Kitty Hawk, North Carolina
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Kitty Hawk is a town in
Dare County, North Carolina Dare County is the easternmost county in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 36,915. Its county seat is Manteo. Dare County is included in the Kill Devil Hills, NC Micropolitan Statistical Area, which ...
, United States, located on Bodie Island within the state's
Outer Banks The Outer Banks (frequently abbreviated OBX) are a string of barrier islands and spits off the coast of North Carolina and southeastern Virginia, on the east coast of the United States. They line most of the North Carolina coastline, separatin ...
. The population was 3,708 at the 2020 United States census. It was established in the early 18th century as Chickahawk.


History

The name Kitty Hawk is derived from the native Algonquin Native American language word Chickahawk, meaning "a place to hunt geese". Kitty Hawk became world-famous after the
Wright brothers The Wright brothers, Orville Wright (August 19, 1871 – January 30, 1948) and Wilbur Wright (April 16, 1867 – May 30, 1912), were American aviation List of aviation pioneers, pioneers generally credited with inventing, building, and flyin ...
made the first controlled powered
airplane An airplane (American English), or aeroplane (Commonwealth English), informally plane, is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine, Propeller (aircraft), propeller, or rocket engine. Airplanes come in a vari ...
flights at
Kill Devil Hills Kill Devil Hills is a town in Dare County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 7,633 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is the most populous settlement in both Dare County and on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Th ...
, south of the town, on December 17, 1903. After the four flights in their ''
Wright Flyer The ''Wright Flyer'' (also known as the ''Kitty Hawk'', ''Flyer'' I or the 1903 ''Flyer'') made the first sustained flight by a manned heavier-than-air powered and controlled aircraft on December 17, 1903. Invented and flown by brothers Wrigh ...
'', the brothers walked back to Kitty Hawk. Here, they sent a telegram from the Weather Bureau office to their father informing him of their success. Kitty Hawk is usually credited as the site of the powered flights because it was the nearest named settlement at the time of the flight; the modern town of
Kill Devil Hills Kill Devil Hills is a town in Dare County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 7,633 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is the most populous settlement in both Dare County and on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Th ...
did not exist until 50 years after the flights. The Wrights chose the area because its frequent winds and soft sandy surfaces were suitable for their glider experiments, which they conducted over three years before they made the powered flights. The Old Currituck Sound Bridge was completed in 1930, which connected the mainland to the Outer Banks across Albemarle Sound, prompting the paving of a road between the two existing bridges (the other in Manteo) and connecting the Outer Banks to the outside world by road for the first time. The
aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and hangar facilities for supporting, arming, deploying and recovering carrier-based aircraft, shipborne aircraft. Typically it is the ...
USS ''Kitty Hawk'' (CV-63), the
B-2 Spirit The Northrop B-2 Spirit, also known as the Stealth Bomber, is an American Heavy bomber, heavy strategic bomber, featuring low-observable stealth aircraft, stealth technology designed to penetrator (aircraft), penetrate dense anti-aircraft war ...
stealth
bomber A bomber is a military combat aircraft that utilizes air-to-ground weaponry to drop bombs, launch aerial torpedo, torpedoes, or deploy air-launched cruise missiles. There are two major classifications of bomber: strategic and tactical. Strateg ...
AV-19 with an aircraft number of 93–1086, P-40D Kittyhawk fighter aircraft, the aircraft transport ship USS ''Kitty Hawk'' (AKV-1), and the
Apollo 14 Apollo 14 (January 31February 9, 1971) was the eighth crewed mission in the United States Apollo program, the third to Moon landing, land on the Moon, and the first to land in the Geology of the Moon#Highlands, lunar highlands. It was the las ...
command module have been named for the town, which incorporated in 1981. The Kitty Hawk Life-Saving Station was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
in 1984.


Geography

Kitty Hawk is located at at an
elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...
of
above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...
. According to the
United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...
, the town has a complete area of , of which is land and (0.579%) is water. According to the A. W. Kuchler U.S. potential natural vegetation types, Kitty Hawk, North Carolina would have a dominant vegetation type of
Live oak Live oak or evergreen oak is any of a number of oaks in several different sections of the genus ''Quercus'' that share the characteristic of evergreen foliage. These oaks are generally not more closely related to each other than they are to o ...
/Sea Oats Uniola paniculata (''90'') with a dominant vegetation form of Coastal
Prairie Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the ...
(''20''). Kitty Hawk is served by U.S. Route 158 and Highway 12, which parallel each other in the city. US 158 can be used to go west, while the barrier islands extend north and south.


Climate

According to the
Trewartha climate classification The Trewartha climate classification (TCC), or the Köppen–Trewartha climate classification (KTC), is a climate classification system first published by American geographer Glenn Thomas Trewartha in 1966. It is a modified version of the Köp ...
system, Kitty Hawk, North Carolina has a
humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a subtropical -temperate climate type, characterized by long and hot summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between ...
with hot and humid summers, cool winters and year-around precipitation (''Cfak''). Cfak climates are characterized by all months having an average mean temperature > 32.0 °F (> 0.0 °C), at least eight months with an average mean temperature ≥ 50.0 °F (≥ 10.0 °C), at least one month with an average mean temperature ≥ 71.6 °F (≥ 22.0 °C) and no significant precipitation difference between seasons. During the summer months in Kitty Hawk, a cooling afternoon
sea breeze A sea breeze or onshore breeze is a wind that blows in the afternoon from a large body of water toward or onto a landmass. By contrast, a land breeze or offshore breeze is a wind that blows in the night from a landmass toward or onto a large ...
is present on most days, but episodes of extreme heat and humidity can occur with
heat index The heat index (HI) is an index that combines air temperature and relative humidity, in shade (shadow), shaded areas, to posit a human-perceived equivalent temperature, as how hot it would feel if the humidity were some other value in the Shade (s ...
values ≥ 100 °F (≥ 38 °C). Kitty Hawk is prone to hurricane strikes, particularly during the
Atlantic hurricane season The Atlantic hurricane season is the period in a year, from June 1 through November 30, when Tropical cyclone, tropical or subtropical cyclones are most likely to form in the North Atlantic Ocean. These dates, adopted by convention ...
which extends from June 1 through November 30, sharply peaking from late August through September. During the winter months, episodes of cold and wind can occur with
wind chill Wind chill (popularly wind chill factor) is the sensation of cold produced by the wind for a given ambient air temperature on exposed skin as the air motion accelerates the rate of heat transfer from the body to the surrounding atmosphere. Its va ...
values < 10 °F (< -12 °C). The plant hardiness zone in Kitty Hawk is 8b with an average annual extreme minimum air temperature of . The average seasonal (Dec–Mar) snowfall total is < 2 inches (< 5 cm), and the average annual peak in
nor'easter A nor'easter (also northeaster; see below) is a large-scale extratropical cyclone in the western North Atlantic Ocean. The name derives from the direction of the winds that blow from the northeast. Typically, such storms originate as a low ...
activity is in February.


Demographics


2000 census

As of the
census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...
of 2000, there were 2,991 people, 1,265 households, and 866 families residing in the town. The
population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...
was . There were 2,618 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the town was 98.13%
White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
, 0.64%
African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
, 0.23% Native American, 0.27% Asian, 0.03%
Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...
, 0.20% from other races, and 0.50% from two or more races. 0.94% of the population were
Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...
or Latino of any race. There were 1,265 households, out of which 27.9% had children under the age of 18 years living with them, 58.7% were
married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...
living together, 7.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 31.5% were non-families. 23.8% of all tribes were made up of individuals, and 8.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.35 and the average family size was 2.79. In the town, the population was spread out, with 21.5% under the age of 18, 5.7% from 18 to 24, 31.6% from 25 to 44, 28.3% from 45 to 64, and 13.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41 years. For every 100 girls, there were 103.7 boys. For every 100 girls age 18 and over, there were 97.6 boys. The median income for a household in the town was $42,813, and the median income for a family was $48,676. Males had a median income of $31,250 versus $25,744 for females. The
per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...
for the town was $22,960. About 4.3% of families and 6.5% of the population were below the
poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...
, including 7.9% of people under age 18 and 4.6% of people age 65 or over.


2020 census

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 3,689 people, 1,532 households, and 1,073 families residing in the town.


Government

Federally, Kitty Hawk is part of
North Carolina's 3rd congressional district North Carolina's 3rd congressional district is located on the East Coast of the United States, Atlantic coast of North Carolina. It covers the Outer Banks and the counties adjacent to the Pamlico Sound. The district is currently represented by ...
, represented by Republican Greg Murphy since 2019.


Education

Dare County Schools operates public schools serving the area. Kitty Hawk Elementary School is in the city. The zoned secondary schools are First Flight Middle School and First Flight High School.
North Beaches Elementary Schools map
/ref> Prior to 2004 First Flight High zoned students were zoned to Manteo High School.
Entry at
NewsBank


Sister city

* Coulaines in
Pays de la Loire Pays de la Loire (; but can also mean 'Lower Loire') is one of the eighteen administrative regions of France, located on the country's Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. It was created in the 1950s to serve as a zone of influence for its capital an ...
,
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
, which is about north of
Le Mans Le Mans (; ) is a Communes of France, city in Northwestern France on the Sarthe (river), Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the Provinces of France, province of Maine (province), Maine, it is now the capital of ...
(signed in 2005)


References


External links

* {{authority control Towns in Dare County, North Carolina Towns in North Carolina Beaches of North Carolina Outer Banks Beaches of Dare County, North Carolina Populated coastal places in North Carolina