Existing comment:
1903: Kitty Hawk:
The history of College Part Airport is really the history of aviation. The path that the Wright brothers took to get to this field and everything that followed thereafter, began with their experiments at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. It was here that they achieved success in a field where many before them had failed.
After years of glider experiments and aerodynamic research, the Wright brothers made the first flight of a lighter-than-air machine. Orville wired the news to his father:
"Success four flights thursday moorning [sic] all against twenty-one mile wind started from level with engine power alone average speed through air thirty-one miles longest 57 seconds inform Press home Christmas"
The date was December 17, 1903. The news that should have shocked the world... didn't. The Wrights' achievement, though truly significant, remained virtually ignored and unpublicized. Those accounts that were picked up by the press were full of inaccuracies and misinformation. As a result, the public remained uninformed and skeptical of all subsequent claims. |