Wright Brothers Memorial - Kitty Hawk - North Carolina
We began our week by the coast with a visit to the Wright Brothers Memorial at Kitty Hawk, but being English we could not pass the beach without stopping for a little walk in the waves, the beach at the northern end of Kitty Hawk has not been commercialised by arcades and piers but there are a good number of beach houses.
This might be an indication as to why there is no commercial development here, these sand mounds have been put there by the beach house owners in an effort to stem the tide. We saw a guy with a shovel piling sand up in a 21st century King Canute effort to save his beach house.
The water was pretty cool (to say the least) but as an Englishman who has been deprived of the ocean for months I had no choice but to partake, Sarah as an Englishwoman who has been deprived of the ocean for the same length of time resisted the urge.........
After getting the beach desire out of our system for a little while we continued the short journey to the Wright Brother Memorial. $10 buys entry to the park and the well laid out visitor centre which has a number of exhibits including replicas of those world changing inventions
I've been known to do some pretty stupid stuff in my life, particularly the kind of stuff that breaks bones or leaves you in stitches (literally) and yet I happily confess I may have thought twice about this lark
Thankfully the Wright Brother had fewer reservations than I about launching yourself into the air on some spindly wooden frame with the thinnest of cloth stretched over it.
From the visitor centre in the park there is a path leading away to the memorial, there is also a road that goes to, and then circles around the mound but the walk is the obvious choice for the able bodied.
From the visitor centre in the park there is a path leading away to the memorial, there is also a road that goes to, and then circles around the mound but the walk is the obvious choice for the able bodied.
once on top of the mound the memorial shows its true beauty, it may not be an aeroplane (which is a bit of a shame really) but it is at least dominated by relief panels that are dedicated to the conquest of flight from Icarus to the Wright Brothers and the steps between.
At the front elevation the tower is equally impressive with huge stainless steel doors each bearing 4 relief panels commemorating the race to powered flight. Around the base the inscription reads "In commemoration of the conquest of the air by the brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright conceived by genius achieved by dauntless resolution and unconquerable faith."
Looking from the memorial to the landing field you can see the 4 large stones that mark the landing place of the flights that took place on December 17th 1903, there are 3 at the end of the straight section of pathway and the 4th is set right back against the tree line to the left of the visitor centre.
The memorial tower from front, rear and side elevation , we hardly noticed the heat of the sun as we enjoyed discussing the incredible achievement of the Wright brothers and how it must have felt to take to the air for the very first time.
At the far side of the mound is another statue that really captures the moment, I think that would have been awesome up here on the mound, perhaps just poking over the edge with the crowd behind.
Sarah enjoying the sun on the mound as we depart, she looks particularly happy because we are going to stop at subway and buy some picnic supplies for the beach, Sarah never needs convincing to have a picnic.
We walk back via the visitor centre and grab a shot of the 4 landing places, the nearest was the first real flight by Orville, the second by Wilbur the third by Orville and the final flight of the day by Wilbur covering the greatest ever 852 feet by air. It's incredible to think that this was such a short time ago and now we have super jumbos by the thousand in the air 24/7, I'll bet the Wright brothers could never have imagined their impact on humanity, on travel, communication and space exploration.............. all in the space of 66 years, incredible.