Joshua
Morgan is the first to greet Wilbur Wright as he arrives in
Kitty Hawk Bay September 1900.
When
Wilbur and Orville Wright arrive in Kitty Hawk, Joshua is
captivated by their experiments. Whether he is running alongside
the glider steadying a wing or steering the craft with ropes,
he is part of the crew that makes the first successful powered
flight on December 17, 1903.
The
aircraft held together with pieces of wood, fabric and bicycle
parts, sits on the track designed to launch the flight. Powered
by a clattering homemade engine, it lifts from the wind-swept
plain and flies 852 feet into the pages of history. At this
moment, eighteen-year-old Joshua knows what his destiny is
to be.
In
1908, eight years after he meets the strangers from Dayton,
Ohio, the U. S. Army orders its first military aircraft. Twenty-three
year old Joshua returns to Kitty Hawk with the Wright brothers
to conduct the final tests.
The
return to Kitty Hawk brings Joshua full circle. The realization
that who he is now, and the man he will become, is rooted
here in this village. Attributes of integrity become his moral
force
Joshua,
a fictional character whose life was changed by this event,
participated in the greatest discovery of the 20th century:
powered flight; a discovery that changed the face of the globe. |