About Departure 1903

Departure 1903 exists because of a morning, not a mood.

On 17 December 1903, at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, Orville Wright left a 60-foot wooden rail at 10:35 a.m. The wind was about 27 miles an hour. The machine stayed up twelve seconds and covered about 120 feet. Powered. Heavier than air. Under control. That is the first successful flight of its kind. They flew three more times before a gust rolled the machine and ended the season. The fourth, Wilbur, ran 852 feet in 59 seconds.

The flights were on the dunes, not in the village of Kitty Hawk. Kitty Hawk was the nearest town and the mail point. Kill Devil Hills was not incorporated until 6 March 1953. The National Park Service still marks the flight line there.

1903 counts because 1902 already solved the harder problem. That autumn, on the same hills, the brothers flew a glider with complete three-axis control: a forward elevator for pitch, wing-warping for roll, a movable rear rudder for yaw. NASA Glenn still calls it the first aircraft with complete active control. A motor without that is a projectile. Control came first.

The engine was Charles E. Taylor's, built in six weeks in the Dayton bicycle shop after ten makers declined. About 12 horsepower. Taylor stayed behind to mind the store.

We print type. Not costume. The house mark is stacked DEPARTURE over 1903, navy on bone, wide tracking, the A without a crossbar. No aircraft. No roundel. No star-and-bar. 1903 is the year of that morning. The word is the English of what the rail did.

Later pieces stay in that register. Eugene B. Ely, a civilian, landing a Curtiss pusher on a cruiser in San Francisco Bay, 18 January 1911. Oscar F. Perdomo of El Paso, five aerial victories in one mission, 13 August 1945. Arthur Van Haren Jr. of Superior, Arizona: F6F hours, then a law practice. Names, dates, places. Facts that sit in museums.

What we will not print: roundels, aircraft silhouettes used as logos, living persons, U.S. Navy / USAF / USMC / DoD marks, Blue Angels, Top Gun, NASA worm, Boeing or Lockheed logos, squadron patches, nose art, or Wright Brothers as a lockup. Historical names and numbers from the record are enough.

departure1903.com

Sources: National Park Service, Wright Brothers National Memorial; Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum; National Museum of the U.S. Air Force. SKU-level citations live with each garment.