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Kitty Hawk
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Wright Brothers National Memorial first flight by Orville Wright, December 17, 1903 Wright glider
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Wright Brothers National Memorial
Wright Brothers National Memorial Wright Brothers National Memorial near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

Kitty Hawk

North Carolina, United States
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Article History
first flight by Orville Wright, December 17, 1903
first flight by Orville Wright, December 17, 1903Orville Wright beginning the first successful controlled flight in history, at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, December 17, 1903.

Kitty Hawk, town, Dare county, northeastern North Carolina, U.S. It lies on Bodie Island, a narrow sand barrier (one of the Outer Banks) facing the Atlantic Ocean opposite Albemarle Sound. Immediately south at Kill Devil Hills is Wright Brothers National Memorial (1927; see photograph), commemorating the flight there of Wilbur and Orville Wright on December 17, 1903, the first powered airplane flight in the United States (see photograph). The name Kitty Hawk is probably derived from a Native American (Algonquian) name recorded on maps of the early 1700s as Chickahauk; its meaning is uncertain.

(Read Orville Wright’s 1929 biography of his brother, Wilbur.)

The town’s economy is based on tourism. Kitty Hawk was the site of one of the seven original U.S. Coast Guard lifesaving stations built on the Outer Banks (1874). Jockey’s Ridge State Park is just south of Kill Devil Hills. Pop. (2000) 2,991; (2010) 3,272.