Flying and diving on North Carolina's Outer Banks

By Verena Wolff May 11, 2010, 12:40 GMT

Rodanthe, North Carolina - It may be over a century since Orville and Wilbur Wright built and flew the world's first successful airplane but Darrell Collins is still fascinated by what the brothers from Dayton, Ohio, achieved off the coast of the Carolinas.

'The Wright brothers had an idea and didn't let go until it became a reality,' says the National Park Service ranger and historian.

A memorial and museum now stands on the spot where the Wrights finally took to the air on December 17, 1903, making two powered flights each.

'At the time, it was a sensation,' says Collins, who has researched the feats of the Wrights for decades and in his position as a ranger shares his knowledge with the around 500,000 visitors a year to the Wright Memorial in Kill Devil Hills on the Outer Banks.

The two bicycle engineers looked long and hard for a flat sandy beach with strong and steady winds. A National Weather Service meteorologist put together a list of possible suitable locations, with Chicago coming top of the pile because of the winds at Lake Michigan.

However, heavy cloud made it impossible to carry out any kind of flights there so the Wright brothers instead plumped for the also listed Outer Banks and a location near the seafront town of Kitty Hawk (specifically a sand dune called Kill Devil Hill) because it offered the perfect conditions.

There, they built a small wooden hut to protect themselves from the sun, mosquitos and all-important wind. A replica can be seen at the Wright Museum in Kill Devil Hills.

The long and broad beaches of the Outer Banks attract tourists from all over the world. Not surprising really as the place has it all: sun, sea, kilometre-long white sandy beaches, beautiful locations, history, culture and a host of outdoor activities, including sailing, surfing, horse-riding, swimming, kayaking and, of course, flying.

Hang-gliding from the sand dunes is particularly popular while the slogan 'First in Flight' is emblazoned on North Carolina licence plates.

'Every visitor who follows in the footsteps of the Wright brothers feels like a pioneer in the sky,' says flight instructor John, whose job it is to help his students realise their dreams. 'The majority of them only manage a few seconds in the air before landing back on the warm, soft sand,' he explains.

There is more than enough space for those looking to make maiden flights of their own as, from north to south, the Outer Banks stretch nearly 130 kilometres. The Outer Banks jut out into the Atlantic and are made up of a long string of barrier islands.

The region was one of the first in the Americas to be settled by Europeans. Currituck County lies north of the Outer Banks and was first mentioned in 1668, less than 50 years after the Pilgrim Fathers made their home in New England.

A British colony was established decades earlier but what eventually happened to the more than 100 souls who made the trip across the Atlantic at the end of the 16th century remains a mystery.

Local author Paul Green has written a prize-winning musical about the disappearance called 'The Lost Colony' which is put on at an open-air theatre in Roanoke, Virginia each summer.

A proper settlement of the Outer Banks has come about in the last 30 years although only a few thousand people live in the area all year round.

North of the town of Corolla is home to a huge herd of feral horses, sometimes called 'banker ponies,' which according to local legend are descended from Spanish Mustangs washed ashore centuries ago in shipwrecks.

'You have to be careful where you drive,' says James Easily, who offers guided tours of the wilderness.

Even centuries after its first settlement by Europeans, the coast of North Carolina remains a mysterious place for many, especially ship captains who have the unenviable task of navigating the treacherous seas off the Outer Banks.

These waters are also known as the 'Graveyard of the Atlantic' because of the near 1,000 shipwrecks that have occurred here.

'The winds and the sand banks make the coast dangerous,' explains James Charlet, who runs the historical coast guard station at Chicamacomico. 'There are tourists who only come to North Carolina for wreck diving.'

The Atlantic is calm but the currents and winds mean the location of the sand banks constantly shift. If a ship runs aground, then it is only a matter of time before it is broken up by the waves.

'Because the water around Cape Hatteras is so dangerous, the lifeguard service was needed to save shipwrecked seamen,' says Charlet.

Today the former station is a museum where the tough conditions of a lifeguard are presented.