The Winds of Kitty Hawk is a 1978 American made-for-television biographical film directed by E. W. Swackhamer about the Wright brothers and their invention of the first successful powered heavier-than-air flying machine, the Wright Flyer.The Winds of Kitty Hawk; kinotv.com The film was broadcast on December 17, 1978, the 75th anniversary of the 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.
Premise The film presents the brothers' lives in dramatic vignettes sometimes historically rearranged.
At the start of the 20th century, bicycle mechanics Wilbur and Orville Wright, begin tinkering with gliders on the windy sand dunes of Kitty Hawk. Three years and dozens of crashes later, the Wright brothers solve the technical problems that had stumped the best engineers in the world, and succeed in making the first successful powered flight. Ironically, their success marks only the beginning and not the end of their struggle.Panorama newspaper Gibraltar Broadcasting Corporation TV Highlights; 21/03/1988; Page 18
The film makes a disclaimer message at the beginning stating that dramatic license had been taken but that for the most part their story is told chronologically.
Home media In 2012, the film became available on DVD from MGM Limited Edition.The Winds of Kitty Hawk DVD release May 2012; Oldies.com
Cast Michael Moriarty as Wilbur Wright David Huffman as Orville Wright Tom Bower as William Tate Robin Gammell as H.A. Toulmin Scott Hylands as Glenn Curtiss John Randolph as Alexander Graham Bell Kathryn Walker as Katharine Wright Eugene Roche as Bishop Milton Wright John Hoyt - Professor Samuel Langley Joseph Bernard - Mayor of New York, George B. McClellan Jr. Lew Brown - Harlan Mumford (banker) Carole Tru Foster - Agnes Osborne Dabbs Greer - Ace Hutchin Mo Malone - Elizabeth Mayfield Robert Casper - Man Tom Lawrence - Doctor Ross Durfee - William Howard Taft Charles Macaulay - 2nd General Frank Farmer - Mr. Newell Steffen Zacharias - Fisherman Laurence Haddon - 1st General Ari Zeltzer - Tom Tate Vaughn Armstrong - Reporter Marie Todd - Gerald Berns - Reporter
See also Wright Flyer The Wright Brothers (1971 film)
References
External links The Winds of Kitty Hawk at IMDb.com allmovie/synopsis; The Winds of Kitty Hawk Winds of Kitty Hawk; Aveleyman Sample of Charles Bernstein's score to the film(Period Orchestral - 1904 flight) and others