Happy National Aviation Day

On this date in 1871 Orville Wright was born to Bishop Milton and Susan Catharine Wright in the sleepy town of Dayton, Ohio. Orville and his brother Wilbur grew up in a family that, by all accounts, was loving and encouraged the intellectual curiosity which would eventually lead the pair achieving one of the most influential accomplishments of the 20^th century.

Orville went on to serve as one of the founding members of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and remained an active member for 28 years. He received the Daniel Guggenheim Medal for great achievements in aeronautics on April 8, 1930 and became a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1936. In 1939, President Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed Orville’s birthday as National Aviation Day, an observance meant to celebrate the history and development of aviation.

Orville passed away on January 30, 1948 having witnessed aviation’s transformation from what was considered a hobby for crackpots to a force which shaped nations and, to a large extent, determined the outcome of two world wars.