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Aviation History

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Aviation-Themed Options for National Park Week

This National Park Week (Aug. 22-30) there is no better way to celebrate America’s “best idea” than by a visit to a National Park unit that celebrates America’s aviation heritage.

Celebrating National Aviation Day

Established in 1937 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to coincide with Orville Wright’s birthday (Aug. 19), National Aviation Day has become an enduring tribute to the pioneers, innovators and professionals who make flight possible. Each year, we commemorate this day by reflecting on aviation’s profound impact on our nation’s history and the promise of its future.

Making History Every Step of the Way

The history she made as a teenager influenced the moral arc of our nation. The history she continued to make as the first leader of the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation will help extend humanity’s reach throughout the solar system.

How Air Shows Propelled Aviation

After they first created a public sensation, with aerobatic barnstorming performers, air shows today continue to showcase aviation’s great leaps forward. Throughout the nation air show attractions run the gamut from modern military aircraft to old warbirds and bi-planes, radio-controlled aircraft, helicopters and drones with activities such as wing-walking and sky diving adding to the excitement.

A Pilot of Many Firsts: Amelia Earhart’s Enduring Legacy

At age 20, while serving as a Red Cross nurse’s aide in Toronto in 1917, Amelia Mary Earhart’s interest in flight was spurred by stories she heard from World War I pilots. Three years later in Los Angeles she paid $10 (equivalent to $160 today) to take a brief flight in an airplane piloted by air racer Frank Hawks.

America’s Freedom Plane Takes Flight

The National Archive’s Freedom Plane took off from the Coast Guard Hangar at Reagan Washington National Airport on March 2 as part of America’s Freedom 250 celebration. Dubbed “Archive One,” the Freedom Plane will ferry national treasures -- together and through the air for the first time -- to eight U.S. cities where they will be on display in prominent museums free to the public. See our coverage and learn about this historic mission.

First Flight in America

George Washington and four future presidents witnessed our nation’s first aviation milestone in Philadelphia, 1793, when Jean-Pierre Blanchard, the French aeronaut and pioneer of gas balloon flight, took to the air in a hydrogen-filled balloon from the interior yard of the Walnut Street Prison.
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