Photo: Outer Banks Visitors Bureau
	The Wright Brothers National Memorial near Kill Devil Hills, N.C., marks the site of the first manned powered flight on Dec. 17, 1903.

Perfect landings for group tours

Southeastern Article,
February 21, 2012

Kitty Hawk, N.C.

Tuskegee, Ala.

Huntsville, Ala.

Cape Canaveral, Fla.

These are places where imaginations and dreams took flight, where barriers got broken.

A pair of brothers who had been bicycle builders and printers in Dayton, Ohio, ushered in manned powered flight on Dec. 17, 1903. Orville Wright manned the Wright Flyer for 120 feet and 12 seconds above the sands of North Carolina’s Outer Banks near Kitty Hawk as Wilbur Wright watched. 

“The desire to fly is an idea handed down by our ancestors who, in their grueling travels across trackless lands in prehistoric times looked enviously on the birds soaring freely through space, at full speed, above all obstacles, on the infinite highway of the air,” Orville once said.

At the centennial of the Wrights’ lofty achievement, Frederick Gregory, an astronaut who was commander aboard the Space Shuttles Discovery and Atlantis, said: “Because of the Wright Brothers and those who followed, the sky and the heavens beyond are no longer our limit, but rather the dramatic setting for today’s amazing feats of adventure, exploration and discovery.”

Indeed. Orville’s seconds aloft in the first powered aircraft, made of wood, wire and cloth, changed the world. Now, group tours fly high by digging into this rich legacy and the many others that have followed.

Nearly four decades later during World War II, political pressures pushed the U.S. government to expand the role of African-Americans in the military. The Army Air Corps worked with Alabama’s Tuskegee Institute to train African-American pilots. Tuskegee Airmen were graduated from 1941 to 1946, with more than 16,000 men and women taking part in the Tuskegee Experience.

When rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, formerly of Germany, arrived in 1950 in Huntsville, the city’s nickname was “Watercress Capital of the World.” Since, Huntsville’s history has been re-forged as the place where the United States’ space program was born. Rockets were developed in Huntsville that put the first U.S. satellite in orbit and sent men to the moon. Huntsville is where the power for the Space Shuttle was developed; where the modules for the International Space Station were designed and built; and where the next generation of spacecraft, Ares I and Ares V, are being designed. 

That history has brought a change of Huntsville’s nickname to “The Rocket City.”

Cape Canaveral is the most famous of U.S. rocket launch sites. It is where the United States’ first satellite, Vanguard 1, crumpled and exploded Dec. 6, 1957; and where Explorer I was launched to reclaim American pride on Jan. 31, 1958. It is where American astronauts Alan Shepard and John Glenn first flew into space on Mercury flights; where the mighty Saturn V pushed Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins to the moon aboard Apollo 11; and where the Space Shuttle program started and ended. 

Wright Brothers National Memorial

Wright Brothers National Memorial is the site of the Wrights’ first flight in their fourth year of flying experiments at near what is now Kill Devil Hills, N.C., outside Kitty Hawk.

A 60-foot granite monument dedicated in 1932 stands atop 90-foot Kill Devil Hill.

The Wright Brothers Visitors Center tells the Ohio pair’s story with exhibits; full-scale reproductions of a 1902 glider and the 1903 Wright Flyer, an original engine block from the 1903 Flyer and a reproduction of the Wrights’ first wind tunnel. The 20,000-square-foot Centennial Pavilion offers additional exhibits, educational programs and movies with a 1,000-seat auditorium, perfect learning opportunities for group tour focused on Wright history.

A granite boulder marks the spot where the first flight left the ground. Visitors to the park can land via airplane at the 3,000-foot First Flight Airstrip.

Group rates are available, and are based on the vehicle(s) used to enter the grounds operated by the National Park Service. Admission is free for individuals ages 15 and younger.

Details: (252) 473-2111; www.nps.gov/wrbr

	Photo: Space Coast Tourism
	A Space Shuttle flight lifts off at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.

Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site

Open since October 2008, Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site is adjacent to Moton Field Municipal Airport in Tuskegee.

The National Park Service-operated Alabama site includes Hangar No. 1 Museum, with two World War II-era training planes among its exhibits. 

Other exhibits include oral-history stations and an orientation room with a four-minute video detailing the role of Moton Field (named for Tuskegee’s second president, Robert Moton) in training Tuskegee Airmen pilots. A bookstore and gift shop are on site, with a nearby scenic overlook.

Groups of 10 or more are asked to make reservations. Historical tours of the site are offered through the National Park Service.

The Saturday before Memorial Day (May 26 this year) is the Tuskegee Airmen Fly-In, co-sponsored by Negro Airmen International and the City of Tuskegee. Events include historic exhibits, military fly-bys, aerobatics and food.

On the Saturday and Sunday before Labor Day (Sept. 1¬2 this year) is the Labor Day Fly-In, with fly-overs, vintage aircraft, special park programs, military and civilian aircraft displays, food and vendors.

Tuskegee University also has an immense history. Started as Tuskegee Normal School for Colored Teachers in 1881 by a young educator named Booker T. Washington, its alumni include esteemed educator and agricultural scientist George Washington Carver (the university’s museum is named after him) and singer Lionel Richie, who grew up on the campus as a youngster before returning for his studies. The state university currently enrolls about 3,000 students.

Details: (334) 727-0922; www.nps.gov/tuai

Tuskegee University — (334) 724-4553; www.tuskegee.edu

U.S. Space & Rocket Center

Davidson Center for Space Exploration  — U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville is focused on manned space flight hardware.

Its facilities include Rocket Park, Spacedome Theater and the Education Training Center, which houses the Educator Resource Center for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

A real eye-popper for group tours is a full-size replica of the Apollo 11 Saturn V rocket, suspended 10 feet above the floor in the 68,200-square-foot building that is 90 feet high. Also in its collection are original Mercury and Gemini capsule trainers, an Apollo 16 capsule, Casper and a German V-2 rocket.

The U.S. Space & Rocket Center details Huntsville’s role in making moon rockets, in the space race, Apollo missions, the Space Shuttle program, the International Space Station and other NASA missions.

On exhibit at the center through May 12 is “100 Years of von Braun: His American Journey,” showcasing the life of von Braun — in honor of what would have been his 100th birthday on March 23; he died in 1972. The next exhibit, opening this summer, is “Mammoths and Mastodons: Titans of the Ice Age.”

Packages are available for groups of 15 or more.

The center is affiliated with The Smithsonian.

Details: (800) 637-7223; (256) 837-3400; www.rocketcenter.com/mu/grouptours

Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex

Operated by NASA, Kennedy Space Center is located on a wildlife refuge eight times the size of New York’s Manhattan Island.

Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex offers tours of its launch and landing facilities, including the massive Vehicle Assembly Building. There are also interactive simulators, programs, massive rockets and the possibility of meeting an astronaut.

Also on site are the Space Mirror Memorial, honoring the 24 astronauts who died as part of U.S. space exploration efforts; Apollo/Saturn V Center; the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame; Launch Complex 39 Observation Gantry; Rocket Garden; and a Hubble Space Telescope exhibit.

Although the Space Shuttle program ended last year, Kennedy Space Center and the adjacent Cape Canaveral Air Force Base continue to be working space-launch facilities. In addition, Atlantis is to be permanently displayed at Kennedy, scheduled to open to the public in 2013.

Packages are available for groups of 15 or more, with special offerings and events for groups of 45 or more.

Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex offers the two-day Astronaut Scholarship Foundation’s Autograph & Memorabilia Show the first weekend in November. The event is the same weekend as the Cocoa Beach Air Show, the largest annual event in Florida’s Brevard County centered over the Atlantic Ocean oceanfront at Lori Wilson Park in Cocoa Beach, Fla.

Details: (866) 737-5235; http://kennedyspacecenter.com/groups.aspx

Outer Banks Visitors Bureau
(877) 629-4386
www.outerbanks.org 

Florida’s Space Coast Office of Tourism
(877) 572-3224
(321) 433-4470
www.space-coast.com

Macon County/Tuskegee Community Tourism Network
(334) 725-8496
www.tourismresource.org

Huntsville/Madison County CVB
(800) 843-0468
(256) 551-2230
www.huntsville.org