Research Visit: Kitty Hawk, North Carolina

If you haven't figured out yet, I'm a pretty big Wright Brothers fan.  It probably all started for me because I grew up on Air Force bases around the world. 

 I have many early memories of lying on my back for hours watching planes fly overhead.  I used to be able to name just about any military aircraft simply from its silhouette.  When our family decided to rent a house for a week on the barrier islands in NC it was like a dream come true for me.  We visited Kitty Hawk, the site of the first flight.  Standing on those dunes, you could imagine the brothers lining up against that strong, steady wind and taking off into history.

Having lived on Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio as a child, I guess I somehow always felt like they were a part of my family; or I was a part of theirs.

There are multiple monuments on the dune.  The first is the several stories tall monolith you see above.  My favorite however, is the re-creation of the Wright Flyer.

It's an exact replica of the moment where Orville lifted off.  What I liked most about it though was that you were encouraged to climb on and sit on the wing with Orville. 

You can see in the photo that both of my kids, who were a lot younger then, are sitting astride Orville and I.

  

Here's the man who captured that first flight.

This steel rail marks the track that the Wright's used to achieve the necessary speed for lift off.  The large rock on the right shows the point of lift off.  You can see the same rail in the black and white photograph above.

The spot where Orville touched down after the very first controlled flight.

The photo on the left is of Orville in 1928 when the monument was dedicated and the large monolith's cornerstone was placed.  The last piece of the of my Wright Brothers trifecta was to hang glide on the same dunes that they first learned to fly.  Kitty Hawk Kites taught me the basics of hang gliding. 

 

I can't say I was good at it, but I did only get three glides.

  My best glide was the one above.  Thankfully, the instructor never let go of the black tether.  I got a little bit of air on my final flight.  I hope to get another chance to try this too!