The Wright Brothers Day event, which the organization hosts annually in partnership with the National Park Service, will take place at the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, on Sunday. It will feature a flyover, band concert, and wreath-laying ceremony “by the descendants of the Wrights and witnesses to the first flight.” The celebration will also include speakers from the Beech family, American Bonanza Society, and National Park Service. The event, which offers free admission, is scheduled to run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST.

The society will also honor Walter and Olive Ann Beech as part of the December 17 celebration. The couple co-founded the Beech Aircraft Company, later known as Beechcraft, in Wichita, Kansas, in 1932. They will be inducted into the Dr. Paul E. Garber First Flight Shrine, which honors “great accomplishments in the history of aviation,” and a portrait of them unveiled and presented during the festivities.

• READ MORE: First Flight Society Selects 2023 Honorees

Chartered in 1927, the First Flight Society is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. “We tell the story of the Wright brothers through community events, education, and the commemoration of the world’s very first powered flight, in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina,” the organization said.

Wilbur and Orville Wright’s airplane flew for the first time in 1903, in Kitty Hawk. With Orville at the controls, the initial flight lasted 12 seconds. They flew four times that day, marking the beginning of powered, controlled, heavier-than-air flight.

More information about the First Flight Society and Wright Brothers Day event is available here.

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The Honorary Membership program was launched in 2020 to give public appreciation to those who have achieved national recognition in aviation.

About the Honorees

“The First Flight Society is proud to honor both Mack Rutherford and Erik Lindbergh with lifetime honorary memberships,” said Mike Fonseca, president of the First Flight Society. “They are both great individuals who are currently influencing the field of aviation.”

Mack Rutherford

In 2022 Rutherford, raised in Belgium, became the youngest to fly solo around the world using a microlight aircraft. Rutherford launched his epic journey from Belgium in March. The trip took five months and had him traveling through the airspace of 52 countries. Epic flights run in the family; Mack’s older sister Zara Rutherford made a similar journey in 2021 at the age of 19 in a Shark Aero UL. She was also named a First Flight Society Honorary Lifetime Member.

Erik Lindbergh

Lindbergh was literally born into an aviation family. The grandson of Charles Lindbergh, who in 1927 became the first pilot to successfully fly across the Atlantic, the younger Lindbergh has made a name for himself as an aviator, adventurer, artist, and entrepreneur. In 2002 on the 75th anniversary of his grandfather’s flight, he flew a Lancair Columbia 300 from New York to Paris.

He is also an accomplished artist, often using the natural curves of wood in sculpture. He is the co-founder and executive chairman of VerdeGo Aero, a company dedicated to creating powertrain systems and engineering services for the electric aircraft industry. In addition, he is the co-host of The Lindberghs podcast and serves as the chairman of the board of the Lindbergh Foundation. He is also on the board of trustees of the XPrize Foundation, an organization that encourages public competitions that feature technological developments designed to benefit humanity.

This year marks the 120th anniversary of the Wright brothers’ aviation achievement. Each year the FFS honors them on December 17, the date in 1923 of the historic first flight. This year’s honorees have the chance to attend the December 17 luncheon in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

The Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, was created in part by the efforts of a group of local businessmen known as the Kill Devil Hills Memorial Association, a group that later became the First Flight Society. Today, the FFS is a partner with the National Park Service, which oversees the Wright Brothers National Memorial. The FFS celebrates the anniversary of the first powered flight with the special lunch that honors an inductee into the Paul E. Garber First Flight Society Shrine. This year’s honorees are Walter and Olive Beech, the founders of Beechcraft.

More information can be found here.

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This is a good time for pilots and others to reflect on the challenges the Wrights and other aviation pioneers faced during the early days of powered flight and how far flying has advanced since then.

• READ MORE: Eileen Collins To Be Awarded Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy

This is also the time of year when the First Flight Society inducts its latest honoree into the Paul E. Garber First Flight Shrine at the Wright Brothers National Memorial. This year’s honoree is General Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., the first African-American general in the United States Air Force.

A West Point graduate, Davis, went on to command the famous Tuskegee Airmen during World War II. He flew a number of aircraft during his long career including the P-51 Mustang, P-47 Thunderbolt, and F-86 Sabre. He will be inducted into the Paul E. Garber First Flight Shrine at Wright Brothers National Memorial on December 17.

The Society also is naming four new honorary members: record holder Zara Rutherford, military pilot Nicole Malachowski, aircraft collector Jerry Yagen and artist Gregory Kavalec.

Earlier this year 19-year-old Rutherford became the youngest woman to fly around the world and the first to circumnavigate the earth in an ultralight aircraft. The trip began in Kortrijk, Belgium, in August 2021, and ended there in January 2022.

Nicole Malachowski was the first woman selected as a member of  U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds demonstration team. She went on to command the Commander of the 333rd Fighter Squadron, where she trained students to fly the F-15E fighter. She is a retired Air Force colonel.

Gerald “Jerry” Yagen founded the Military Aviation Museum in Pungo, Virginia, Centura College and the Aviation Institute of Maintenance schools. His museum is home to one of the world’s largest collections of vintage military aircraft that fly regularly.

The artist Gregory Kavalec created many of the paintings In the First Flight Society’s Paul E Garber Shrine. His latest work will be unveiled on December 17 at Wright Brothers National Memorial.

Previous honorary members include General Charles McGee, Colonel Gail Halvorsen, Patty Wagstaff, Rob Holland, and Sean D Tucker.

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