MANAGEMENT IN AVIATION HISTORY BENCH MARKS
“I do wish that I had something big to say to you, but everything’s been said and too many words are futile. There is so much left to do (in aviation) — it is much better to let deeds speak for themselves,” she wrote.
THE TREK TO KILL DEVIL HILLS The ICAC ended in Washington,
D.C., on Dec. 15. However, on Dec. 16, more than 200 hardy individuals accompanied Orville on the challenging trip from D.C. to the sandy hills where the fi rst
fl ights had occurred. The trip began by steamboat to Norfolk, VA, where they slept onboard overnight. The next day the group was loaded into a caravan of busses and automobiles over dirt roads, which took them to Point Harbor, NC, where they boarded a ferry to Kitty Hawk. At that point everyone was expected to walk more than a mile to the site of the ceremonies at Kill Devil Hills. The ground beneath their feet was hostile with prickly plants and sand. One account has Earhart borrowing a horse and wagon and inviting others, including Igor Sikorsky, to hop on for the ride.
By early afternoon everyone had
gathered to watch the unveiling of a boulder at the spot that marked where the brothers’ fi rst fl ights occurred. The future Wright Brothers National Monument was designated nearby. Absent from the ceremony was the equally famous Lindbergh, who might have gracefully reasoned that this day belonged entirely to Orville.
No doubt the “quiet man from
Dayton, Ohio” was proud to be honored by the ICAC, although he would have considered it boastful to say so.
Giacinta Bradley Koontz
is an aviation historian, magazine columnist and author who has received the
DAR History Medal and honorable mention from the New York Book Festival. She has appeared on the History Channel and in PBS documentaries. For more information, visit
www.GiaBKoontz.com.
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DOMmagazine.com | dec 2016 jan 2017
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