First Flight Airport is a public use airport located one nautical mile (2 km) west of the central business district of Kill Devil Hills, a town in Dare County, North Carolina, United States. The airport is owned by the U.S. National Park Service. It is included in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015, which categorized it as a general aviation facility.The airport itself is famous for being the site of hundreds of pre-flight gliding experiments carried out by the Wright brothers. The Wright Brothers National Memorial, located atop nearby Kill Devil Hill, is a 60-foot granite pylon paying homage to the Wright Brothers and the first sustained heavier-than-air flight. The U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission also chose the airport as one of the stops for the National Air Tour 2003.HistoryOn December 17, 1903 the first successful powered heavier-than-air aircraft flight occurred here, conducted by the Wright brothers.Facilities and aircraftFirst Flight Airport covers an area of 40 acres (16 ha) at an elevation of 13 feet (4 m) above mean sea level. It has one runway designated 2/20 with an asphalt surface measuring 3,000 by 60 feet (914 x 18 m). For the 12-month period ending August 19, 2009, the airport had 38,120 aircraft operations, an average of 104 per day: 97% general aviation, 3% air taxi, and <1% military.
