At the turn of the 20th century, the thoughts of Wilbur and
Orville Wright turned to flying. The Wright brothers had a
successful bicycle repair shop in Dayton, Ohio. Neither had
graduated high school, but both were skilled mechanics and
talented mathematicians. They dreamed of solving the problem of
flight. To launch their experiments, they need the perfect
location—open spaces, steady winds, a gentle slope to launch
their glider, and somewhere soft to land. A weather station
manager assured them they would find the perfect conditions at
Kitty Hawk. Armed with years of research and observations of
birds and kites in flight, the Wright brothers arrived in nearby
Kill Devil Hills in 1900. With help from the friendly locals,
they spent three summers testing and improving their flying
machines. They found the solution on December 17, 1903, when
Orville piloted his Flyer for 12 seconds and 120 feet over the
sandy shores of the Outer Banks. At Wright Brothers National
Memorial, you can see replicas of their early