Birthplace of Naval Aviation

On 14 Nov. 1910, off Old Point Comfort across the harbor from here, the U.S. Navy demonstrated that airplanes could be launched from ships. Flying a Curtiss biplane, Eugene Ely took off from a wooden ramp constructed atop the deck of the cruiser USS Birmingham. Aided by the five-degree slope of the ramp, a close-to-40-foot drop to the water, and an airplane engine that was powerful for the time, Ely gained enough speed to get the craft airborne and keep it aloft for the two-and-a-half-mile flight to Willoughby Spit. Ely's historic flight led to the founding of naval aviation in 1911.