Kitty Hawk

Kitty Hawk, located on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, consists of a thriving village that has been around for generations, a newer beach community of residential cottages, and a maritime forest called Kitty Hawk Woods which features a wide variety of plant and animal life.

Understand
Once a remote area, Kitty Hawk has grown with small-scale development into a summer resort and beach recreation area.

Orville and Wilbur Wright chose this remote fishing village on the Outer Banks in 1900 partly for privacy from prying eyes. Three years later, they flew for the first heavier-than-air flying machine. Since then, Kitty Hawk has been associated with the Wright Brothers as the birthplace of aviation, although the flight took place four miles south from the base of Kill Devil Hills.

On the oceanside, thousands of rental homes, restaurants and shops are part of the development that has characterized the northern Outer Banks from Nags Head to Corolla. But along the Albemarle Sound, the village remains off the beaten path. Shaded lanes wind along the marshes. Quaint clapboard cottages and fishing boats line a series of canals that lead to the open waters of the Sound.

Wright Brothers National Memorial and Visitor Center and the Memorial Pylon are nearby reminders of the days when Orville and Wilbur Wright made this area their headquarters.

See Aviation history for context.

By plane
The Norfolk International Airport is 1 hour and 30 minutes away. It is right off the highway and an easy drive to the Outer Banks and Kitty Hawk. You can also check flights into Newport News. That drive would be about 1 hour and 45 minutes. Pitt-Greenville is about three hours away.


 * Private pilots will want to make a visit to First Flight airport, just southwest of the Wright Memorial. OR Manteo Airport in Manteo, NC. There are Charter flights from Norfolk.

Get around
There is no local bus service. Use a private car, or hire a taxi. Walking and bicycling is also possible.

Do
Activities include kayaking, parasailing, boating, fishing, surfing and surfing lessons.