Proclamation 6237—Wright Brothers Day, 1990

When Orville and Wilbur Wright's hand-crafted airplane lifted off the windswept beach near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on December 17, 1903, only a handful of mean and perhaps a few startled sea gulls witnessed the world's first controlled, manned flight in a heavier-than-air, mechanically propelled aircraft. Nevertheless, this brief bold flight changed the course of history. With the success of their daring experiment, Orville and Wilbur Wright ushered in the age of aviation.

From the time they experimented with airplane models and wind tunnels at their small workshop in Dayton, Ohio, until the end of their celebrated careers, the Wright brothers demonstrated qualities shared by all great pioneers and inventors. Eager to learn and determined to succeed, they engaged in hours of intense study and painstaking trial, calculation, and design. As individuals they were confident, methodical, and brilliantly intuitive engineers.

Shortly after the Wrights began their experiments, they found that the small amount of data previouslky collected by others was unreliable. Consequently, they conducted their own basic research, literally writing the book on fundamental aerodynamics. Eventually, the Wrights used their carefully acquired knowledge to build a machine so far ahead of its day that they even had to design and build their own motor, one that was both powerful and lightweight.

The Wright's diligent and enlightened approach to their work was the key to their success. Wilbur once remarked: "If a man is in too big a hurry to give up an error, he is liable to give up some truth with it, and in accepting the arguments of the other man, he is sure to get some error with it. . . . After I get a hold of a truth I hate to lose it again, and I like to sift all the truth out before I give up an error." Such intellectual openness and tenacity -- coupled with courage, creativity, and perserverance -- enabled the Wright brothers to defy both the skepticism of friends and the force of gravity as they launched the age of controlled human flight.

We live in a world transformed by the work of the Wright brothers, and in this age of sophisticated air and space travel, their first flight still stands as one of the most extraordinary achievements of the 20th century. With optimism and daring, restless ingenuity and hard work, Orville and Wilbur Wright broke the tethers binding man to Earth and joined the ranks of those great pioneers and inventory who have helped to make the United States a mighty and prosperous Nation. As we recall the Wrights' seminal contributions to aviation, each of us can take inspiration from their example.

The Congress, by a joint resolution approved December 17, 1963 (77 Stat. 402; has designated the 17th day of December of each year as "Wright Brothers Day" and requested the President to issue annually a proclamation commemorating this day.

Now, Therefore, I, George Bush, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim December 17, 1990, as Wright Brothers Day. I call upon the people of the United States to observe that day with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this seventh day of December, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and fifteenth.

GEORGE BUSH