1970s Kitty Hawk Kites Hang Gliding Postcard – Jockey’s Ridge, Nags Head, NC

Original color postcard depicting hang gliding at Jockey’s Ridge, Nags Head, North Carolina, produced by Mid-Century postcard publisher McGrew Color Graphics (card no. 471025). The front image shows a pilot in flight over the sand dunes with a Rogallo-style hang glider, accompanied by an inset view of Kitty Hawk Kites and the Rogallo Tower, a notable Outer Banks landmark.

The reverse includes printed text identifying Jockey’s Ridge as the highest active sand dune on the East Coast and promoting Kitty Hawk Kites, known as “the shop where flight begins” and home of the First Flight School. The card is postmarked September 1979 from Norfolk, Virginia, and franked with a 15¢ U.S. flag definitive stamp (Scott #1776, issued 1978). Addressed to Alliston, Ontario, Canada.

This postcard documents the growth of recreational hang gliding in the 1970s at Kitty Hawk Kites, a central institution in American sport aviation history. Its inclusion of the Rogallo Tower connects it to Francis Rogallo, NASA engineer and inventor of the flexible wing design that influenced modern hang gliders. For aviation historians, Outer Banks collectors, and ephemera archivists, this card provides both visual and textual evidence of the popularization of hang gliding in the United States during the late 20th century.