Welcome to Wright Brothers 

National Memorial! 

Complete the pages and activities 

for your age group and attend a 

ranger program to become a 

Junior Flight Ranger! 

Ages 6 and under: Pages 1-3.

Ages 7-11: Pages 1-7.

Ages 12 and up: Pages 1 & 5-14.

National Park Service

U.S. Department of the Interior

Wright Brothers National Memorial

What did you learn?

If a ranger program is offered during your visit, attend the program and then draw 

or write one thing you learned from the program.

Junior Flight Ranger Activity Book
1

Each item on the National Park Service arrowhead 

symbolizes something that the National Park Service was 

created to protect. The SEQUOIA TREE and BISON

represent plants and wildlife. The MOUNTAIN and LAKE

represent scenery and places for recreation. The shape of 

the ARROWHEAD represents culture, history, and 

archeology.

What do you think is 

worth protecting?

Use your imagination 

to design your own 

arrowhead filled with 

things you want to 

protect!

Protecting Special Places
2

 First Flight Plaque Monument Reproduction 1903 Flyer

Reconstructed Hangar NPS Arrowhead A Bird

Orville Wright American Flag Flight Marker

Kitty Hawk Bingo

As you walk throughout the park, look for these items. When you see one, circle it. 

Find three in a row or all four corners to complete the activity.
3

Let’s Go Camping

Visit the reconstructed camp building and hangar from 1903. On the left is the hangar 

where the Wright Flyer was stored to protect it from the wind, sand, and harsh weather 

of the Outer Banks. On the right is a workshop and living quarters where Wilbur and 

Orville slept, made meals, and worked on their machines. 

Take a look inside the buildings, and imagine what it would have been like to stay here 

with Wilbur and Orville during their years in Kitty Hawk. Think of three items you 

would bring with you from home and explain why.

1. 

2. 

3. 

Bonus! What do you think camp life was like for Wilbur and Orville? Would you want 

to live in these same conditions, why or why not?

 

 

 
4

A. The rudder controls the yaw, or right and left movement, of the aircraft from the 

back of the flyer.

B. Wilbur and Orville designed propellers for the back of their flyer to provide the 

thrust they needed to get into the air. They dismissed the idea of a propeller as an 

“air screw,” like a ship propeller, and instead saw it as a wing that rotates. 

C. The bracing wires enforce the separate parts of the flyer ensuring that the more 

fragile wooden parts would not easily break during flight.

D. The wings, made of Muslin Cotton, were designed using the information Wilbur 

and Orville gathered from their extensive wind tunnel testing.

E. The elevator controls the pitch. This helps the flyer go up or down during flight.

Parts of a Flyer

Use the image and descriptions below to label the parts of the 1903 Wright Flyer. If 

you get stuck, look at the park brochure or visit the Flight Room to see a reproduction 

of the flyer. 

 
5

1903 ——

The Wright Timeline

1902 ——

1899 —— 1901 ——

Wilbur and Orville visited the Outer Banks for a few years before their first flight.

Create a timeline of Wilbur and Orville’s flying experiments by matching the 

letter of the following events with the years when they took place. 

Hint: Use the pictures of the flying machines below the dates to help you figure out 

what happened when.

1900 ——

A. Wilbur and Orville tested their first glider in the strong winds of Kitty Hawk.

B. On the morning of December 17, 1903 the Wright brothers made the first 

successful power driven flight in world history in their Wright Flyer.

C. This glider was the first to use a moveable tail called a rudder. This allowed them to 

control the yaw (side to side motion) and perform a full turn. They tested it 1000 times!

D. Wilbur and Orville first began their journey by testing a small kite in Dayton, Ohio.

E. This was the second glider the Wright brothers built and it had many problems with 

lift and control.
6

Going the Distance

Today, the historic location where Wilbur and Orville 

made the first flights is marked by the First Flight 

Boulder and Flight Line. 

The boulder marks where the first flight took off and 

the numbered stones of the flight line mark the 

distance of each flight. 

Take a walk along the path of the first four 

flights, and at each landing marker find the 

information you need to finish the chart below.

Flight Distance Time Pilot

#1 120 feet _________ ________ 

#2 _________ 12 seconds ________ 

#3 _________ _________ Orville

#4 _________ 59 seconds ________

Now that you’ve found the times and distances of the flights, let’s talk about speed! 

Airspeed is the speed of an airplane in relation to the wind around it. You can find 

the airspeed by adding the ground speed and the speed of the wind together. 

The speed of the 1st flight over the ground was only 6.8 mph. However, Wilbur and 

Orville flew directly into a wind that was blowing at about 27 mph. What was their 

airspeed? 

___________________________________________________

Remember: Ground Speed + Speed of the wind = Air Speed

Bonus! Are you faster than the Wright Flyer? Have someone record your time. Sprint 

as fast as you can from the boulder to the first marker. Use your sprint time to find the 

difference from the time of the first flight.

How much faster are you than the first flight? ____________________________________
7

Finished in 1932, the Wright Brothers Monument on 

Kill Devil Hill was built to remember Wilbur and Orville 

Wright and all that they accomplished. 

The monument sits on a star base and the monument 

itself is designed to look like bird wings. At the top of 

the monument is a beacon that shines at night to light 

the way for aviators. Do you think this monument is 

fitting for the first people to fly?

Monument to a Dream

Draw your own monument for that person in the space below! 

Who is someone you think deserves a monument? Why?

___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________
8

Fables of Flight

The doors to the Wright Brothers Monument contain eight bronze panels that tell the 

stories of human’s attempt to fly. Read the stories that each image represents and 

complete the doors by drawing the panels that are left blank. 

1.The study of 

bird wings 

influenced the 

Wrights early 

flying attempts.

7. A Phoenix, a 

mythological bird, 

rose into the sky. 

2. A locksmith 

thought he could 

fly by attaching 

paddles to his 

arms and legs 

and jumping from 

chairs.

5. The Wright 

brothers invented 

a unique design 

for modern 

propellers to 

achieve forward 

thrust. 

3. Early gliding 

experiments 

inspired the 

Wrights to 

explore 

problems of 

controlled flight.

4. A philosopher 

believed he could 

add water to 

bags attached to 

a sail, and they 

would lift him into 

the sky when 

heated by the 

sun.

6. In Greek 

mythology, Icarus 

attempted to fly by 

using wax to 

attach feathers to 

his arms, but he 

flew to close to 

the sun.

8. Kites were 

used by the 

Wright brothers 

during early experiments of lift 

and control.
9

Support from Family and Friends

Wilbur and Orville Wright had to overcome many hardships and problems to achieve 

success. Through trust in one another and very supportive family and friends, from 

both Dayton and the Outer Banks, they were able to overcome all obstacles and 

achieve their dream of flight.

Match the images below with descriptions of what each person or persons did 

to help Wilbur and Orville.

1. _____ Charles E. Taylor was initially hired to 

 work in the Wright brothers’ bicycle shop 

 in 1901. He helps Orville work out the 

 design for the flyer’s engine.

2. _____ Members of the Kill Devil Hill Life 

 Saving Station, trained to rescue 

 shipwrecked mariners, help the 

 Wright brothers launch the gliders and 

 flyer. One member, John T. Daniels, 

 even takes the famous photograph of the 

 first flight.

3. ____ Katharine Wright, Wilbur and Orville’s 

younger sister, is a great source of support 

 and encouragement for her brothers and is 

 instrumental in getting Wilbur to accept a 

 chance to speak at a meeting of the 

 Western Society of Engineers. This helps 

 Wilbur and Orville gain back their 

 confidence after their second glider had 

 many problems with lift and control.

4. ____ Bill Tate is the postmaster of Kitty Hawk 

 and welcomes Wilbur to the Outer Banks. 

 His wife, Addie, loans her sewing machine 

 to the Wright brothers so they can sew the 

 cloth material on the wings.

A.

B.

C.

D.
10

Wright Brothers Crossword 

Using your brochure and the exhibits in the visitor center, fill in the blanks and 

complete the crossword puzzle below.

The Wright brothers, (1.)_________mechanics, wanted to learn how to (2.)_______. 

So they studied (3.) _____________and wrote the Smithsonian to get some expert 

(4.)__________. In 1899, they built a (5.)_________ to test their ideas at home. Then 

they built a (6.)___________and brought it to (7.)__________ to test it in the steady 

(8.)___________of the Outer Banks. They used a (9.)_____________ to sew the 

(10.)____________ wing coverings and ate (11↓.)____________ because food was 

scarce in the Outer Banks. In 1901 they built a (12.)___________ to gain more 

understanding of flight. Finally, the 1902 Glider was very successful, so they built a 

(13.)_________ which succeeded when they flew on December 17, 1903. Before 

their flight they asked John Daniels to take a picture with their (11→.)__________ of 

the first famous flight. Today, we honor their hard work and efforts with a national park 

and a (14.)__________ commemorating their achievements.

Word Bank

fly 

flyer 

kite 

advice 

camera 

bicycle 

glider 

cloth 

birds 

monument 

winds 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘wind tunnel’ 

‘Kitty Hawk’ 

‘canned goods’ 

‘sewing machine’
11

Like Riding a Bike

From their experiences at the cycle shop, Wilbur and 

Orville understood that with a little practice a rider 

could learn how to control and balance an unstable 

bicycle. They believed that balance and control were 

also the key to flying. However, control is much more 

difficult for an airplane because it has to move freely 

in three ways, called roll, pitch, and yaw, as opposed 

to bicycles which move in only two directions.

1. __________ allows the 

airplane to tilt either left or right. 

Though the Wright Flyer 

controlled this with wing-warping, 

planes today typically use 

ailerons, flaps located on the 

edge of the wings.

3. __________ turns the nose of 

the plane left or right. This is 

controlled with a rudder that 

pushes the tail either left or right 

and turns the airplane.

2. __________ is the up and 

down movement of the nose of 

the airplane. This is controlled by 

the elevator.

Use the park brochure and Flight Room exhibits to fill in the blanks below. 

Word bank: pitch, roll, yaw.
12

Decoding History

Telegraphs were used to send electrical messages over long distances through wires 

before the invention of telephones. A short signal is represented by a dot and a long 

signal is represented by a dash. Stringing the dots and dashes together, words and 

sentences are created that could be sent by wires across the country. This is called 

Morse code. After their first flight, Wilbur and Orville sent a telegraph from Kitty Hawk 

to their father in Dayton, Ohio.

Use the Morse code below to solve the important message they sent.

Morse Code:

 

Message:

 

 

 

Think about a goal you have reached or something you’ve accomplished. What would 

you want people to know? Create your own Morse code message below.

 

 

 
13

A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words

On the morning of December 17, 1903, Orville set up a camera 

facing the spot where he thought the Wright Flyer would first fly. 

Wilbur handed John T. Daniels a small bulb to activate the shutter. 

Having never touched a camera, John was told to squeeze the 

bulb if anything interesting happened! This is the famous 

photograph that he took of the first flight.

Study the picture above and match the following items:

1. The flyer slid down a 60-foot rail because it did not have wheels.

2. A small dolly and a bicycle hub under the flyer acted as a set of wheels.

3. A wooden bench was used to support the heavy wings before flight.

4. They used a shovel to bury the rail in the sand and to dig an anchor.

5. A battery provided the spark that was needed to start the engine.

6. __ A small can containing nails and a hammer were used for making minor repairs.

Bonus! Find and circle Wilbur's footprints and the outline of the flyer’s right wing in the 

sand.

 

 

 

 

 
14

A Moment Carved in Time

Visit the December 17, 1903 Sculpture at the base of the hill and use the signs 

to find the following answers: 

1. What is the name of the sculptor? 

2. Who donated the sculpture to the National Park Service? 

3. What are the names of the five men who witnessed the first flight?

 

 

4. What profession did three of the witnesses share? 

Bonus! Get a new perspective of the world and what the Wright brothers

accomplished – pose with Wilbur or Orville. Imagine the thrill of being the first to fly! 

Describe your feelings in three words.

________________ __________________ _________________
15

Wright Brothers National Memorial

As a Junior Flight Ranger, I promise to share my 

Junior Flight Ranger Pledge

experiences here with others.

 I also promise to continue to explore, learn about, 

and protect all National Parks.

This award certifies the recipient as an official Wright Brothers National Memorial Junior Flight Ranger.

Junior Ranger Name

Awarded by:

NPS Official Signature