Wright Brothers National Memorial

Two brothers from Dayton, Ohio came here because the U.S. Weather Bureau told them the winds were right. On December 17, 1903, they made four powered flights from level ground near the base of Kill Devil Hill — the first controlled, sustained, powered flights in a heavier-than-air machine. A 60-foot granite monument, dedicated in 1932, marks the hill where they'd spent years testing gliders. Inside the visitor center: a reproduction of their wind tunnel, a replica of the 1903 Flyer, and a full-scale model of the 1902 glider built under Orville Wright's direction.