September 1, 2017 - Kitty Hawk
On our annual family vacation to the Outer Banks, North Carolina, I always go visit the birthplace of aviation: Kitty Hawk and the Wright Brothers National Memorial.
Imagine my surprise when we pulled up and I saw this! The visitor's center is closed for renovation.
It's funny how things turn out. I had imagined a short visit in the visitor's center and not walking around much. In reality, we didn't go into the visitor's center and walked the entire grounds!
I had my son-in-law, Don, and two grandsons -- William and Griffin -- with me.
Ah, the place probably does need a little upgrade.
I really like what they did here with a full-scale stainless steel replica of the Wright Flyer. In fact, this entire sandy area is a full-scale diorama of the first 12- second flight, the one recorded in the famous photograph. It even has statues of Wilbur and the ground crew in their exact positions.
The full-scale diorama was done by sculptor Stephen H. Smith, called "First Flight" and was unveiled during the 2003 Centennial celebration. Coincidently, it was within days of the Centennial that I decided to embark on my airplane building effort which resulted in the RV-7 I have had so much fun with.
Unlike the original in the Smithsonian Air & Space museum, and all the replicas, you could get up close to really check the Flyer out. Plus the kids loved climbing on it.
That's Orville Wright to the right. He made the first 12 second flight.
Notice the statue of the photographer John T. Daniels to the right. He was so excited about what he had seen, he couldn't remember if he had taken a shot or not! And of course, he had, in probably the most famous photograph ever taken.
