About This Stamp
In 2003, the U.S. Postal Service issued this souvenir sheet to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the first controlled, powered, sustained flight in a heavier-than-air flying machine.
From 1900 to 1902, Wilbur Wright (1867–1912) and his brother Orville (1871–1948) tested a series of gliders at Kill Devil Hills, a location near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, that was chosen primarily for its steady winds. At Kill Devil Hills on December 17, 1903, they successfully tested a flyer with a four-cylinder engine, thus achieving the first controlled, powered, sustained flight in a heavier-than-air flying machine. During the first flight the craft was only airborne for an estimated 12 seconds and traveled only 120 feet, but three even more successful flights followed later that day, the remarkable prelude to a century that would see the world forever changed by air travel.
The Wright Bros.™ Licensed by The Wright Family Fund. Represented by The Roger Richman Agency, Inc. Beverly Hills, CA.
Stamp Art Director
Phil Jordan
Phil Jordan grew up in New Bern, North Carolina, and attended East Carolina University. After Army service in Alaska, he graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with a degree in visual communications. He worked in advertising and in design at a trade association before joining Beveridge and Associates, Inc., where he provided art direction for corporate, institutional, and government design projects. A partner in the firm, he left after 18 years to establish his own design firm where he managed projects for USAir, NASA, McGraw-Hill, IBM, and Smithsonian Books, among others. He was Design Director of Air & Space/Smithsonian magazine for 15 years. His work appeared in numerous exhibitions and publications such as Graphis and Communications Arts. A past president of the Art Directors Club of Metropolitan Washington, he was an art director for the U.S. Postal Service from 1991 to 2014. A resident of Falls Church, Virginia, he is a retired glider pilot and a member of the Skyline Soaring Club.