First flight leads to so much more

Look to the skies during National Aviation Week, is held every year around August 19, Orville Wright’s birthday. This year, National Aviation Week is Sunday, August 16 – Saturday, August 22.

This week celebrates the Wright brothers, who are credited with flying the first airplane in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on December 17, 1903. While it was only a 12-second flight and was only off the ground for about 120-feet, this flight was the first credited with recognizable and practical aircraft controls from which fixed wing flight developed.

Orville Wright’s birthday is the reason that National Aviation Week is celebrated during August. Orville was the older of the two brothers (Wilbur was born in April) who developed powered flight, although they weren’t the first to consider flight. Leonardo da Vinci had lots of ideas about flying and there were several ways to take to the skies before the first airplane. National Aviation Day, August 19, became official after a proclamation from President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1949, nine years before Orville’s death.

Flying is pretty popular in August. National Ride the Wind Day, August 23. Honors the 1977 flight of the Gossamer Condor 2, which is known for flying “the first figure-eight course specified by the Royal Aeronautical Society at Minter Field in Shafter, California. Slowly cruising at only 11 mph, it traveled a distance of 2,172 meters,” according to www.nationaldaycalendar.com. This is a human-powered aircraft, with similarities to the gliders that were first developed in 1853. Hot air balloons, which have existed since 1783, and blimps, which were developed in 1852, first got people off the ground, but it wasn’t until the beginning of the last century that man started to have real control. In the second half of the century, not only was air travel popular, but space travel was developed as well.

All of this was very important to our social growth, but it was also important for the American military. National Airborne Day, August 16, is when the first official Army parachute jump took place in Ft. Benning, Georgia in 1940. This verified that ground troops could be moved in the air, not just on foot or over land in vehicles. Thanks to the early development of the airplane at Kitty Hawk, it was possible to have airborne divisions in the Army during World War I, although they were not used much until World War II.

National Airborne Day is a newer observance, but it has been around since President George W. Bush made a proclamation on August 14, 2002. Seven years later, on August 3, 2009, it was recognized as Senate Resolution 235.