After we departed Yorktown, we head on to out final destination at the Outer Banks, NC. We spent the night at a nice Comfort Inn that allowed pets with an ocean view room, which was great since we really wanted to bring our dog.
The next morning we woke up, ate breakfast and headed to the Wright Brothers Museum, which was about a 15 minute drive away from our hotel.
My wife and 6yr old wanted to stay near the car, so me and my 10yr old son, who loves airplanes, began the tour.
The field where the Wright Brothers took off the first airplane in history is a sprawling field that has the shed that these two industrious men built themselves. This served as a hanger for their prototype planes and a living quarters.
The brothers chose the field after writing to the weather bureau to find a place that has limited population and lots of wind. Kitty Hawk was on that list and they chose it after writing to people that lived on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
The spot that that the brothers took off the first airplane has a set of markers that annotate the distance flown.
The brothers took turns flying the airplane. Orville Wright flew the first flight, lasting 120 seconds. Wilbur flew the last flight, which lasted almost a minute minute and flew 852 feet. They used a track, which is still there, to gain speed to launch the airplane.
We then went inside the museum that is at the base of the field. It is a sprawling museum that has a replica of the Wright Brother’s first flight. The real one is in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C.
The plane they flew was hug and they built it by hand. The motor was built by an employee in their bicycle shop they owned in Ohio.
Our final spot that me and my son visited, was the hill that the Wright Brothers flew their glider off of to test how to control an airplane. The Wright Brothers decided that before they flew an airplane with a motor, they would have to control it once airborne.
The brothers had made four trips to Kitty Hawk before they made the first successful motorized flight. They tested their glider first.
They would walk up a hill many times carrying their handcrafted glider, hop on it, and fly off with a controlling system to steer it. They failed many times and crashed, which meant they had to repair it each time they crashed it. It shows their bravery and never give up attitude, along with their seriousness for aviation.
Their discoveries would pioneer aviation for the next hundred years.
Overall, it was a great trip to the Outer Banks, NC. I highly recommend it and if you’re coming from the north stop by Yorktown on the way down. History buffs will love all that it has to offer.
