In case you didn’t know–and you probably didn’t–today is National Aviation Day.
Thank ol’ FDR for the holiday. Franklin D. Roosevelt established the first National Aviation Day on Aug. 19th, 1939.
Why Aug. 19th? That was Orville Wright’s birthday. If you don’t know who Orville Wright…well, your teacher wasn’t doing his or her job. Orville and his brother, Wilbur, made the first successful airplane flight on Dec. 17th, 1903. The brothers’ monoplane few for 2 min. and a length of 1,500 ft. Within two years, the brothers’ planes were hitting speeds of over 30 MPH and ranges of over 20 miles.
Consider that for a moment. Two minutes and 500 yards were milestones in aviation. Those are blips when compared to today’s popular drones. A Phantom 4 can easily breach 30 MPH and fly over a mile. And who knows how fast and far drones will go by decade’s end.
Looking at the Phantom 4 and Inspire 1, one can’t help but be impressed by how far aviation has come along. Pretty cool, eh?