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The world's first flight officially took off from North Carolina’s Outer Banks on this day in history, Dec. 17, 1903. The Wright brothers were allegedly the first to successfully fly a powered and controlled airplane in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, after years of experimenting with the concept of flight. Brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright began testing out flying in 1899, while Samuel Langley of the Smithsonian did the same, according to the National Park Service (NPS). Langley’s attempts were underwritten by the War Department yet were unsuccessful, since his efforts relied on the brute power of the machines to keep...

A Silicon Valley flying car startup that received backing from Google's Larry Page and set out to revolutionize the way people get around is closing locations and laying off employees. Kittyhawk gave pink slips to 100 employees, according to a WARN notice filed with state labor officials on Sept. 22. The WARN notice posted with California's Employment Development Department also indicated that the company is permanently closing three offices, including two in Palo Alto at 821 San Antonio Rd. and 4062 Fabian Way and another in Mountain View at 2639 Terminal Blvd. The layoffs and closures were reported to the...

Kitty Hawk, the last oil-fired Navy aircraft carrier, departed Naval Base Kitsap-Bremerton, Washington, Saturday for its final transit to a ship-breaking facility in Texas. Kitty Hawk served for 48 years before it was decommissioned in 2009, earning the nickname “Shitty Kitty” among some crew members assigned to its aged, non-nuclear-powered hull… https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2022/01/18/uss-kitty-hawk-headed-for-the-scrapyard/

The US Navy sold two old aircraft carriers for a cent each to a ship-breaking firm.The USS Kitty Hawk and USS John F. Kennedy had been decommissioned for years.They are due to be broken up by a firm in Texas, who can make money from the scrap metal.The US Navy sold two aircraft carriers to a ship-breaking company for 1 cent each after decades of service.The cut-price fee reflects the fact the company will profit from selling the ship metal for scrap, officials said.Naval Sea Systems Command, a US Navy sub-organization, said it had agreed to sell USS Kitty Hawk...

On December 17, 1903, a handcrafted biplane lifted off the soft sand of a windswept beach in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, ushering in the age of aviation. The flight lasted a mere 12 seconds, and covered only 120 feet, but it changed the course of history. On Wright Brothers Day, we honor the two American pioneers from Dayton, Ohio, who first achieved powered flight, one of the most remarkable triumphs of the 20th century. Orville and Wilbur Wright shared a fascination with flight and a desire to push the limits of the possible. They were bicycle mechanics by trade, and...

By Presidential Proclamation, December 17 is Wright Brothers Day. The President is requested each year to issue a proclamation inviting the people of the United States to observe this day with appropriate ceremonies and activities. Wright Brothers Day is an annual United States national observation. It is codified in the US Code and Wright Brothers Day commemorates the first successful flights in a heavier than air, mechanically propelled airplane, made by Orville and Wilbur Wright on December 17, 1903, near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The Wright brothers were American brothers, inventors and aviation pioneers...

Today is the anniversary of mankind's first powered flight, achieved at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina on 17 December 1903 by pioneer American aviators Wilbur and Orville Wright (1867-1912 and 1871-1948, respectively). The Wrights - Dayton, Ohio bicycle mechanics - become interested in aviation as an avocation and embarked on a systematic experimental program that eventually led to their extraordinary success - of which movable wing parts and a lightweight engine were the key elements. Prior To the powered flight, the brothers completed over one thousand glides from atop Big Kill Devil Hill. These flying skills were a crucial component of...

It was not a good time for the carrier Kitty Hawk as it steamed across the South China Sea toward Vietnam in October 1972. The ship already had been deployed for eight months, and was on track to spend a record number of days at sea with a grueling pace of flight operations to support U.S. troops in Vietnam. Racial tensions were high, in part stemming from the civil rights movement at home. There were nearly 4,500 sailors aboard — and only 302 were black. Inside the Navy, race relations were uniquely troubled as black sailors were typically assigned to...

It is equipped with side stick controls like an F-16 Fighting Falcon. It uses an advanced, “mission adaptive” wing that has no seams at the control surfaces. The wing is so unique its design is protected under U.S. patent 821,393. The entire wing changes shape to control the roll axis of the aircraft ... And it is the first successful powered aircraft ever, the Wright Flyer. 111 years ago today Orville Wright became the first man to achieve powered flight. His first 12-second flight, covering only 120 feet, changed the course of mankind. 10:35 Local, Thursday, 17 December, 1903; Kill...

Are they righting a wrong or wronging the Wrights? The Connecticut Senate passed a bill Tuesday evening that would delete the Wright brothers from history, explicitly stripping recognition for the first powered flight from Orville and Wilbur and assigning it to someone else. “The Governor shall proclaim a date certain in each year as Powered Flight Day to honor the first powered flight by [the Wright brothers] Gustave Whitehead and to commemorate the Connecticut aviation and aerospace industry,” reads House Bill No. 6671, which now sits on the governor’s desk awaiting passage into law. "There’s no question that the Wright...

(CNN) -- As German Gen. Erwin Rommel chased British forces across the North African desert, a stray Royal Air Force fighter crashed in the blistering sands of the Egyptian Sahara on June 28, 1942. The pilot was never heard from again. The damaged Kittyhawk P-40 -- a couple of hundred miles from civilization -- was presumed lost forever. Until now. In what experts consider nothing short of a miracle, a Polish oil company worker recently discovered the plane believed to have been flown by missing Flight Sgt. Dennis Copping. And almost 70 years after the accident, it's extraordinarily well-preserved. The...

He was hundreds of miles from civilisation, lost in the burning heat of the desert. Second World War Flight Sergeant Dennis Copping took what little he could from the RAF Kittyhawk he had just crash-landed, then wandered into the emptiness. From that day in June 1942 the mystery of what happened to the dentist’s son from Southend was lost, in every sense, in the sands of time.

It’s not quite the same as the opening sequence to “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” but it’s awfully close. The Daily Mail reports that a Polish oil company worker, Jakub Perka, has discovered an “almost perfectly preserved” Kittyhawk P-40 that crash-landed in the Sahara Desert in 1942. “Despite the crash impact, most of the aircraft’s cockpit instruments are intact,” according to the report.

The aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk is not up for sale to the Indian Navy as it has already “outstretched” its life, a senior US Navy officer said Wednesday. "The ship was meant to last 48 years. It is in Wilmington (North Carolina) and not for sale. There is no intention to sell it. It has already outstretched its intended service life," Rear Admiral Allen G. Myers, the Director (Warfare Integration) of the US Navy, told IANS. This puts to rest all reports of the decommissioned carrier being offered to India, which, at one stage, expressed interest in the vessel....

080807-N-7883G-363 SAN DIEGO (Aug. 7, 2008) The aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63) moves past the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73), in background, as Kitty Hawk prepares to moor at Naval Air Station North Island upon her return to San Diego Thursday, Aug. 7, 2008. Kitty Hawk will be decommissioned next year in Bremerton, Wash. The 46- year-old carrier is the oldest active-duty warship in the Navy and will be replaced this summer George Washington as the Navy's only permanently forward-deployed aircraft carrier. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Kyle D. Gahlau/Released)...

The oldest active ship in the U.S. Navy, the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier, made its final departure from Japan on Wednesday to be decommissioned after nearly half a century of service. ***** The Kitty Hawk, the last conventionally powered aircraft carrier in the Navy, is to be replaced later this summer by the USS George Washington, a nuclear-powered carrier. The decommissioning date for the ship is set for Jan. 31.

/begin my excerpt U.S. Carrier Kitty Hawk was in 28-hour Standoff with Chinese Submarine Tense battle-ready standoff in Taiwan Strait (Hong Kong=Yonhap News) Chung Juho = U.S. aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk (and its battle group) had 28-hour battle-ready standoff with a Chinese submarine and a missile destroyer in Taiwan Strait last November, it has been revealed. This was the first military standoff between U.S. and China since the Taiwan Strait Crisis in 1996. According to Jan. 16 dispatch by China Times in Taiwan, on Nov. 23 last year, Kitty Hawk battle group was en route to Japan after China...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Chinese and American military officials have agreed to put behind them a dispute over China's refusal to allow port calls to Hong Kong by U.S. Navy warships, a Chinese official said Tuesday. China has hinted that its denials of port calls for the USS Kitty Hawk and eight other ships were triggered by Congress' honoring of the Dalai Lama and U.S. arms sales to Chinese rival Taiwan. The rejection of the ships drew protests from the United States and led the Bush administration to call China's Washington defense attache to the Pentagon to hear complaints about the...

BEIJING - China said Tuesday it expressed "grave concern" over the USS Kitty Hawk's passage through the politically sensitive Taiwan Strait on its return to Japan. The U.S. aircraft carrier had been barred by China from entering Hong Kong for a Thanksgiving port call. Mainland Chinese authorities reversed their decision, but by then the ships were too far out to sea and did not turn back. "U.S. officials informed China at that time that it took the route because of a storm," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said at a briefing. "China expressed grave concern to the U.S. and requested...

What the Chinese are buying with American trade dollars"I'm Congressman Duncan Hunter. A few weeks ago when this Song Class Chinese submarine emerged next to one of our aircraft carriers about 80 miles off Okinawa, it shows the American people what the Chinese are buying with American trade dollars. They're cheating on trade and they're buying ships and planes and missles with our money as well as taking millions of jobs. Join me at Peace Through Strength for fair trade."