Overview

The Winds of Kitty Hawk is a 1978 made-for-television film directed by E. W. Swackhamer about the Wright brothers and their invention of the first successful powered heavier-than-air flying machine. It's a tribute to the brothers and was broadcast on December 17, 1978, the 75th anniversary of their famous 1903 first aeroplane flight. It is one of several made-for-television films about historical people in aviation produced in the 1970s, including The Amazing Howard Hughes, Amelia Earhart and The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case. The film presents the brothers' lives in dramatic vignettes sometimes historically rearranged. The film makes a claimer at the beginning stating that dramatic license being taken but for the most part their story is told chronologically. In 2012 the film became available on DVD from MGM Limitied Edition.