It’s National Aviation Day, so do your part and celebrate!
National Aviation Day was established in 1939 through a proclamation from President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The proclamation was codified (USC 36:I:A:1:118), and it allows the sitting U.S. president to recognize August 19 as National Aviation Day each year, if so desired.
The date was selected because it is the birthday of Orville Wright, who, with his brother Wilbur, created the first powered aircraft able to sustain flight. On December 17, 1903, the Wright Flyer launched from a wooden track on a sand dune at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, and flew for 12 seconds—and changed the world.
National Aviation Day gives us a chance to look back and see how far it has come.
In the 36 years between Kitty Hawk and the creation of National Aviation Day, aviation technology advanced from aircraft that resembled glorified box kites built from spruce, cloth, and wire and powered by engines that by today’s standards are barely strong enough to power a lawn mower to metal aircraft designed with enclosed cockpits and complex curves.
Today we have designs made from composite materials that nature never knew existed and avionics so slick they look like something Captain Proton had in his 1940s rocket ship.
Museums and Airports
You don’t have to be a pilot or mechanic to celebrate. You may want to pay a visit to your local airport to watch aircraft in operation.
If you live near a nontowered general aviation (GA) airport and have always wanted to fly, perhaps it’s time you visited the local flight school and inquired about flight lessons or took a discovery flight. You will be paired up with a flight instructor, and for a few minutes you will enjoy the freedom that comes from slipping the surly bonds of earth.
If you have access to an airplane, go out and fly. Do some takeoffs and landings, maybe some turns around a point or chandelles to make the Wright brothers proud.
If you live near an aviation museum, spend a few hours looking at the machines that were once state-of-the-art technology and today look more like works of art, especially the 1930s designs with their round engines and art-deco wheel pants.
Family-Friendly Aviation Movies
When it comes to family-friendly aviation movies, Disney has it covered.
Pixar’s Planes and Planes: Fire & Rescue feature anthropomorphized aircraft, including a stylized Air Tractor AT-502 as the main character, Dusty, living in Propwash Junction. He dreams of being in an air race, but he is afraid of heights. He gets over it with the help of friends and a mentor. The sequel finds Dusty mixing it up with fire and rescue aircraft as he is recruited to battle fires.
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Disney went all out with these. Pay attention to the background terrain in Planes—the hill looks like a B-17 in profile.
The Rocketeer, a 1991 Disney film set in 1938 Hollywood, California, takes you back to the golden age of aviation. The plot focuses on an experimental rocket pack that American gangsters and Nazis are trying to get their hands on. It’s hidden at a local airport where Cliff Secord, a crop duster and wannabe air race pilot, finds it.
The rocket pack belongs to Howard Hughes (yes, that Howard Hughes), and, of course, there is a Hollywood starlet (Secord’s girlfriend Jenny, who is trying to break into the movies) tangled up in the tale. The aviation scenes are glorious, especially the arrival of a zeppelin over the Griffith Observatory.
If airships and adventure turn your prop, Pixar’s Up is a good choice. It begins in the 1930s with 10-year-old Carl Frederiscksen watching newsreels in the movie theater that show the adventures of Charles Muntz, an adventurer and zeppelin pilot.
Muntz finds the skeleton of a giant bird thought to be extinct but is greeted with derision as people call it a fake. Muntz vows to go to South America and capture one of the birds to prove it is real.
Meanwhile, Carl meets a girl named Ellie who shares his love of lighter-than-air aviation and adventure. The two grow up, marry, and plan a trip to South America like their hero, Muntz. But life gets in the way as Carl becomes a balloon salesman at the zoo.
One day Carl finds himself a widower and losing his home to development rather than letting it be destroyed. Carl attaches thousands of helium balloons to it and flies it away.
Unfortunately, at that moment, a Wilderness Explorer scout (Russell) happened to be on the porch. They end up in South America together, where they find Muntz, along with a pack of talking dogs and a really large bird.
Reach the Next Generation
If you have an interest in helping the next generation of pilots, aviation engineers, and technicians discover aviation, reach out to your local schools and see if you can make a donation to support their STEM programs.
You might even let yourself get roped into making an age-appropriate, aviation-related presentation to encourage children to explore careers in aerospace. You can’t go wrong with paper-airplane contests and kite building.
Make a Statement
Go on social media and make a pro-aviation statement, post a photo, or share a story. Be sure to use hashtags like #NationalAviationDay.
Go With a Fashion Statement
To my fellow pilots and aviation enthusiasts: This is one of the few days you can get away with wearing your aviation-enhanced clothes away from the airport. So feel free to throw on that Hawaiian shirt with the World War II fighter planes or the “REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT” T-shirt when you hit the gym.
