Wright Brothers Day, 1996

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Part VI

The President

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Proclamation 6965--Wright Brothers Day, 1996

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Title 3--
The President

Proclamation 6965 of December 13, 1996

Wright Brothers Day, 1996

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Ninety-three years ago, on a windswept North Carolina
beach, air travel by hot air balloon and gliders gave
way to American ingenuity and the era of powered
flight. Wilbur and Orville Wright--employing
innovations like the wind tunnel and single component
testing--designed, built, and ultimately flew the first
powered, heavier-than-air craft on the dunes of Kitty
Hawk. Years later, Wilbur was to say of this historic
event, ``It is the complexity of the flying problem
that makes it so difficult. It is not . . . solved by
stumbling upon a secret, but by the patient
accumulation of information upon a hundred different
points.'' No longer would the ability to travel by air
be bounded by the simple physics of wind and weather,
but by the power of the human imagination.

As we have expanded the scope of our dreams, our love
of flight has extended our command of the sky. Today,
air travel is not only the fastest means of
transportation, but the safest as well, and the United
States air transportation system, which continues to
improve every year, serves as the model to which all
others are compared.

My Administration continues to work to make the skies
ever safer. Integral to this effort has been the
dedicated service of thousands of men and women
throughout the air transportation community who strive
daily to protect air travelers. Indeed, this month, the
Vice President and I were pleased to announce that the
major airlines have agreed to install fire detection
systems in the cargo holds of some 3,700 airliners that
carry the vast majority of Americans flying each year.
We cannot make the world risk free, but we can reduce
the risks we face. Working together, we have taken
another important step to ensure the safety of the
flying public.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Federal aid for
our Nation's airports. Working in partnership with
State and local governments, private airport operators,
and the air carrier and general aviation communities,
the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has assisted
numerous airports with critical safety, security, and
capacity projects that directly benefit the American
traveling public. It is particularly fitting, as
Americans celebrate an important milestone in the
history of air transportation, that this year also
marks the beginning of important reforms for the FAA
that recognize its vital role in advancing sound
aviation management and development in the United
States and around the world.

On April 1, 1996, the FAA began transforming itself
from the model previously mandated by law into a more
effective, streamlined system, better designed for the
challenges of the twenty-first century. In the recently
enacted Federal Aviation Reauthorization Act of 1996,
the Congress, working with my Administration,
complemented those important reforms with a new
financial model for the agency to help it meet the
safety and capacity challenges it faces. This
legislation also provided the FAA with improved tools
to perform its mission more effectively. It builds on
security recommendations of the Vice President's
Commission on Aviation Safety and Security that will
improve the FAA's ability to more comprehensively
address the threat posed by terrorists to civil air
transportation. With these statutory improve

ments, the world of aviation will be an exciting one in
which future aviation pioneers may fulfill their dreams
and aspirations.

The Congress, by a joint resolution approved December
17, 1963 (77 Stat. 402; 36 U.S.C. 169), has designated
December 17 of each year as ``Wright Brothers Day'' and
has authorized and requested the President to issue
annually a proclamation inviting the people of the
United States to observe that day with appropriate
ceremonies and activities.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the
United States of America, do hereby proclaim December
17, 1996, as Wright Brothers Day.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
thirteenth day of December, in the year of our Lord
nineteen hundred and ninety-six, and of the
Independence of the United States of America the two
hundred and twenty-first.