Roadschool Trip to Kitty Hawk + Wright Brothers

Follow our blog for any length of time, and you'll know that this is a Plane Crazy house!  It seems like we're doing something aviation-themed every other week.  On this roadschooling trip, we visited the birthplace of aviation!

You might also like our Aviation Unit Study!

After fan-boying over the Wright Brothers themselves, including their family history and early experiments in mechanics, we began the process of learning about the how flight works and the mechanics behind it.  Once outside, we saw the barns and structures where the Wright Brothers lived and worked on the plane's construction.  Their workspace was considerably larger than the living area!

We stood on the spot where Orville Wright jumped aboard the first plane and took off, that fateful windy December 17th.  The more the boys learned about the Wright Brothers, the more they began to identify with them.  One was outgoing and imaginative, while the other was the quiet, engineering type.  It took them both to take this crazy idea and make it work! 

 We hiked the distance up to, and around, the memorial.  Don't be fooled - it's longer than it looks!  We finally warmed up on the hike! 

Looking down from the hill, you can see both the Atlantic Ocean and the inter-coastal waterway.....it's peaceful and beautiful.  Behind the memorial is a metal replica of the airplane that kids can climb on.  We all took turns flying with Wilbur.

We hiked up to the memorial, where you can see both sides of the Banks for quite a ways...and took a break to enjoy the beautiful day!  One of the planes you can hang-glide from is designed like the Wright Brothers plane.  We got to watch it launch from across the street.  Maybe we'll try this one next time....

Did you know that Tom & Jerry helped invent the airplane?
          Click on the graphic below to access the free Flight Unit Study.

Get the Charlotte Mason-inspired We Were There at the First Airplane Flight novel study here.

Using the information below, create math problems for your student that are age-appropriate.

  

Some suggestions for use :

• Elementary kids can calculate distance differences (adding / subtracting).
• Middle kids can calculate rates of speed or figure out each pilot's average.
• High school kids can calculate velocity and graph the flights to project a fifth flight.

By the end of the fourth flight, his brain was worn out from all that math!