PRESS RELEASE
KITTY HAWK, N.C. – February 15, 2023 – The First Flight Society will celebrate the 2nd annual Wilbur Wright Day event, a luncheon at the Hilton Garden Inn Outer Banks/Kitty Hawk on April 14th, 2023. The event runs from 11AM-2PM and features Dr. Peter L. Jakab, Senior Curator at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.
The luncheon is open to the public and there will be a fee for the lunch. Sponsors and partners will be recognized as part of the event. The event is free for First Flight Society Lifetime members, while individual members will get lunch at a discount. An additional highlight will be a silent auction to raise money for First Flight Society programs. The auction will include signed items from FFS Honorary Members.
Dr. Jakab is responsible for the NASM exhibit The 
& The Invention of the Aerial Age, a major gallery featuring the original 1903 Wright Flyer.
His publications include the books Visions of a Flying Machine: The Wright Brothers and the Process of Invention (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990); The Published Writings of Wilbur and Orville Wright (Smithsonian Institution Press, 2000), and The Wright Brothers and The Invention of the Aerial Age (National Geographic Society, 2003), the companion book to the exhibition.
The emcee of the luncheon is Paul Carr as “The Spirit of Wilbur Wright”. FFS President Mike Fonseca will do a short presentation about the future of the Society. Dr. Jakab will also be signing books after his presentation.
#WilburWrightDay is April 16th but this year the luncheon will be on the 14th. Wilbur Wright was born on April 16, 1867, near Millville, Indiana, the middle child in a family of five children.
Additional information about #WilburWrightDay can be found at www.nationalaviationday.org/wilbur-wright-day .
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 three annual celebrations of the Wright Brothers throughout the year. Wilbur Wright Day is April 16th, National Aviation Day is August 19th and Wright Brothers Day is December 17th. National Aviation Day will be held at Dare County Regional Airport and Wright Brothers Day will be at the Wright Brothers National Memorial on December 17th .
They created the Paul E Garber Shrine in 1966 to honor individuals and groups for achieving significant “firsts” in aviation development since 1903. Sally K Ride, the first American woman in space, will be inducted this December 17th. (Charles Lindbergh, Tuskegee Airmen, Mary Feik, John Glenn, Katherine Johnson (Hidden Figures) and most recently astronaut General Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. among others.
More information about the First Flight Society can be found at https://firstflight.org
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