August 19th Is National Aviation Day, And In Commemoration Of Orville Wright’s Birthday It Seems Okay To Get A Little Nostalgic

Where does this love of flight come from? When we fly, do we feel power, serenity, thrill, or is it just plain fun? Is it nothing more than a means to an end, a job to produce income? Or, is the aspiration to fly the culmination of a quest? Flight may mean some or all of these things, but for many of us who have extended our learned knowledge into mechanical skills that allow us to fly, it’s magic.

 Igor Sikorsky, famed aviator and aircraft designer, once said, “Aeronautics was neither an industry nor a science. It was a miracle.”

The sky is never ending. The sky has no borders or limits. It is timeless. When you fly, you share this endless ocean of air with all who have been there before you. Is this where the love of flight comes from? Are we being called to the sky by those who have traversed it before us?

Wilbur Wright said, “The desire to fly is handed down to us by our ancestors who, in their grueling travels across the trackless lands in prehistoric times, looked enviously on the birds soaring freely through space, at full speed, above all obstacles, on the infinite highway of the air.”

An aviator is always learning. Each time you take flight it is the same, yet different. A new sight, a new texture to the sky, a gust of air or a slight motion at just the right time makes this flight a new adventure. Flying, terribly unforgiving of carelessness, requires relaxed concentration seasoned with a touch of trepidation. The apprehension, restrained by trained skill, is transformed into the exhilaration that compels explorers forward. Excitement conceals itself in the routine of a normal flight, but it is always there. Every aviator feels it.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh wrote in 1935, “Travelers are always discoverers, especially those who travel by air. There are no signposts in the air to show a man has passed that way before. There are no channels marked. The flier breaks each second into new uncharted seas.”

Where does the love of flight come from? It comes from every second you are supported by air.

How does one begin to pursue the dream of flight?  What makes the dream come true? Captain Eddie Rickenbacker said, “Aviation is the proof, that given the will, we have the capacity to achieve the impossible.”

Henri Mignet, renowned French aviator and writer, wrote in 1934: “To fly! To live as airman live! Like them to ride the skyways from horizon to horizon, across rivers and forests! To free oneself of the petty disputes of everyday life, to feel the blood renewed in one’s veins. Ah! That is life…life is finer and simpler. My will is freer. I appreciate everything more, sunlight and shade, work, and my friends. The sky is vast. I breathe deep gulps of the fine clear air of the heights. I feel myself to have achieved a higher state of physical strength and a clearer brain. I am living in a third dimension.”

You have got admit, Henri did have a way with words!

(Images from file)

FMI: National Air and Space Museum Library