For our entire lives we have marveled at the ability of man to fly. Hard to believe it was only 120 years ago when the first Wright Brother’s flight took off on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. As we were between ferries that connect NC Route 12 down the Outer Banks we were buzzing by a small town and quickly realized it was Kitty Hawk, NC. A sign beckoned us to take a break from driving and see what this memorial to Wilbur and Orville. Although we had purchased an annual pass for all NPS sites the woman at the ticket booth told us that she was just getting back from lunch and we should not worry about paying as, if we hurried, we could catch the beginning of the ranger led presentation. Southern hospitality we guessed?
These first flights measured: 120 ft in 12 seconds, 175 ft in 12 seconds, 200 ft in 15 seconds and 852 ft in 59 seconds. They relied on a monorail to keep them on the straight and narrow until airborne as well as a good and stiff headwind. On this day the wind was gusting to 40 knots. It is counterintuitive to think of needing a head wind but if you think of speeding a plane up for takeoff, the speeding up creates its own “head wind” to provide the lift underneath the wings when a vacuum is created above them.
As we are both avid cyclists it is cool that the Wright Brothers were bicycle shop owners and mechanics before they were aviators. We would like to think that without their mechanical knowledge gained by fixing bikes, they may have never been able to work through all the complex problems of trying to get a plane to fly.
As we were married in the vineyards at Bully Hill Winery back in 1999 we then purchased a case of the Pinot Noir wine to have one bottle per year on our anniversary. Well, they ran out in 2011. We saved all the bottles and decided to make our own wine to fill them with. No pinot noir but a few good batches of merlot and cabernet sauvignon were crafted. When we packed things up for our long explore around the country this poor bottle was full of good wine but when we emptied it, we figured on not carrying the empty to refill it sometime in the future. A quick picture for posterity and off to the recycle bin at Kitty Hawk. A sad day.
Why would we include this picture in a post regarding the Wright Brothers you ask? Well, Bully Hill Winery is located in Hammondsport, NY. This small and picturesque town has the nickname “America’s cradle of aviation”. It was the home of Glen Curtiss. He was the aviation pioneer that created the first “flying boat” to be launched and landed on a military vessel. This happened in 1910 just 7 short years after the Wright Brothers made their historic flight. Hammondsport has a nice museum dedicated to his pursuits.
