Library of Congress

The Wright brothers' camp on the Outer Banks with the flyer in 1903.

The National Register of Historic Places, Teaching with Historic Places: Wright Brothers National Memorial: Site of the First Controlled Powered Flight Lesson Plan will help your students discover why the Wright Brothers chose the Outer Banks of North Carolina to conduct their flight experiments, how they achieved controlled powered flight in 1903, and how their accomplishments have been commemorated.

This lesson could be used in American history, social studies, and geography courses in units on technological and scientific advances at the turn of the 20th century, aviation history, or great inventors. It also could be used in a unit commemorating the anniversary of the Wright brothers' first flight on December 17, 1903.