Stop #4 – Wright Brothers Visitors Center and National Memorial

Quick Facts
LocationKill Devil Hills, North Carolina
📍32.75234, -79.87469
DesignationNational Memorial and Historical Landmark
Established1953 and 2001 (respectively)
Official Websitehttps://www.nps.gov/wrbr/index.htm

Aviation is huge in my boyfriend’s family. His father was a Naval Aviator (he even flew my dad on flights back to Missouri while the were stationed at the same Naval Air Base. 30 some odd years later they met again when Ted and I got together!), his father and aunt would fly any time they could get into the pilots seat; and they flew with and knew some of the early aviation greats!

The Wright Brothers helped man to achieve one of it’s ultimate dreams – to Fly! Their successes changed transportation forever.

They were not the only ones working on getting man to fly, but they were the first successful ones to attempt a manned, powered, controlled flight. After many years of experimenting, testing, analyzing, and working on the various problems that were needed to achieve flight, they successfully achieved their goal on December 17, 1903 at 10:35 AM with a flight distance of 120 feet, an altitude of 8 feet, and lasted 12 seconds in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

Brothers, Orville and Wilbur Wright chose Kitty Hawk, North Carolina to make their first flight because the winds in their hometown of Dayton, Ohio were unsuitable for the extensive flying experiments they were conducting. Kitty Hawk, according to the National Weather Bureau at the time, was the 6th windiest location on the list the brothers received. Kitty Hawk had steady winds as well as soft sand, high sand dunes, and isolation (which we all know is necessary to conduct humanity changing experiments).

The Wright Brothers National Memorial consists of 5 key historical locations that you can visit while there: The First Flight Boulder and Flight Line, Reconstructed 1903 Camp Buildings and Hangar, a Wright Brothers Monument, a Sculptural representation of the moment of first flight, and the Wright Brothers Visitor Center.

Every great trip needs a souvenir – pick up your favorite souvenir pack

References:

https://www.nps.gov/wrbr/index.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_Brothers_National_Memorial

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