# @nationalparkservice on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DNirSRNNlBT
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/33575362-nationalparkservice-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/a4bb72ddc2.jpg
- **Posted:** 2025-08-19T15:35:14.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** National Park Service (@nationalparkservice) — https://gondola.cc/nationalparkservice

## Caption

“Friends for life, through thick and thin, With another tale to spin…”

Here’s a tale for you. Modern aviation took off with the first controlled, powered & sustained flight on December 17th, 1903, near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Little did the Wright brothers know that when their dreams of heavier-than-air flight came to fruition over the beaches of North Carolina, they would become the beginning of a robust aviation history. Since then, aviation has gone from a twelve-second flight in a wooden and cloth, open-air flying machine to aircraft fabricated from composite materials designed to safely ferry humans to space and back.

In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt designated August 19th as #NationalAviationDay in honor of Orville Wright’s birthday. The National Park Service has a history steeped in aviation, from preserving historical sites of aviation “firsts,” like the flights made at what is now Wright Brothers National Memorial, to those who take flight in assisting parks with wildland firefighting, search and rescue, and law enforcement operations.

Image 1: Oh-ee-yeah Oh-ee-yoh! Can you spot the bearplane? Bear 151 on the beach katmainps with planes behind. The bear does not have a pilot’s license.
Image 2: Orville Wright is shown lying in the pilot’s seat of the 1903 Flyer in the Centennial Sculpture wrightbrosnps 
Image 3: The fourth bicycle shop operated by the Wrights, preserved at daytonaviationnps is the only building remaining as a testament to the bicycle business. It is also in this shop that the Wrights’ interest in flying turned to active research and development.
Image 4: An ISB Special Agent seated inside a helicopter in flight, responding to an investigation scene within Grand Canyon National Park.
Image 5: With arms spread, park staff surround the life-sized sculpture of the 1903 Wright Flyer. The Wright Brothers Monument, atop Big Kill Devil Hill, is visible in the background.

## Stats

- **Views:** 0
- **Likes:** 30,127
- **Shares:** 0
- **Comments:** 115

## Credits

| Name | Username | Profile | Role |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| National Park Service | @nationalparkservice | https://gondola.cc/nationalparkservice | Government Organization |

## Tags

nationalaviationday

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