he said.

The testing will be done under the umbrella of a Space Act Agreement, which is a legal agreement between NASA and a private entity, Lugo said. The agreement will be framed in the coming months, he said.

The cost of the testing has not been determined. “We estimate it will take several hundred labor hours and cost something less than $100,000,” said Katherine Martin, a Glenn Research Center spokeswoman.

Nelson said a physical scale model of the monument was successfully tested earlier this year by University of Dayton students using a small wind tunnel.

Ohio State University Aerospace Engineering students also will perform computer analysis of wind effects on the proposed monument, he said.

NASA recognizing the Wright brothers is consistent with the agency’s history, Lugo said. The Wrights participated in the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, a NASA predecessor formed at the infancy of the U.S. aviation industry, he said.

“There is actually history of the Wright brothers doing some work here at Lewis Field,” where the Glenn Research Center is located, Lugo said.

Lugo likened the proposed Wright Monument to the 210-foot steel spire at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Va., and the 270-foot U.S. Air Force Memorial in Arlington, Va. “I’m sure it will generate a lot of interest in the area,” he said.