In retrospect, moreover, the Wrights succeeded where others failed less because they were doing things right, than others were doing things wrong. In France, Germany and England, semi-governmental aeronautical societies committed to nationalist agendas and peopled by aristocrats bent on personal glory conducted conferences, competitions and seminars to promote flight. None of aviation's pioneers abroad took the simple, humble first step of gathering all the existing material on aeronautics and studying it carefully. The Wrights did, testament enough to their humility and their common sense. Kitty Hawk today is like most beach towns.
Gray houses wait on stilts for the next hurricane.
Concrete block condos, slowing corroding in the salt, dot the shoreline. Cheap hotels hug the one main road. There are drive-through liquor stores, surf shops with moldering boards, and everywhere souvenir shops. The beach is too crowded in the summer and likely too empty in the winter. Things are relaxed, settled, fixed.