Wright Brothers Memorial United States

Legendary

It was here that the Wright Brothers first took flight back in 1903.

Photo by Ken Lund

The most famous photo in the history of flight was taken by a man who had never taken a picture before. His name was John Daniels, and he worked at the lifesaving station down the beach.

Orville Wright set up his camera, pointed it at the spot where the plane would lift off, and asked Daniels to squeeze the button at the right moment. He did, and caught the first airplane flight ever, just as it left the ground.

That moment happened on December 17, 1903, on the sandy Outer Banks of North Carolina. The brothers, Orville and Wilbur Wright, ran a bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio.

They'd spent years studying how birds stay balanced in the air. Starting in 1900, they came to this windy stretch of coast to test gliders.

People usually say the first flight happened at Kitty Hawk. It actually took place at Kill Devil Hills, a few miles south, but Kitty Hawk had the nearest post office, so that's the name the brothers used in their telegrams.

They made about 1,000 glides off a big sand dune called Big Kill Devil Hill. Only after that did they feel ready to build a plane with an engine.

At 10:35 on a cold, windy morning, Orville lay flat on the lower wing of their plane, the Wright Flyer. It lifted off the ground, flew for 12 seconds, and landed 120 feet away.

That's shorter than the length of a modern passenger jet. But it was the first time a person had flown a powered machine that they could control.

The brothers took turns. They made four flights that day, and each one went farther.

Around noon, Wilbur flew the fourth and longest. He stayed in the air for 59 seconds and covered 852 feet, almost the length of three football fields.

Five local men watched and helped. Soon after the last flight, a strong gust of wind flipped the plane over and damaged it, and it never flew again.

In 1932, a 60-foot granite monument was built on top of Big Kill Devil Hill, where the brothers had tested their gliders. The dune was covered in grass first, so it wouldn't blow away.

Stand next to the large boulder that marks the exact spot where the first flight took off. Then walk the field past the numbered stone markers that show where each of the four flights landed, all the way out to 852 feet. Climb Big Kill Devil Hill to the monument for views of the ocean, and find the life-size bronze sculpture of the first flight, with Orville at the controls and Wilbur running alongside.

Sources: National Park Service, EBSCO Research, and First Flight Centennial.