Monument to a Century of Flight

Along the Beach Road corridor in Kitty Hawk, a row of tall stainless-steel pylons rises above the roadside grass, each one marking a milestone in the history of powered flight. The Monument to a Century of Flight was built to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers' first flight at nearby Kill Devil Hills in 1903, and it's easy to miss if you're not specifically looking for it — a quiet, free public space set back from the shops and beach houses that line N Croatan Highway.

There's no ticket booth and no set hours here — it's an outdoor point of interest you can walk through any time you're passing along US-158. The pylons themselves are worth slowing down for: arranged in a line and rising to different heights, they trace the arc of flight from the Wrights' first hop off the sand to the modern jet age, a simple but striking piece of public art in a stretch of the Outer Banks that takes its aviation history seriously.

Good to know

• Located on N Croatan Highway (US-158) in Kitty Hawk, along the same corridor as Kill Devil Hills and Nags Head
• Free and open-air, with no admission and no posted hours
• Worth pairing with a stop at the Wright Brothers National Memorial a few miles south in Kill Devil Hills