Wilbur and Orville Wright ran a bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio. They became obsessed with flight after reading about Otto Lilienthal's glider experiments and death. Unlike many would-be aviators, they approached the problem systematically - building wind tunnels, testing airfoils, calculating lift coefficients. They solved the control problem that had killed Lilienthal through wing warping, allowing the pilot to bank and turn. They couldn't find an engine light and powerful enough, so they built their own. Their Flyer was the synthesis of years of incremental work, tested at Kitty Hawk where failures meant soft landings in sand rather than crashes into Ohio farmland.

The Wright Brothers chose Kitty Hawk (actually nearby Kill Devil Hills) for specific reasons: steady winds, soft sand, privacy from crowds. The Outer Banks location was remote - reaching it required days of travel from Dayton. The brothers camped in tents and a shed, battling mosquitoes and sand while conducting glider experiments in 1900, 1901, and 1902. By 1903, they were ready for powered flight. The Big Kill Devil Hill, a 100-foot dune, provided launch elevation for gliders; the level ground at its base provided the runway for the Flyer. The landscape that seems arbitrary was carefully selected engineering decision.

December 17, 1903, was cold and windy. The brothers laid a wooden track on the sand to guide the Flyer's takeoff. Orville won the coin toss and positioned himself in the hip cradle that controlled the wing warping. The engine started; the Flyer moved down the track; and at 10:35 AM, it lifted off. John Daniels, from the Kill Devil Hills Life-Saving Station, triggered a camera at the moment of liftoff, creating the most famous photograph in aviation history. The flight covered 120 feet in 12 seconds - less distance than a modern airliner's wingspan, less time than reading this sentence aloud. But it was flight.

The Wright Brothers returned to Dayton, refined their design, and by 1905 had a practical airplane capable of half-hour flights. But they were secretive, fearful of idea theft, and slow to demonstrate publicly. Europe caught up; American interest lagged. Only in 1908, when Wilbur demonstrated the Flyer in France, did their achievement gain full recognition. Orville lived until 1948, seeing aviation transform from curiosity to industry to weapon of war. The Flyer itself was displayed in London for years before Smithsonian disputes were resolved. It now hangs in the National Air and Space Museum, the vehicle that started everything.

Wright Brothers National Memorial is located at Kill Devil Hills on North Carolina's Outer Banks, approximately 80 miles south of Norfolk, Virginia. The memorial includes the visitor center with exhibits and replica Flyer, the granite monument atop Big Kill Devil Hill, and markers showing each flight's distance. The First Flight boulder marks the takeoff point; numbered markers show where each flight ended. The site is open daily except major holidays. The surrounding Outer Banks offer beaches, lighthouses (Cape Hatteras, Bodie Island), and the Lost Colony site at Roanoke Island. December 17 brings annual commemoration ceremonies. The experience of standing where flight began, pacing off the first flight's 120 feet, makes abstract history physical.