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    Home Kill Devil Hills First Flight High Students Build Airplane at Wright Brothers Memorial

    First Flight High Students Build Airplane at Wright Brothers Memorial

    By Kip Tabb
    June 1, 2026

    Give or take a few months, 123 years ago Wilbur and Orville Wright built an airplane at what was, at that time Kitty Hawk. On December 17, 1903 that airplane took to the sky in the first controlled flight of a heavier than air aircraft.

    Where they accomplished that remarkable feat is now Kill Devil Hills. The name has changed, but the location is the same, and that singular place where that flight took place is now the Wright Brothers Memorial.

    Since they built that first aircraft over the summer and fall of 1903, no one else has constructed an airplane on the grounds of the Wright Brothers Memorial.

    Or they haven’t until now.

    This spring, two and a half years after their project began, a Van’s Aircraft RV-12iS took flight from First Flight Airfield in Kill Devil Hills. Built by the students of the First Flight High School aviation lab, the aircraft left the ground at 9:15 a.m. under near perfect conditions.

    First Flight High School RV12 Build Takeoff

    The opportunity to build an aircraft on the grounds of the Wright Brothers Memorial was created by a remarkable cooperative effort between the National Park Service and First Flight High School. The school is just to the south of the Memorial.

    Dave Hallac, Superintendent of the NPS Outer Banks Group, which includes the Wright Brothers Memorial, has said on several occasions that when Dare County Schools, the local school district, came to him with the idea, he knew the Park Service had to be involved.

    Back in 2023 when the program was announced to the public, Superintendent Hallac remarked, “Rarely do we get the chance to tangibly explore the connection between modern flight and the achievements of the Wright brothers,” he said.

    And what the Park Service did to help the program along was extraordinary.

    On the south end of the grounds, there was an equipment shed—really little more than a lean-to used to house lawn mowers and other equipment for maintenance of the grounds. The Outer Banks Group maintenance crew got to work and, within two months, were able to create a waterproof building capable of housing a small aircraft.

    The program would not have been successful without the right instructor, and Dare County Schools hit a home run when they found retired Rear Admiral Joey Tynch to work with the kids.

    First Flight High School RV12 Build Students and Teacher

    Tynch, with over 20 years flying helicopters for the Navy and a private pilot’s license, was the perfect fit, and the kids responded, working days, nights and weekends to build an airplane.

    “These are the hardest working young men and women you will ever see,” Tynch said in remarks at the first flight of the airplane.

    As proud as Tynch may have been of the hard work his students put into the project, he was equally as proud of how well so many of his graduates are doing. In remarks at the first flight, he pointed to students pursuing careers in aircraft maintenance, flight, engineering, and the military.

    He seemed particularly proud of a young lady who, he said, ““came from a crafting background, so anything you see electronically working on that airplane, the lights, the navigation suite, the comm gear,” she was directly involved.

    Originally planned to be a two year project, delays in getting some of the parts as scheduled pushed the project back about six months. That, and the complexity of assembling an aircraft from scratch, played a part in the delay. The students worked with mentors from the community, but even with the help of experienced advisors, there was a lot of detail work that allowed zero tolerance for mistakes.

    First Flight High School RV12 Build Steve Basnight

    A second aircraft will be built. The plans call for the airplane to be sold, with the proceeds from the sale applied to purchasing a second airplane.

    And the Park Service will be right there with the students, Hallac assured a local paper, saying, “We’re going to support this program again, and we’re proud to do it.”