Working with archival sources, newspapers, patent records, and personal accounts, Tom Parramore recounts North Carolina's significant role in the early history of aviation. Beginning well before the Wright brothers' first powered flight at Kill Devil Hill in 1903, North Carolinians labored at the cutting edge of aviation technology from the late 1800s through World War I. First to Fly tells a remarkable story, filled with dreamers, inventors, and pioneering pilots.