The early morning was cool, windy, and overcast. After breakfast we headed to the North Carolina Aquarium in Manteo just across the road from Fort Raleigh. There are three North Carolina Aquariums the others being in Pine Knoll Shores and at Kure Beach (the latter we visited two years ago). Highlights of this visit included petting and holding horseshoe crabs (a prehistoric species), getting a fish's view of a fisherman hooking a fish (ugh!), the shark tank, putting together puzzles of fish, and a lifelike, lifesize replica of an alligator. The Aquarium was crowded with kids (at least three field trips were there).

From the Aquarium, we headed to the Outer Banks and Kill Devil Hills eating lunch in the car on the way. Kill Devil Hills is a few miles south of Kitty Hawk and was the place in which the Wright Brothers first took engine-powered flight on December 17, 1903. (The town of Kill Devil Hills didn't exist until 1953; hence the Wright Brothers flew at Kitty Hawk, then the closest town.) The distances Orville and Wilbur covered in their first four flights are marked by large granite stones. Eric and Missy ran the distance of the first powered flight at a speed a little greater than that attained by the Wright Flyer. Curt and Eric took turns flying a stunt kite while standing at the very place where Wilbur and Orville first launched man into powered flight. (Our kite soared higher but often uncontrollably; we crashed many times.)

In addition to the granite markers, the site (maintained by the National Park Service) also includes a museum housing full-scale reproductions of the Wright glider and Wright flyer, reconstructions of buildings the brothers used as a hangar and a workshop/living quarters and, atop nearby Big Kill Devil Hill, a 60 foot pylon of gray granite standing as a monument to their achievement. That 90 foot dune, now stabilized with grass, was the site from which the Wright Brothers launched their glider flights. (At the turn of this century, this land was nearly all sand; which made for softer landings. Now, much of the ground is covered with sand spurs, prickly pear, and grasses. At least in some places that was by design.)

Until we researched their achievement prior to our vacation and attended a lecture on it at the Wright Brothers Memorial Visitor Center and Museum, we didn't appreciate how hard, long, and well Wilbur and Orville Wright worked to accomplish flight. During four successive years they worked on their plane designs at Kill Devil Hills. They made over a thousand flights with a glider. They worked on designs with kites. At home in Dayton, Ohio, they built a wind tunnel and developed formulae for wing designs that are still used today. They were years ahead of others who sought to develop powered flight. Wilbur died at age 45 in 1912 from typhoid. Orville lived into the jet age and died a rich man at age 77 in 1948.

One experience we would have liked to have was not available the week we were in town. Open cockpit biplane rides are available at the airstrip at the Wright Brothers National Memorial. The rides would not start until the following weekend; which coincided with a rededication of the Wright Brothers Memorial by former President George Bush.
 

© 1999 frantzs@geocities.com