Drop 01 // Six historic flights · Six original print worldsFree shipping >$75 · First Flight Kit: $66, save $8 vs $74 separately · Dec 10 / Dec 16 cutoffs
Departure 1903 // Print archive

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First Flight Kit: $66, save $8 vs $74 separately

Order by Dec 10 for Dec 17 (First Flight Anniversary)

Order by Dec 16 for Dec 24 (Holiday Cutoff)

The holiday archive / 1903 to 1961

Departure 1903 Gift Guide

A flight story can leave the archive on heavyweight cotton, on a work jacket, or on a sheet of archival paper.

Complete the kit.

Collected by flight

Gifts from the archive.

23 pieces
Ch. 01 // Woodcut 1903$32.00
Kill Devil Hills unstructured cap in khaki, Departure 1903Woodcut 1903, original artwork detail

Kill Devil Hills Unstructured Cap

1903 Wright Flyer I · The dunes at Kill Devil Hills. Not the village of Kitty Hawk.The flights were on the dunes. Not in the village. In 1903 the nearest town was Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. That is where the mail went, and where the weather station sat. The camp, the glider hill, and the 17 December rail were south of it, on the sand hills called Kill Devil Hills. The town of that name did not exist yet. It was chartered on 6 March 1953. Gliders left the face of Big Kill Devil Hill. Powered flights left flat ground at the base of it. The National Park Service still marks the four landing points there, not on the Kitty Hawk village green. Unstructured dad cap. Place name as type. No monument, no arrowhead, no airplane.The storyEveryone says Kitty Hawk.The telegram went to Kitty Hawk. The Weather Bureau station was at Kitty Hawk. William Tate's letter that brought two Dayton bicycle men to the Outer Banks was written from Kitty Hawk. Wilbur and Orville used the name because it was the town. In 1903 it was the place you could point to on a map.The machine did not leave the ground in the village.The dunes south of Kitty Hawk were already called the Kill Devil Hills. Big Kill Devil Hill stood about a hundred feet of shifting sand. From 1900 through 1902 the brothers hauled gliders up that face and rode them down. Wing-warping. A forward elevator. Then a rudder that they learned, in October 1902, had to move. The hill taught them to fly. The National Park Service still says so. Gliders took off from the Kill Devil Hills. The 1932 granite shaft stands on that dune, now a stabilized 90-foot hill.Powered flight was a different geometry. The 1903 machine was too heavy to shove off a slope. They laid a rail on the flat beside their camp, at the base of the big hill, and ran four flights from that line on 17 December. Orville 120 feet. Wilbur 175. Orville 200. Wilbur 852. The stones that mark those ends sit in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. The First Flight Boulder marks the start. The address of Wright Brothers National Memorial is Kill Devil Hills, not Kitty Hawk.The town itself is late. Kill Devil Hills received a municipal charter from the North Carolina General Assembly on 6 March 1953, fifty years after the flights. Until then there was no incorporated town on that sand. Kitty Hawk was the nearest settlement, about four miles north. That is why the world learned the wrong name and kept it. The brothers were not wrong to write Kitty Hawk on a letter. The caption is wrong when it puts the rail in the village.This cap is for the person who will correct that caption once, quietly, and then stop talking.The art is the place name. Kill Devil Hills. Unstructured crown, no snap of a mascot, no outline of the pylon, no National Park Service arrowhead. The monument is a monument. It is not a logo. The park is a park. It is not a brand partner. The fact is geographic. The flights were on the dunes at Kill Devil Hills.Wear it in Kitty Hawk if you want. The village is still there, still north, still the place the mail went. The sand you want is south.Print-on-demand. Typical production 2–7 business days, then carrier transit. Shipping · Returns.Sources: National Park Service, Wright Brothers National Memorial; Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum; Town of Kill Devil Hills.

Ch. 01 // Woodcut 1903$48.00
Three-Axis long-sleeve tee in ivory, Departure 1903Woodcut 1903, original artwork detail

Three-Axis Long-Sleeve Tee

1903 Wright Flyer I · The hard part was not the engine. It was keeping a machine steady in air that moved. Between 1900 and 1902 on the Kill Devil Hills dunes, Wilbur and Orville worked out wing-warping, a forward elevator, and a movable rear rudder so the craft could be steered in three axes instead of hoping the wind would be kind. The National Park Service still teaches that lesson from those hills. The chest is the control idea, not a portrait. Long sleeve tee, forty-eight dollars.

Ch. 01 // Woodcut 1903$42.00
The Engine tee in ivory, Charlie Taylor, Departure 1903Woodcut 1903, original artwork detail

The Engine Tee

1903 Wright Flyer I · Charlie Taylor built the first airplane engine in the Wright bicycle shop in Dayton. In about six weeks he finished an aluminum-block four-cylinder that weighed roughly 180 pounds and made about twelve horsepower, enough for the 1903 machine on the Outer Banks. He was not a famous pilot and he was not on the dunes for the December flights; the shop work still belongs in the story. The chest is the engine. Heavyweight tee, forty-two dollars.

Ch. 02 // Risograph 1911$68.00
First Trap hoodie in white, 18 January 1911, Departure 1903Risograph 1911, original artwork detail

First Trap Hoodie

1911 Curtiss Model D Pusher · The first arrested landing was not a Navy exercise. On 18 January 1911, a civilian named Eugene Ely flew a Curtiss pusher onto a wooden platform over the stern of USS Pennsylvania at anchor in San Francisco Bay. Hooks on the gear caught ropes weighted with sandbags; he was aboard at 11:01 and back in the air before noon. Ely was not a naval aviator, and this collection is not a recruiting shirt. The chest is the date of the first trap. Hoodie, sixty-eight dollars.

Ch. 03 // Art Deco 1927$42.00
33 Hours tee in ivory, 21 May 1927, Departure 1903Art Deco 1927, original artwork detail

33 Hours Tee

Ryan NYP (Spirit of St. Louis) · The first solo nonstop Atlantic crossing took thirty-three hours and thirty minutes. Charles Lindbergh left Roosevelt Field on Long Island on the morning of 20 May 1927 and landed at Le Bourget, near Paris, the next evening. The National Air and Space Museum keeps the Ryan NYP and records the distance as 3,610 miles. His name is here because that is how you tell the story. The chest only carries the duration and the date. Heavyweight tee, forty-two dollars.

Ch. 04 // 6-Thread Patch 1932$48.00
15 Hours long-sleeve tee in ivory, 21 May 1932, Departure 19036-Thread Patch 1932, original artwork detail

15 Hours Long-Sleeve Tee

Lockheed Vega 5B · Five years to the day after the New York-Paris solo, Amelia Earhart left Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, in a Lockheed Vega and put it down about fifteen hours later in a farmer's field at Culmore, near Londonderry. The National Air and Space Museum calls that the first solo Atlantic crossing by a woman, and the second by anyone. The museum is careful with the hour, so this garment is too: about fifteen hours, not a tighter number we do not have. Her name is in the sentences. The chest is the duration and the date. Long sleeve, forty-eight dollars.

Ch. 05 // Screen Print 1953$68.00
Mach 1 hoodie in white, 18 May 1953, Departure 1903Screen Print 1953, original artwork detail

Mach 1 Hoodie

Canadair Sabre Mk 3 (F-86) · On 18 May 1953 Jacqueline Cochran became the first woman to fly faster than sound. The National Air and Space Museum says she did it in a borrowed Canadair F-86, because the military jets other people were using were not available to a civilian woman. At her death in 1980 the museum records that she held more speed, altitude, and distance records than any other pilot. Chuck Yeager coached her; this is not his hoodie. Her name stays in the story. The chest is MACH 1 and the date. Hoodie, sixty-eight dollars.

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