First Flight Ship to Shore
Historical highway marker KV-1 · Norfolk
On 14 November, 1910, Eugene Ely in a Curtiss built "Hudson Flyer," utilizing a specially constructed platform with an uptilt at the end, took off from the cruiser Birmingham anchored off Fort Monroe and landed at Willoughby Spit, 2 1/2 miles distant, thus completing the first flight from ship to shore and the first flight to utilize the "Ski Jump" deck. This was the birth of Naval aviation.
Erected by the Virginia Aeronautical Historical Society, 1982