The National Park Service operates the Wright Brothers National Memorial. The cost is $3 per person, or free if you have a National Park Passport (which I highly recommend if you do a lot of traveling). The park is open 9am to 6pm in the summer and 9am to 5pm the rest of the year. Inside of the park you will find the museum and bookstore, camp buildings, the first-flight trail area, a 60-inch granite monument, and a 3,000-foot paved first-flight airstrip.
At the museum you will get an introduction to Orville and Wilbur Wright, two brothers from Ohio who changed history by being the first to successfully achieve flight with an airplane. The museum gave detailed history of the first flights that day on December 17, 1903. I got a good understanding of the process these men used to design and fly the airplanes. In addition, there was a replica of the actual planes they used, including a 1902 glider and 1903 flying machine.
On display was an exhibit featuring Women in Flight. I found it fascinating as I viewed pictures, biographies, and quotes of women who worked in flight, from astronauts, crop dusters, aerial show flyers, skywriters, hot air balloon pilots, helicopter pilots, a captain with UPS, to so much more. I just loved this exhibit and felt very proud of these women.
Next door was a reconstructed 1903 camp building and hangar. Because the museum was celebrating the 100th anniversary of flight, there were extra exhibits that included the Navy and NASA. You were able to see how the brothers lived during that time.
Here you can ask the park rangers questions, which I did. They are very knowledgeable and excited to share information with you. I spoke with some very nice rangers who told me that Wilbur died in 1912 at 45 from typhoid fever from some oysters at a Boston restaurant. Orville died in 1948 at 76 while repairing his doorbell, having previously suffered multiple heart attacks. I was fascinated with these tidbits of information, as if I was getting a firsthand account. Because of the risks involved in flying, neither got married because they knew they would need to put their family first. They had two brothers with children and their sister married at 52 but sadly died at 55.
Most of their skills were acquired from their mother. She taught them to sew, which they used when putting together the wings! And when they built their own sleds, she told them to lie flat because of wind resistance. Hence, they were flat when they were flying!
The memorial requires a bit of walking, so I didn’t see the monument or walk the paths. Wheelchairs are limited and you’d probably have to be pushed. But I still felt I got a solid grasp of what went on 100 years ago seeing just the museum and camp and thought what I saw was just phenomenal.