Our “First in Flight” guys – Wilbur and Orville Wright – did their homework in 1900. They knew the best wind conditions for their flying experiments existed on the East Coast shoreline.
About the closest ocean beach to their bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio, was Kitty Hawk, N.C., albeit 529 miles away by air and 676 curvy miles by land.
Wilbur Wright sent a general letter of inquiry addressed to the postmaster in Kitty Hawk. She was Addie Tate, and his note arrived on Aug. 7, 1900.
Wilbur Wright stated that
“he was looking for an ideal location that had a level plain, free from trees
and shrubbery. If there was some prominent elevation such as a high hill
without trees, it would add very much to the desirability.”
He said that he and his brother were “thinking of carrying out experiments in scientific kite flying during their vacation.” (They were very secretive about their flying project to avoid any information falling into the hands of competitors.)
Addie Tate shared the letter with her husband, Capt. Bill Tate, a Dare County commissioner, who had a knack for promoting North Carolina’s Outer Banks.
Bill Tate and Addie Tate are seated on the porch of the Kitty Hawk Post Office in 1900. He is holding daughter Lena, 2, while daughter Irene, 3, is standing next to her mother. The young woman who is standing may be Maxine Cogswell, Addie's sister. The hound dog is camera shy.
Capt. Tate answered the letter: “At Kitty Hawk there is a strip of bald sand beach, free from trees, with practically nothing growing on it except an occasional bunch of buffalo grass. This strip of beach is about 1,500 yards wide from ocean to bay, and extends many miles down the coast. At certain places, sand hills have been piled up by the wind until some of them have reached an elevation of 75 to 100 feet above the plain.”
He continued: “The prevailing winds are from the northeast. If you decide to come, I will take pleasure in doing all I can for your convenience, success and pleasure.”
On the morning of Sept. 12, 1900, a smartly dressed gentleman knocked on the door of the Tate family home. Wilbur Wright had arrived…unannounced.
Orville Wright showed up some weeks later. The Tates took in the Wright brothers as boarders.
Todd Dulaney of Our State magazine said: “Some of the locals weren’t too keen on what the fellas from Ohio – dressed in their business suits and derbies…and throwing their funny-looking kite off the dunes – were up to.”
Marilyn Turk, a freelance writer based in Niceville, Fla., said the Wrights assembled their first experimental glider in the Tates’ yard, using Addie Tate’s sewing machine to complete the cotton sateen wing coverings.
“In addition to helping
the brothers with many experimental launches of the glider, the Tates provided
encouragement, even at the risk of ridicule from others in the community,” Turk
said.
Some local folks believed the Wrights were “wasting their time at a fool attempt to do something that was impossible,” Turk wrote. “The chief argument heard at local stores and the post office was that ‘God didn’t intend man to fly. If He did, He would have given him a set of wings on his shoulders.’”
Marjorie Berry of the Museum of the Albemarle in Elizabeth City credits the Tates as being the first disciples “in the cause of manned flight.”
In October 1900, the Wrights returned to Dayton, pleased with their experiments. Their glider was a bit battered, so it got left behind.
Addie Tate used the wing
cloth to make special dresses for their two daughters, Lena and Irene.
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