Kitty Hawk

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The name Kitty Hawk is forever associated with Orville and Wilbur Wright—it says so right on North Carolina's license plates. That's the place where, on December 17, 1903, this brother-brother team from Dayton, Ohio, achieved the world's first sustained, controlled, heavier-than-air powered flight. (You need all those adjectives to distinguish the Wrights' flight from a mere glider or hot-air balloon flight.) But you could score big trivia points for knowing that the Wrights didn't take off from the town of Kitty Hawk, but from a nearby 90-foot-high dune called Kill Devil Hill on the Outer Banks, a bony finger of land that separates the Atlantic Ocean from the inner sounds and estuaries of North Carolina's coast. Ask the kids: If you were flying an experimental aircraft into the teeth of gusting Atlantic winds, would you really want to launch from a place called Kill Devil Hill?

Desperate to get home to Dayton in time for Christmas, Orville and Wilbur did get the Wright Flyer off the ground that windy December day in 1903, keeping it aloft for 59 seconds and flying a distance of 852 feet. Their feat is commemorated at the Wright Brothers National Memorial, an imposing 60-foot-high pylon of white North Carolina granite, erected in 1932 on Kill Devil Hill. In fact, the Wrights made four successful flights that day, of increasing lengths; numbered markers on the long slopes show how far they made it each time, until on the fourth go the Wright Flyer crash-landed. The visitor center features a replica of that Wright Flyer, plus a glider they flew here in 1902, along with a few exhibits telling the Wright Brothers' story; park rangers lead twice-daily tours, present talks at the visitor center, and run afternoon family activities such as kite flying or paper-airplane building. You can explore reconstructions of the hangar Orville and Wilbur built for their plane and their workshop/living quarters. The main thing, though, is to stand on the big grassy dune and feel the breezes rise off the water; it suddenly becomes clear why the Wright brothers traveled all the way to North Carolina to get their spidery winged craft aloft.

Not far away, at the highest sand dune on the East Coast, 138-foot-high Jockey's Ridge, you can try out those Outer Banks winds yourself by taking a hang-gliding lesson from the world's largest hang-gliding school, Kitty Hawk Kites, near the visitor center of Jockey's Ridge State Park (milepost 12 off U.S. 158 Bypass; ☎ 252/441-7132; . Beginning, intermediate, and advanced instruction is provided; for reservations, call 877/359-8447 or 252/441-4124; or go to www.kittyhawk.com.

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Kitty Hawk, North Carolina
—  Town  —
Seal
Location of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina
Coordinates: 36°4′37″N 75°42′17″W / 36.07694°N 75.70472°W / 36.07694; -75.70472Coordinates: 36°4′37″N 75°42′17″W / 36.07694°N 75.70472°W / 36.07694; -75.70472
Country	United States
State	North Carolina
County	Dare
Area
• Total	8.23 sq mi (21.3 km2)
• Land	8.18 sq mi (21.2 km2)
• Water	0.05 sq mi (0.1 km2)
Elevation	7 ft (2 m)
Population (2010)
• Total	3,272
• Density	400/sq mi (150/km2)
Time zone	Eastern (EST) (UTC-5)
• Summer (DST)	EDT (UTC-4)
ZIP code	27949
Area code(s)	252
FIPS code	37-36060[1]
GNIS feature ID	1021059[2]
Website	www.townofkittyhawk.org

Kitty Hawk is a town in Dare County, North Carolina, United States and is a part of what is known as North Carolina's Outer Banks. The population was 3,272 at the 2010 Census. It was established in the early 18th century as Chickahawk.

Kitty Hawk became famous after the Wright brothers of Dayton, Ohio, selected a nearby site to make their first controlled powered airplane flights on December 17, 1903. The site of the flights is four miles (6 km) south of the town, near the sand dunes known as the Kill Devil Hills, a location the Wrights had used for practice with their gliders. Kitty Hawk is often mistakenly credited as the site of the powered flights. After the flights, the brothers walked back to Kitty Hawk, where they sent a telegram from the Weather Bureau office to their father informing him of their success.

The aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63), the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber AV-19 with an aircraft number of 93-1086, the aircraft transport ship USS Kitty Hawk (AKV-1), and the Apollo 14 command module have been named for the town.

Contents 1 Geography 2 Demographics 3 Sister city 4 References 5 External links

Geography

Kitty Hawk is located at 36.1°N 75.7°W.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 8.23 square miles (21.3 km²). 8.18 square miles (21.2 km²) of it is land and 0.0476 square miles (0.123 km²) of it (0.579%) is water.^[3]

Demographics

As of the census^[1] of 2000, there were 2,991 people, 1,265 households, and 866 families residing in the town. The population density was 365.8 people per square mile (141.2/km²). There were 2,618 housing units at an average density of 320.1 per square mile (123.6/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 98.13% White, 0.64% African American, 0.23% Native American, 0.27% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 0.20% from other races, and 0.50% from two or more races. 0.94% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 1,265 households out of which 27.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 58.7% were married couples living together, 7.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 31.5% were non-families. 23.8% of all tribes were made up of individuals and 8.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.35 and the average family size was 2.79.

In the town the population was spread out with 21.5% under the age of 18, 5.7% from 18 to 24, 31.6% from 25 to 44, 28.3% from 45 to 64, and 13.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41 years. For every 100 females there were 103.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.6 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $42,813, and the median income for a family was $48,676. Males had a median income of $31,250 versus $25,744 for females. The per capita income for the town was $22,960. About 4.3% of families and 6.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 7.9% of those under age 18 and 4.6% of those age 65 or over.

Federally, Kitty Hawk is part of North Carolina's 3rd congressional district, represented by Republican Walt Jones, elected in 1994.

Sister city

• Coulaines, - (signed in 2005)

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "American FactFinder". United States Census Bureau. http://factfinder.census.gov. Retrieved 2008-01-31. 
2. ^ "US Board on Geographic Names". United States Geological Survey. 2007-10-25. http://geonames.usgs.gov. Retrieved 2008-01-31. 
3. ^ Census 2000 Gazetteer Files: Places. Retrieved on 2009-05-18.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Kitty Hawk, North Carolina

• Official website

v t e Municipalities and communities of Dare County, North Carolina, United States County seat: Manteo Towns Duck Kill Devil Hills Kitty Hawk Manteo Nags Head Southern Shores Unincorporated communities Avon Buxton Colington Frisco Hatteras Manns Harbor Rodanthe Salvo Stumpy Point Wanchese Waves

v t e The Outer Banks of North Carolina Landforms Bodie Island Roanoke Island Pea Island Little Hatteras Island Hatteras Island Cape Hatteras Ocracoke Island Portsmouth Island Core Banks Cape Lookout Places Currituck County Dare County Hyde County Carteret County Carova Beach Corolla Duck Southern Shores Kitty Hawk Kill Devil Hills Nags Head Manteo Wanchese Rodanthe Waves Salvo Avon Buxton Frisco Hatteras Ocracoke Portsmouth Waterways Atlantic Ocean Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway Currituck Sound Albemarle Sound Croatan Sound Roanoke Sound Oregon Inlet Pamlico Sound Hatteras Inlet Onslow Bay Raleigh Bay Ocracoke Inlet Core Sound Drum Inlet Barden Inlet Back Sound New Inlet Isabel Inlet Lighthouses Currituck Beach Light Bodie Island Light Cape Hatteras Light Ocracoke Light Cape Lookout Light Protected areas Cape Hatteras National Seashore Cape Lookout National Seashore Fort Raleigh National Historic Site Jockey's Ridge State Park Mountains-to-Sea Trail North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge Wright Brothers National Memorial Transportation North Carolina Highway 12 U.S. Highway 64 U.S. Route 158 Virginia Dare Memorial Bridge Dare County Regional Airport First Flight Airport Billy Mitchell Airport North Carolina Ferry System History Pea Island Life-Saving Station Chicamacomico Life-Saving Station

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