Gibsonville Garden Railroad fence sign

Orville Wright made the first powered, sustained, controlled, heavier-than-air flight at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina on December 17, 1903. His first flight was 120 feet in 12 seconds at a height of only a few feet off the ground. 

The Wrights knew that they had more work to do before they could claim to have developed a practical flying machine. They continued their development work in a Dayton Ohio cow pasture in 1904 and 1905. By the fall of 1905, they had transformed the marginal success of 1903 into a practical airplane capable of traveling many miles through the air and remaining aloft for more than an hour at a time. 

They worried about being copied, though. Unwilling to publically unveil their creation without the protection of a patent and a signed sales contract, the brothers remained out of public view for the next two and a half years as they attempted to market their invention. By 1908 the Wright Brothers had secured contracts for the sale of airplanes to a French syndicate and the U.S. Army so they were ready to take to the air once again that spring. They returned to Kill Devil Hills with a rebuilt version of their 1905 airplane, now modified with upright seating and controls, and a second seat for a passenger.