Bush, Aldrin help rededicate Wright Brothers Memorial

May 3, 1998
Web posted at: 10:45 a.m. EDT (1445 GMT)

KILL DEVIL HILL, North Carolina (CNN) -- The monument that marks man's first powered flight was rededicated Saturday amid fireworks, patriotic music and speeches by a former Navy pilot who became president and an astronaut who walked on the moon.

Former President George Bush and astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin were on hand to watch the re-lighting of the beacon on the Wright Brothers National Memorial on the Outer Banks.

"It might sound chauvinistic, but I don't think flight could've been invented anywhere else but in the United States of America," Bush told a crowd of about 7,000 who attended the tribute to American ingenuity and the conquest of the skies.

Aldrin also helped commemorate what Orville and Wilbur Wright accomplished here on December 17, 1903, when they completed the first machine-powered flight on the isolated beach sands of Kitty Hawk.

"History will remember the inhabitants of the time as the people who went from Kitty Hawk to the moon in 66 years," Aldrin said. "We sometimes forget that the advent of the airplane was even more astonishing than the arrival of the rocket."

The formal rededication was carried out by the Wright brothers' grandnephew, Milton Wright.

The festivities marked the completion of a year-long project to restore the six-story granite pylon, which was originally dedicated in 1932 and whose revolving beacon has been dark since World War II.

The rededication was one of a series of events scheduled over the next several years in anticipation of the 100th anniversary of flight in 2003.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Related sites:

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

• National Park Service - Wright Brothers National Memorial
• National Parks Guide - Wright Brothers National Memorial
• Wright Brothers National Memorial - Kill Devil Hills - Kitty Hawk - Outer Banks
• First Flight Centennial Commission
• Aircraft and Aviation History

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.

---

 

---

Sound off on our message boards & chat

© 1998 Cable News Network, Inc.
A Time Warner Company
All Rights Reserved.

Terms under which this service is provided to you.
Read our privacy guidelines.