PRESS RELEASE
The First Flight Society announced the 5th annual National Aviation Day at Dare County Regional Airport on August 19th, 2023. The event runs from 10AM-3PM and consists of Airplane Displays, Exhibitors, Speakers, and Food Trucks. The mission of the celebration is to provide a fun and educational experience promoting, honoring, and celebrating the accomplishments of the Wright Brothers and helping educate the world about aviation. NAD is a free event aimed at all ages.
Speakers at the event include historian Larry Tise, FFS Event chair Tony Bruno and FFS Board member Danny Couch. Mr. Tise’s lectures will focus on Orville and Katharine Wright. His morning talk will be “’Sterchens’: The Wright brothers and their sister Katharine” and “After Wilbur: Orville and Katharine”. Mr. Bruno will speak about Aviation history of the Outer Banks, while Mr. Couch will talk about “Billy Mitchell – father of the Air Force”.
Confirmed exhibitors include Kitty Hawk Kites, Civil Air Patrol, Military Aviation Museum, Elizabeth City State University, Dare County Radio Control Flyers, Dare County, PaperPie, and Beach Gypsy Designs.
NAD is also Orville Wright’s birthday. Former president Franklin D. Roosevelt was the creator of National Aviation Day, deciding for the first time in 1939 that the nation should celebrate the growth and advancements being made in aviation. Mr. Wright, born in 1871, was still alive when the proclamation was first issued. Katharine Wright, sister of Orville and Wilbur was also born on August 19th, but in 1874.
Dare County Regional airport (MQI) is located at 410 Airport Road, Manteo, NC 27954.
Additional information can be found at www.nationalaviationday.org.
Without the First Flight Society there would not be a Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. The Kill Devil Hills Memorial Association, later named First Flight Society, began as a group of local businessmen who successfully petitioned the US Congress to fund and build a monument to the Wright Brothers’ 1903 achievement.
The FFS plans an annual celebration at the Wright Brothers National Memorial on December 17th to celebrate and memorialize the work of the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk, NC.
They created the Paul E Garber Shrine in 1966 to honor individuals and groups for achieving significant “firsts” in aviation development since 1903. Walter and Olive Ann Beech, the founders of Beechcraft, will be inducted this December 17th. (Charles Lindbergh, Tuskegee Airmen, Mary Feik, John Glenn, Katherine Johnson (Hidden Figures) and most recently astronaut Sally K Ride, among others.
The First Flight Society’s mission is: 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, NC.
More information about the First Flight Society can be found at https://firstflight.org
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