First Flight Airport is a public use airport located west of the central business district of

Kill Devil Hills Kill Devil Hills is a town in Dare County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 7,633 at the 2020 census, up from 6,683 in 2010. It is the most populous settlement in both Dare County and on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The ...

, a town in Dare County, North Carolina, United States. The airport is owned by the U.S. National Park Service. It is included in the

National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS) is an inventory of U.S. aviation infrastructure assets. NPIAS was developed and now maintained by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). It identifies existing and proposed airports tha ...

for 2011–2015, which categorized it as a ''

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...

'' facility. The airport itself is famous for being the site of hundreds of pre-flight gliding experiments carried out by the Wright brothers. The

Wright Brothers National Memorial Wright Brothers National Memorial, located in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, commemorates the first successful, sustained, powered flights in a heavier-than-air machine. From 1900 to 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright came here from Dayton, O ...

, located atop nearby Kill Devil Hill, is a 60-foot

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies un ...

pylon paying homage to the Wright Brothers and the first sustained heavier-than-air flight. The U.S.

Centennial of Flight Commission The U. S. Centennial of Flight Commission (CoFC or CofF Commission) was created in 1999, by the U.S. Congress, to serve as a national and international source of information about activities commemorating the centennial of the Wright brothers' fi ...

also chose the airport as one of the stops for the National Air Tour 2003.

History

On December 17, 1903, the first successful powered heavier-than-air aircraft flight occurred here, conducted by the Wright brothers.

Facilities and aircraft

First Flight Airport covers an area of 40 acres (16 ha) at an elevation of 13 feet (4 m) above

mean sea level There are several kinds of mean in mathematics, especially in statistics. Each mean serves to summarize a given group of data, often to better understand the overall value ( magnitude and sign) of a given data set. For a data set, the '' ...

. It has one

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt, concrete ...

designated 3/21 with an

asphalt Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term ...

surface measuring 3,000 by 60 feet (914 x 18 m). For the 12-month period ending April 18, 2018, the airport had 37,500 aircraft operations, an average of about 103 per day: 99% general aviation and 1%

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

References

External links

U.S. National Park Service: Wright Brothers National Memorial
* at

North Carolina DOT The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) is responsible for building, repairing, and operating highways, bridges, and other modes of transportation, including ferries in the U.S. state of North Carolina. History The North Carolina ...

airport guide
Aerial image as of March 1993
from

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...

The National Map ''The National Map'' is a collaborative effort of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and other federal, state, and local agencies to improve and deliver topographic information for the United States. The purpose of the effort is to prov ...

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{{Outer Banks Airports in North Carolina Airports established in 1903 Transportation in Dare County, North Carolina Buildings and structures in Dare County, North Carolina Outer Banks National Park Service 1903 establishments in North Carolina