KITTY HAWK

Where Man Took Flight

Certainly Kitty Hawk lived up to expectations. It is a marvelous shrine to what was a uniquely American event (though other nations were trying). As interesting, the outdoor shots you see above and further on do not depict the conditions that existed in 1903. Kill Devil Hill in the background was once barren sand, as was all the grass areas. Kill Devil was 125' closer in. Over time the constant northern winds pushed the hill south. When it came to build the memorial in the 1930s, Bermuda grass was planted to hold everything in place. 

This fragile looking stick and canvas motorized craft was the first air machine to get off the ground. The Wright brothers were very thorough experimenters and they even built one of the earliest wind tunnels to test aerodynamic shapes. They spent several years leading up to the December 17, 1903 date using the hill for glider launches.

The first powered flight nearly 110 years ago actually started well down the hill where the sidewalk appears to end. Note the positions of the small gray markers in the background that begin at that vanishing point.

This is a close up of what you saw in the previous image. There is a large granite stone to the left of the Wright brothers shop and living quarters. This is where the first series of successful flights took off that day.  Three more smaller monuments are visible to the right of the the larger one and mark the distances of the first three flights. The last flight of the day was real proof that man could fly as it went on for 59 minutes and covered 852 feet. 

How do we know all these facts and figures? Simple, Orville and Wilbur were very aware of their potential place in history and had witnesses including someone there to squeeze the bulb trigger on their camera. Both the resulting photograph and the eye witnesses served them well later as they became involved in a dispute with the Smithsonian Institute. The Institute wrongly believed that their staff were the first to fly.

This is the Wright Brothers Memorial at the top of Kill Devil Hill. There is a revealing 360 view of the surrounding countryside from here.

Even kids can play on a sturdier replica of the Wright brother's plane. That is a new school complex behind the playground.

On our way out and back from Kill Devil Hill our driver/guide took us through some of the beach area housing that had been hit by Hurricane Sandy. Up until a day or so ago sand had covered this road, too. There was still much sand piled around many of the beachfront homes making them inaccessible.