The team is there to evaluate the 

 park and draft a management plan for 

 its future. All parks within the 

 National Park Service get these 

 checkups on 10- to 20-year cycles, 

 but the Wright Brothers National 

 Memorial has priority status because 

 of the upcoming 100th anniversary of 

 powered flight in 2003. 



In particular, the team is looking 

 at whether the park can better tell the 

 Wright brothers' life 

 story and serve a 

 growing number of 

 visitors. When the 

 visitor center opened in 

 1960, it served 300,000 

 people annually. Today, 

 a half-million people 

 pass through its doors, 

 and that number is 

 expected to double 

 within eight years. As a 

 result of these changes 

 in visitation and the 

 advances in passing 

 information to the 

 public, the Park Service 

 team could call for 

 anything from a new 

 building to interactive, 

 computer-driven 

 displays that take 

 advantage of the latest 

 technology in education. 



It's only logical, 

 after all. The Wright 

 brothers were on the cutting edge of 

 technology in their own time, says 

 Richard Sussman, a park planner from 

 the National Park Service's Southeast 

 regional office. 



"We're aware that there are a lot 

 of different ways of presenting ideas 

 to people," Sussman says. "These 

 exhibits were from the 1960s, and 

 things have progressed. So we are 

 looking very hard at what's being 

 presented and how it's being pre- 

 sented to the public now." 



An inspiration for using interac- 

 tive computer displays came from 

 Nauticus, the National Maritime 

 Center in Norfolk, Va. Perhaps with 



computers, visitors could experiment 

 with building their own planes and 

 learning what works, Sussman says. 



Currently, the center tells the 

 Wrights' story in media more typical 

 of the 1960s than the 1990s. Static 

 displays offer glimpses into the 

 brothers' lives, describing their steps 

 toward flight and their other interests, 

 from the newspapers they printed in 

 Dayton, Ohio, to their love for Outer 



Four others mark their landings. A 

 pair of camp buildings replicate the 

 brothers' combined living quarters and 

 workshop as well as the hangar where 

 they stored their 1903 flyer. 



The facts and artifacts are 

 impressive, but changes in their 

 presentation are probably inevitable. 

 On the other hand, no amount of 

 technology can improve on the lively 

 stories told by park rangers. The 



Warren Wrenn, supervisory park ranger at the Wright Brothers National Memorial, 

 and Roy Saunders, a former Nags Head resident who helped build the monument in 1931. 



Banks hunting and fishing to 

 Orville's enthusiasm for photogra- 

 phy. A cracked, wooden propeller 

 and yellowing wing canvas from the 

 first powered plane are encased on 

 the walls. Also on show are the 

 sewing machine the brothers used to 

 make wing covers for the 1900 glider 

 and a replica of the wind tunnel they 

 used to test the lifting abilities of 

 different wing shapes. Their tools, 

 unspectacular and intended for 

 bicycle repair, nonetheless assembled 

 the first planes. 



Outside, a granite boulder marks 

 the point where the Wrights' plane 

 broke free of gravity's pull and flew. 



hourly talks about the Wrights' lives 

 shouldn't be missed. 



In an airy, windowed room 

 commanded by full-scale replicas of 

 the first powered plane and the 1902 

 glider, the rangers take a seated 

 audience back to the turn of the 

 century and unfold the brothers' lives. 

 School groups and retirees arrive by 

 the busload to hear their stories. 



"We have great role models in 

 these men. They lived a clean life and 

 accomplished great feats," says 

 Warren Wrenn, supervisory park 

 ranger at the Wright Brothers National 

 Memorial. 



"I'm not sure the people of North 



8 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995 



