Wright Brothers National Memorial

The Wright brothers needed three things for their flying experiments: strong, steady winds to give their gliders lift, wide open space clear of trees and obstacles, and soft ground to cushion the inevitable crashes. When they wrote to the U.S. Weather Bureau asking where they might find such conditions, the answer pointed them to the barrier islands of the North Carolina coast, among the windiest places in the East.

So beginning in 1900 the brothers made the long journey from Ohio to the remote fishing settlement of Kitty Hawk, camping among the great sand dunes of Kill Devil Hills. Over several seasons they tested gliders from the slopes of the big dune, learning the hard science of control and lift by trial and error, before adding an engine and propellers of their own design.

On the cold, gusty morning of December 17, 1903, the brothers laid a launching rail on the level sand below the dune and readied their powered Flyer. With Orville at the controls and Wilbur running alongside, the machine lifted off and flew for about twelve seconds, covering roughly 120 feet, the first time a powered, piloted, heavier-than-air craft had taken off, flown, and landed under control.

They flew three more times that day, taking turns, and the fourth and longest flight, with Wilbur aboard, covered over 850 feet and stayed aloft nearly a minute. A local lifesaving crewman snapped the famous photograph of that first liftoff. Only a handful of people witnessed the moment, and few beyond them grasped at first what had just happened on that lonely beach.

The site preserves the story in the landscape itself. On the flat sand, a boulder marks the spot where the Flyer left the rail, and a line of smaller stone markers steps out across the field to show exactly where each of the four flights ended, so you can walk the distances and feel how the flights grew longer. Reconstructed wooden buildings show the brothers' camp and workshop.

Crowning Big Kill Devil Hill, the stabilized dune from which the brothers flew their gliders, stands a sixty-foot granite monument shaped like a wing, inscribed to their genius and perseverance. From its base the view stretches across the Outer Banks to ocean and sound. A visitor center holds a full-size reproduction of the 1903 Flyer and tells the fuller story of the brothers and their achievement.

The memorial sits in the heart of the Outer Banks, the thin chain of barrier islands that has drawn people for centuries. Nearby are the tall dunes of Jockey's Ridge, the beaches of Nags Head and Kitty Hawk, and, to the south, Cape Hatteras and its famous lighthouse. Roanoke Island, site of the lost English colony of the 1580s, lies just across the sound. These islands were long the home of the Algonquian-speaking peoples of the coast before European arrival.

Spring and fall bring mild, breezy weather ideal for a visit, while summer is warm and busy with beachgoers and winter windy and quiet. The very wind that makes the Outer Banks a beach and kite-flying destination is the same wind that first drew the Wright brothers, a fitting place to stand where flight began.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.