Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina

One of my favorite sites on the Outer Banks besides the beach is the Wright Brothers National Memorial. This site is showcases the location of the first powered flight and stands as a memorial to the Wright Brothers, who made it possible.

Finding the Memorial

The Memorial is directly off of Highway 158 on its western side (you can see the monument from the road) in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. You will have to pay a $4 per person entry fee (as of 2009), but that gives you a week of access to the park and lets you visit all of the attractions in the park.

What's this Memorial all about?

This site was where the first successful powered flight was. The Wright Brothers built several different gliders and tested them for several years until the came upon the design for their powered glider, which took flight in 1903. The three flights that were made on a single day weren't all that impressive, but they ushered in an era of powered flight.

What am I going to see at the Memorial?

The main exhibit or "museum" like areas in the Memorial are the visitors center and the Centennial Pavilion. Both of these are host to several different exhibits on the life of the Wright Brothers, the history of the area and the history of powered flight. The visitor center focuses on the Wright Brothers, while the pavilion looks more at the history and science of flight in general.

For outdoor things to do, there are paved walkways that run around the memorial that let you visit several different locations. The first is the reconstruction of the living quarters and the hangar that the Wright Brothers used when they stayed in Kitty Hawk during their test flights.

After the hanger, you can walk out on to the actual airfield that the Wright Brothers used and see where the flights in 1903 left the ground and landed. You'd be amazed at how short that first flight really was. From there, you can walk the generally flat airfield area to the base of Big Kill Devil Hill. If you're not up for walking the entire way, you can drive around to the back side of the hill and then walk up it. It's not a difficult walk, but you are climbing a hill. Once you're on top, you can take in actual memorial to the Wright Brothers and the 360 degree view of the surrounding Outer Banks.

Our Experiences

I've been to the Wright Brothers Memorial several times, mostly as a younger child, but I had the opportunity to recently be there. I think I appreciated it more this time, especially since I spent several years working in the aviation field. We found the the visitor center to be pretty basic, but for those who don't have much knowledge of the Wright Brothers, it should suffice filling in their basic biographies and then talking about what they accomplished with their flights here at Kitty Hawk. After the visitor center we headed out towards the living quarters and hangar. From there we walked over to the site of where the first flight took off from. It's only 120 feet from there where the first flight landed. However the remaining three flights of that day progressively got longer and longer until they flew almost 900 feet on their final flight. Instead of going back to the car and driving to the back of Big Kill Devil Hill, we just walked from the airfield area over to the memorial. The walk took about a half an hour or so round trip, so it's not like it was miles long, but all told I'd guess if you walk the whole site, you'd probably end up walking about a mile.

I think our favorite part of the trip was just getting outside and walking around. It gives you a much better appreciation for what the Wright Brothers accomplished and how that first step led to so many other things in our world, plus the view from the top of Big Kill Devil Hill is great. The memorial sits on top of the hill and from here you can sit and take in views of the ocean to the east, the Outer Banks to the north and south and the bay to west.

We probably spent about 2 hours at the memorial in total and I think it was time well spent. My partner had never been there and was really impressed at getting to see the site where the first flight took place and couldn't get over just how short that first flight really was. Something I don't think you can really understand unless you're standing there.

My Take

I'd think that if you were in Kitty Hawk, you really need to find the time to stop at the Wright Brothers National Memorial. It's a very important historic area and not only that, but the view from Big Kill Devil Hill is great.