National Aviation Day celebrates the myriad of amazing contributions, inventions, and developments leading to and resulting from human flight. On December 17, 1903 Wilbur and Orville Wright were able to launch their airplane and watch it fly for a momentous twelve seconds and a total distance of 120 feet. Though this may not seem remarkable in light of the extensive aviation industry that has since flourished, that brief but historic flight made all the innovations of modern day air travel and navigation possible. The Wright brothers constructed the airplane that undertook the flight by hand, with the successful design approximately four years of intensive research and trial and error in the making. National Aviation Day was established as such by presidential proclamation in 1939, which designated the anniversary of Orville Wright's birthday on this date in 1871 an annual holiday to mark the effort and dedication to the idea of human flight, without which the world as we know it would be a very different place.

Tradition
The possibility of flight has long fascinated human beings and continues to do so, as space exploration becomes a more vivid reality. Spend National Aviation Day focusing on the implications of defying gravity and the progress and evolution of flight, both in the exploratory and traveling capacities. Invite someone who works in the aviation industry, such as a pilot, mechanical engineer, astronaut or other NASA personnel, to speak at your child's school and introduce the idea of flight as an occupation and lifelong interest to the next generation. Urge people in any line of work or play to think about the significance of air travel on their lives, especially with regard to international relations and the ideal of the global community, and to consider where aerial exploration would be if not for the ambitious endeavors of countless intellectually and physically skilled people who have and continue to invest themselves into making the dream of flight a reality.

Facts
Wilbur Wright wasn't intentionally slighted by the designation of National Aviation Day on his brother's birthday; after all, it was Orville who actually piloted the Wright Flyer.