First Flight Shrine
In 1966, the Kill Devil Hills Memorial Association was rekindled as the newly-incorporated First Flight Society. A keystone of the Society’s work today is the close support it offers the National Park Service at the Wright Brothers National Memorial. The Society established the Paul E. Garber First Flight Shrine, a portrait gallery that surrounds the Wright Flyer reproduction displayed in the Park’s visitor center at the Memorial. (The Shrine is named for Paul E. Garber, the first director of the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum.) The Shrine honors those individuals and groups that have achieved significant "firsts" in aviation’s development. A new member of the First Flight Shrine has been inducted during December 17 ceremonies every year since 1966 and is honored with the unveiling of their portrait.
Click on the links below for details on each enshrinee.
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Wilbur and Orville Wright |
First to achieve successful powered flight in a heavier-than-air machine, 1903 |
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Charles Lindbergh | First non-stop solo flight from New York to Paris, 1927 |
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Richard Byrd | First to fly over the North Pole, 1926 First to fly over the South Pole, 1929 |
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Jacqueline Cochran | First woman to pilot an aircraft supersonically, 1953 |
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Amelia Earhart | First woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, 1932 First pilot to fly solo Hawaii to California, 1935 |
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Charles E. Yeager | First person to pilot an aircraft at supersonic speed, 1947 |
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Glenn Curtiss | Pioneer aviator, designer and manufacturer |
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Jimmy Doolittle | First to make an all-blind instrument flight from take-off to landing, 1929 |
| 1969 | Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin, Michael Collins |
First lunar landing aboard Apollo 11, 1969 |
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Wiley Post | First to fly solo around the world, 1933 |
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Igor Sikorsky | First to design, produce and fly a helicopter in the western hemisphere, 1940 |
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Thomas Selfridge | First military officer to pilot an airplane, 1908 First fatality in powered aviation, 1908 |
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Robert White | First astronaut designee in a winged aircraft, 1962 |
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Grover Loening | First civilian aeronautical engineer in the US Army, 1914 |
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William Mitchell | First to successfully demonstrate the capabilities of air power, 1921 |
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Louis Blériot | First to pilot a plane across the English Channel, 1909 |
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Edward Rickenbacker | America's top World War I ace |
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Cal Rodgers | First United States transcontinental flight, 1911 |
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Henry T. Merrill | First pilot to make a commercial round-trip plane flight over the Atlantic, 1937 |
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Alford Williams | Navy's first chief test pilot; father of dive bombing |
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Lowell
Smith, Leslie Arnold, Leigh Wade, Henry Ogden, Erik Nelson, John Harding, Jr. |
First around-the-world flight, 1924 |
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John Glenn | First American to orbit the earth, 1962 |
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Albert Read, James Breese, Herbert Rodd, Elmer Stone, Walter Hinton, Eugene Rhoads |
First transatlantic flight, 1919 |
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Benjamin Foulois | First United States military aviator |
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Alberto Santos-Dumont | First to fly a heavier-than-air machine in Europe, 1906 |
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Albert Scott Crossfield | First to fly three times the speed of sound, 1960 |
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Charlie Taylor | World's first airplane mechanic |
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Theodore Ellyson | First United States naval aviator, 1911 |
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Bruce McCandless | First man to walk in space untethered, 1984 |
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Walter R. Brookins | First civilian pilot, 1910 |
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Burt Rutan, Dick Rutan, Jeana Yeager |
First to circumnavigate the globe non-stop without refueling, 1986 |
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Blanche
Noyes, Louise Thaden |
First women to win Bendix Trophy, 1936 |
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Bessie Coleman | First black woman licensed pilot |
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Albert Hegenberger | Developer of all-blind flight control system |
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Yuri Gagarin | First person in space, 1961 |
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Hans Von Ohain | Developed the engine powering the world’s first jet plane |
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Sir Frank J. Whittle | Pioneer developer of turbo-jet aircraft engines |
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Robert
M. Stanley, Lawrence C. Craigie |
First Americans to pilot jet aircraft, 1942 |
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Alan Shepard | First American in space, 1961 Fifth man to walk on the moon, 1971 |
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George H. Bush | First military flyer to become President of the US, 1988 |
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Eugene Ely | First aviator to take off from and land on a ship, 1910 & 1911 |
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Francis and Gertrude Rogallo | Developers of the first successful flexible wing |
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Paul
Poberezny, Tom Poberezny |
Founder and president, Experimental Aircraft Association |
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Lawrence Sperry | Inventor of the autopilot, turn and bank indicator, and parachute pack |
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Henry Arnold |
Father of the US Air Force and first five-star general |
| 1997 | Tom Davis | Pioneer in commercial aviation |
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Joe Kittinger | First to solo the Atlantic in a helium balloon, 1984 |
| 1998 | John Paul Stapp, M.D. | Pioneer in aerospace medicine |
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Anne Baumgartner Carl, Jean Hixson | First women to fly American military aircraft; Women Air Service Pilots |
| 1999 | Harriet Quimby | First licensed woman pilot in the US, 1911, and First woman to solo the English Channel, 1912 |
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Donald W. Douglas | Pioneer aircraft designer and manufacturer |
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Clyde Cessna | General aviation pioneer |
| Jack Northrop | Pioneer in the aerospace industry | |
| Wilbur and Orville Wright | First to achieve successful powered flight in a heavier-than-air machine, 1903 | |
| Tuskegee Airmen | Legends of Aviation | |
| Tiny Broadwick, Captain Albert Berry | First Lady of Parachuting; Tethered jump from a Benoist Headless airplane | |
| Tony Jannus | American Flyer | |
| Dr. Richard T. Whitcomb | "Area Rule" & "Winglets" Impact us Today | |
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Herbert D. Kelleher | Co-Founder, Southwest Airlines |
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Frederick E. Humphreys | One of first trainees for military aircraft |
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Frank Purdy Lahm | One of first trainees for military aircraft |
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Betty Skelton Frankman Erde | First Lady of Aerobatics |
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David Sinton Ingalls | First Ace in U.S. Navy History |
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Charles Frank Bolden, Jr. | Four-time astronaut and current Administrator, NASA |