National Aviation Day is supposedly August 19th, because that’s Orville Wright’s birthday, but I submit that today is the real Aviation Day.
One hundred five years ago today — December 17, 1903 — the Wright flyer made its first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.* Up until that day, August 19th was destined only to be National Bicycle Day.
In honor of Aviation Day, take a second to say a special prayer for the passengers and crew of an aircraft you see flying overhead. Or maybe listen to “Jet Airliner” or “Leaving on a Jet Plane” or something by the Jefferson Airplane. 😉
And for those interested, today also qualifies for another installment of our “This Day in Space History” series. Five years ago today, UHF Follow-On Flight 11 became the first U.S. military payload to be launched by a Russian-designed rocket engine. Its Atlas-3B booster used a Russian RD-180 engine to launch the spacecraft.
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*Where, if all goes well and the money holds out, we will vacation this summer.
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