Can Cows Fly? Let’s Go Fly a Kite: The 33rd Annual Wright Kite Festival will be hosted by Kitty Hawk Kites at Wright Brothers National Memorial on July 16 - 17, 2011. For thousands of years kites have been a simple and fun method of flight. As teenagers Wilbur and Orville Wright enjoyed building and flying the diamond shape kites with the long tails. In the strong, steady winds of Kitty Hawk the Wright brothers tested their gliders (1900, 1901, and 1902) by first flying them as kites. The success of their first controlled powered flight on the morning of Dec. 17, 1903 can be traced back to the brother’s 1899 kite in their hometown of Dayton, Ohio.
Come test the winds of Kitty Hawk; the program starts each day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the grounds of the Memorial. Free stunt kite and power kite lessons, kite building and kite flying for children, giant single line kites, parachute races and more. Park entrance fees apply.
For more information, check out www.wrbr.gov or Kitty Hawk Kites website at http://www.kittyhawk.com/community/wrightkite.cfm or call the Wright Brothers National Memorial at (252) 441-7430.
The park is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
