The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1953-12-04
ACTIVITY GROWS AS PLANS
MOVE AHEAD FOR WRIGHT
CELEBRATION DEC. 14-17
Oid Buildings Reconstructed; Equipment Be-
ing Installed and Soon Newsmen Will Move
In; Drinkwater To Figure in 5Oth Anniver-
sary Celebration Activities.

Clicking teletype machines,
swishing helicopter blades, and the
'rone of airpIane engines will
break the usual winter silence of
the sandy beach at Kitty Hawk,
North Carolina, December ID, Is,
16 and II, as the nation celebrates
the golden anniversary of mans
first powered flight.
Modern bleachers, temporarily
erected to seat the thousands of
visitors who will travel to Kitty
Hawk to witness the celebration,
will jut into the curved silhouette
of the shifting sand dunes. The
newly reconstructed 1903 hangar
and living quarters of Orville and
Wilbur Wright will share the spot
light with the granite boulder that
has marked the take-off point of
the historic flight since 1928.
Voices of governors, senators,
congressman and "old-timer" fly
ers, and the sonic booms of let
planes flying faster than the speed
of sound, will fill the constant
winds that caused the Wright
Brothers to select Kitty Hawk as
their testing ground" An elabor-
ate public address system, blanket
ing the entire area around Kill
Devil Hill, will bring the voices of
the speakers and pilots to the ears
of everyone present.
Newsmen covering the four-day
event will welcome the teletype
machines, extra telephone lines,
typewrlters, and other press equip
ment that is being installed in the
Carolinian Hotel, new headquarters
for the celebration. A. w. Drink
water, famous telegrapher during
the early Wright flights at Kitty
Hawk, will be on hand to assist
newsmen in filing their stories.
Also present to help newsmen will
be personnel from the State News
Bureau, Raleigh, and Dare County
Tourist Bureau.
A fleet of new cars, chartered
buses, and a helicopter or two will
transport celebrities, officials and
newsmen between celebration
headquarters, the airport, and Kill
Devil Hills National Memorial. The
Civil Aeronautics Administration
will operate modern air-ground
control facilities at nearby Manteo
Airport to direct the many pri-
Vate planes that will use the three
33OO-foot runways. An extra sup
ply of 80 and 81 octane aviation
fuel will be stocked to service the
planes. Official meteorologists and
weather forecasters will be on
hand to provide p-to-the-minute
weather reports for pilots.
Food concession stands will be
located inside the memorial park
for those who will not be able to
attend the daily invitational lunch
cons at the Carolinian Hotel. Sew
eral restaurants and hotel dining
rooms along the beach will be open
during the celebration. Overnight
accommodations can be obtained by
writing to the Chamber of Com
merce, Mays Head, North Carolina.
The four-day celebration, which
will feature hundreds of military
and civilian planes, and re-enact
ment of the first flight, is jointly
sponsored by the Kill Devil Hills
Memorial Society, Air Force As
ISOLATION, National Park Service of
the Department of Interior, and
the North Carolina 50th Anniver-
sary of Powered Flight Commits
sion. Miles L. Clark, an oil execu-
tive of nearby Elizabeth City. is
chairman of the joint committee.