Society Celebrates 120th Anniversary of First Flight

The Wright Brothers Day event, which the organization hosts annually in partnership with the National Park Service, will take place at the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, on Sunday. It will feature a flyover, band concert, and wreath-laying ceremony “by the descendants of the Wrights and witnesses to the first flight.” The celebration will also include speakers from the Beech family, American Bonanza Society, and National Park Service. The event, which offers free admission, is scheduled to run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST.

The society will also honor Walter and Olive Ann Beech as part of the December 17 celebration. The couple co-founded the Beech Aircraft Company, later known as Beechcraft, in Wichita, Kansas, in 1932. They will be inducted into the Dr. Paul E. Garber First Flight Shrine, which honors “great accomplishments in the history of aviation,” and a portrait of them unveiled and presented during the festivities.

Chartered in 1927, the First Flight Society is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. “We tell the story of the Wright brothers through community events, education, and the commemoration of the world's very first powered flight, in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina,” the organization said.

Wilbur and Orville Wright’s airplane flew for the first time in 1903, in Kitty Hawk. With Orville at the controls, the initial flight lasted 12 seconds. They flew four times that day, marking the beginning of powered, controlled, heavier-than-air flight.

More information about the First Flight Society and Wright Brothers Day event is available here.