In the summer of 2016, an experimental solar-powered airplane called Solar Impulse 2 completed a 26,000-mile multi-stage trip around the world without using a single drop of jet fuel. The remarkable feat took longer than a year and made the slow-flying plane part of aviation history. We are remembering this seminal flight today to mark National Aviation Day, established in 1939 by President Franklin Roosevelt as a day to celebrate the advancement of flight. August 19 was chosen because it is the birthdate of Orville Wright, who in 1903, with his brother Wilbur Wright, became the first to achieve powered, controlled flight on the hills of Kitty Hawk on North Carolina"s Outer Banks.
National Aviation Day
Today in History
More Desktop Wallpapers:
-
Getting to the bottom of the underwater waterfall
-
National Moth Week
-
Summer solstice
-
Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting
-
Nighttime view over the Gulf Coast
-
Celebrating all things Austen
-
It s Star Wars Day
-
Goliath heron in Kruger National Park, South Africa
-
Bioluminescence at Trwyn Du Lighthouse in Wales
-
Atop the Needle of Chamonix
-
An iris garden in Tokyo, Japan
-
Yellow-eyed penguins, Moeraki, New Zealand
-
International Whale Shark Day
-
Icelandic horses, Iceland
-
Black History Month
-
Shark Fin Cove, California
-
Kissing Day
-
Cousins Day
-
Hoh Rain Forest, Olympic National Park, Washington
-
Apples ready for harvest in Minnesota
-
World Oceans Day
-
Camel thorn trees, Namib-Naukluft Park, Namibia
-
A Carpathian Christmas celebration
-
International Day of Human Space Flight
-
Looking back on 150 years of rail travel
-
White dunes, blue lagoons
-
Autumn’s swan song
-
A different view of sharks
-
Looking back at Yellowstone, 30 years after the fires
-
Jasper Dark Sky Festival
Bing Wallpaper Gallery

