Christine ~ America The Beautiful From Sea To Shining Sea…

NATURE TRAIL

Outer Banks N.C.

The Wright Brothers Museum at Kitty Hawk. On this remote sandy beach, December 17, 1903 Orville Wright completed the first maned machine powered flight, lasting 12 seconds and going 120 feet. In the next hour and a half three more flights followed. The last and longest by Wilbur lasted 59 seconds and went 852 feet.

If you look closely their are four white markers. These markers show where each of the four flights ended. Between the third and the fourth and last marker near the trees you will see a person. (not a marker)

This was the beginning of modern era of air transportation. No one at this time even considered that some day man would land on the moon or travel around the world in a machine powered airplane. What we take for granted now was a miracle back in 1903.

The fourth and last flight was also the last for this airplane as it was caught by a gust of wind and damaged beyond repair. The Wright brothers built an improved flier and made 105 flights in 1904.

The brothers chose Kitty Hawk because of the large expanse of soft sand and the wind. It took them four years of experimentation beginning in 1899, culminating in those first successful flights in 1903.

Replica of the Wright brother’s first plane.