We visited the Wright Brothers National Memorial just outside the town of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina while staying at the OBX Campground and RV Park in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina just a few miles down the road.
The 428-acre park is situated on the Outer Banks, a chain of barrier islands along the Atlantic Coast. This park, established in 1927, is the site where Wilbur and Orville Wright made the first airplane flights in human history. They had three criteria for their flight testing location: wind, sand, and isolation, all of which could be found in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
We started our visit at the visitor center. There was a very nice display and timeline showing the history of Orville and Wilbur Wright’s annual summer visits to Kitty Hawk that started in 1900. It was during these annual summer visits that the two brothers, bicycle makers from Dayton, Ohio, initially developed non-powered (glider) flight, and then moved on to powered flight. The visitor center had some very interesting displays including tools that the brothers would have used, and a recreation of a small wind tunnel that they designed and built to test different wing profile designs. The visitor center also has a full size replica of the Wright Brother’s aircraft “The Wright Flyer” in front of large picture windows that overlook the site of their first flights and the Wright Brothers monument on the nearby dune. It was interesting to learn about the Wright Brothers systematic engineering approach to solving the problem of powered flight, and how in doing so, their experiments proved wrong some of the prevailing aerodynamic theories of the time.
The site of the first flights is just outside the visitor center along with replicas of their workshop/living quarters, and aircraft hangar. Markers show the take-off and landing points of the first four successful powered flights in human history made on December 17, 1903. The longest of the three flights was 852-feet in length and lasted 59-seconds.
We walked to the large stabilized sand-dune known as Big Kill Devil Hill at the far end of the park with its huge stone monument to the Wright Brothers. Thousands of times, the brothers trekked up this and three nearby dunes to conduct glider experiments. These efforts paid off as they mastered their flying skills and refined their flight controls that would help with their later powered flights.
The design of the granite monument features an Art Deco style which highlights bold geometric shapes. A notable part of the monument is the inscription that reads, “In commemoration of the conquest of the air by the brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright. Conceived by genius. Achieved by dauntless resolution and unconquerable faith.” The monument also features curved, wing-like designs on either side and a lit beacon at the top which functions similarly to a lighthouse. The Memorial started construction in 1928 and was dedicated on November 19th, 1932, with Orville in attendance as well as prominent aviators and politicians of the time. Today the monument continues to sit atop Big Kill Devil Hills as one of the highest points in the Outer Banks.
Located to the south of Big Kill Devil Hill, a life size sculpture represents the Wright brothers’ first flight. Dedicated in 2003 as a gift from the State of North Carolina, the bronze and steel sculpture reenacts the historic first flight. Orville pilots the machine, Wilbur runs alongside, and the witnesses who assisted with the flights that day look on and cheer.
The Wright Brothers National Memorial was an interesting visit to an iconic site in the history of powered flight and had a very informative visitor center. We were able to walk around the entire site in a few hours.
Pictures from our visit are provided below. Click on the thumbnails for full size images.
