FLIGHT: 100 YEARS N.C. visits will feel Wright in summer

Across the state, communities plan their own tributes to powered flight.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Wright brothers needed the blustery December winds of North Carolina's Outer Banks for their early experiments in flight, but that kind of bone-chilling weather doesn't appeal to most vacationers.
Fortunately, there are many warm-weather options in North Carolina this summer for those who want to recognize the 100th anniversary of powered flight.
Much of the activity will take place close to the spot where a 12-second flight on Dec. 17, 1903, changed the course of the world. But communities across the state are also flavoring their own summertime events with flight themes.
"The decision was made that the celebration of flight really should take place in all of 2003," said Lynn Minges, executive director of the state Division of Tourism, Film and Sports Development. "The question is what's hot this year. This year flight is hot."
A six-day December celebration at Wright Brothers National Memorial will be capped by the attempted flight of a $1.2 million reproduction of the Wright Flyer airplane.
Other events
In the meantime, summertime events leading up to the celebration include cross-country air races involving female pilots, experimental craft and balloons. All end near the Wright Brothers memorial in Kill Devil Hills, N.C., in June or July.
"People will be able to get a taste of what [December's] 100th anniversary celebration will be," said Carolyn McCormick, managing director of the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau.
Summer visitors will also have access to one-of-a-kind flight exhibits in a 20,000-square-foot semipermanent pavilion that the National Park Service recently opened. Exhibits from the U.S. military, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and airplane manufacturers will fill one side of the $1.8 million pavilion. A runway will feed into the other end, allowing pilots to bring in small planes for discussions and exhibits.
The pavilion is the centerpiece of a planned overhaul of the national memorial. It will stand for five years while the state's First Flight Centennial Foundation works with the park service to raise money for a new visitors' center.
McCormick said she expects the races, pavilion and smaller, related events to draw visitors the islands may not otherwise see.
Visitors expected
She expects about 200,000 visitors a week at the Outer Banks this summer. That number is typical for the region in good economic times, but forecasters have said they expect fewer people nationally to travel this summer.
In addition to air shows in Winston-Salem and Asheboro this summer, the Albemarle Sound town of Edenton will host an ultralight fly-in and offer bus trips to the Wright memorial.
The IMAX Theatre at Exploris Museum in Raleigh will show the astronaut movie "Apollo 13," for two months this summer while the nearby North Carolina Museum of History will have an aviation exhibit honoring pilots and aviation innovators.