Look up. It's a plane! It may be carrying business people to meetings, vacationers to exotic locations, or holiday travelers to visit distant family members. Planes crisscross the skies with such frequency that it is easy to forget that heavier-than-air flight is a technology just slightly more than a century old.
The first flight took place on December 17, 1903, at 10:30 a.m. at Kitty Hawk, in North Carolina's Outer Banks. Orville and Wilbur Wright took a total of four flights that day. The first flight lasted 12 seconds; the fourth went a distance of 852 feet in 59 seconds. From this tentative beginning, aviation and aeronautics opened the world, and indeed the universe, to travel and exploration.
A Place to Visit
Wright Brothers National Memorial
1401 National Park Drive
Manteo, NC 27954
This article, along with more information, originally appeared in the December 2016 issue of Observations: A Pier Press® Newsletter. To view the complete newsletter, visit our online archives. Also, please consider becoming a subscriber so that future editions can be delivered directly to your inbox. Subscriptions are free!