[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 155 (Friday, November 7, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11964-S11967]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. HELMS (for himself, Mr. Glenn, Mr. DeWine, and Mr. 
        Faircloth):
  S. 1397. A bill to establish a commission to assist in commemoration 
of the centennial of powered flight and the achievements of the Wright 
brothers; to the Committee on Governmental Affairs.


               the centennial of flight commemorative act

  Mr. HELMS. Madam President, I have a bill, S. 1397, at the desk. Now, 
Senators DeWine, Faircloth, Glenn, and I are introducing this 
legislation, and we are naming it the Centennial of Flight 
Commemorative Act. As I indicated, the bill number is S. 1397.
  This significant legislation will establish a commission to assist 
the numerous events that will lead up to and include the celebration of 
the 100th anniversary of powered flight, a feat in all the history 
books, accomplished in my State of North Carolina by the geniuses, two 
brothers, Orville and Wilbur Wright, Ohio brothers who were born and 
raised in Dayton where they operated a bicycle shop.
  I don't know whether you have been to Kitty Hawk, particularly in the 
middle of December, but it is not a comfortable place to be. Wilbur and 
Orville came to the Outer Banks of North Carolina to conduct their 
experiments. The first powered flight occurred at Kitty Hawk, NC, on 
December 17, 1903. In fact, the Wright brothers engaged in four flights 
that day, and with their effort they changed the concept of travel 
forever.
  About noon on that cold and windy December day, at Kitty Hawk, NC, 
the aviation age, the air age, began.
  So, Madam President, the Wright brothers were indisputably the first 
pioneers of powered flight, and they became national heroes, 
justifiably etched in history.
  As for our bill, S. 1397, the able Senator from Ohio, Mr. DeWine, and 
the able Senator from Ohio, Mr. Glenn, did excellent work in drafting 
this legislation.
  Senator Glenn, I am obliged to mention, and I am glad to do so, is a 
man of history himself in terms of powered flight. He was the first 
American, as all of us know, to orbit the Earth. When he walks up and 
down the corridors, I see mamas and daddies pointing to him saying, 
``That's Senator Glenn.'' Senator Glenn and six other pioneers, the 
Mercury astronauts, got America's space program off the ground.
  Madam President, S. 1397--let me say the title again so it will 
register--the Centennial of Flight Commemorative Act--proposes the 
establishment of a commission of 21 individuals to plan for and assist 
in events leading up to and including the commemoration of the 100th 
anniversary of the Wright brothers' flights at Kitty Hawk. The 
commission will be composed of the Secretary of the Interior, the 
Director of the National Air and Space Museum, the Secretary of 
Defense, the Secretary of Transportation, the NASA Administrator, and 
each of these officials can name a designee. Then there will be two 
representatives each from the States of North Carolina and Ohio and 12 
other private citizens.
  Of these 12 private citizens, the President of the United States will 
appoint two from a list recommended by the Senate majority leader in 
consultation with the Senate minority leader, and two from a list 
recommended by the Speaker of the House in consultation with the House 
minority leader. The remaining eight will be chosen based on 
qualifications and/or experience in the fields of history, aerospace, 
science, industry, or other professions that will enhance the work of 
the commission.
  The commission will represent the United States and take a leadership 
role with other nations in recognizing the achievement of the Wright 
brothers and the importance of aviation history.
  The commission's activities will be closely coordinated with the 
First Flight Centennial Commission and the First Flight Centennial 
Foundation of North Carolina and the 2003 Committee of the State of 
Ohio. The commission is allowed to retain an executive director and 
staff that may be required in order to carry out its functions.
  S. 1397 authorizes appropriations of $250,000 for each of the fiscal 
years 1998 to 2004 to fund the work of the commission.
  Additionally, the commission may accept monetary contributions and 
other in kind contributions, volunteer

[[Page S11965]]

services and the like. In order to further defray the expenses of the 
commission, the legislation gives it exclusive right to names, logos, 
emblems, seals, and marks, which may be licensed on which proceeds from 
royalties will be used to offset the operating costs of the commission.
  S. 1397 requires that annual audits of the commission be conducted by 
the Inspector General of the General Services Administration to ensure 
its financial integrity.
  The commission shall be terminated no later than 60 days after the 
submission of the final audit report.
  Senators may ask why establish a Federal commission to commemorate 
this event? The Wright brothers' triumph at Kitty Hawk on that bone-
chilling day of December 17, 1903 has to rank as one of mankind's 
greatest achievement. The world has not been the same since.
  As the development of the airplane progressed so did its uses in 
warfare and civilian aviation. Its development spawned generations of 
aviation trailblazers. Names like Eddie Rickenbacker, Billy Mitchell, 
Charles Lindbergh, Jimmy Doolittle, Chuck Yeager, and the Mercury, 
Gemini, Apollo, and space shuttle astronauts became household words.
  What is even more astonishing is that 66 years later, Neil Armstrong 
of Ohio became the first man to set foot on the moon. That would not 
have been possible without the Wright brothers.
  Because of the Wright brothers you can get on a jet aircraft at 
Dulles Airport and be in London in six or seven hours, far less if you 
are flying the Concorde. You can fly from New York to Tokyo in 14 
hours. On the Concorde, you can travel from New York to London in 3 
hours and 50 minutes.
  We are seeing daily developments in aviation, faster planes, new 
space technologies, all because of the genius of Wilbur and Orville 
Wright.
  I hope the Senate will swiftly approve this legislation.
  Mr. DeWINE. Madam President, I thank the Chair, and I thank my 
distinguished colleague from North Carolina.
  I am delighted to join him, as well as Senator Faircloth and Senator 
Glenn, in introducing a bill to create the Centennial of Flight 
Commission.
  In the year 2003, the United States and, indeed, the world will 
celebrate a truly breathtaking anniversary. That date will mark exactly 
100 years of the adventure of human flight. For those of us who are 
from the State of Ohio, it is an especially important anniversary as 
Senator Helms has so ably described--first and foremost because the 
Wright brothers, the very first pioneers of powered flight, were from 
Dayton, OH. It was in Dayton, OH, that they grew up. It was in Dayton, 
OH, that they had a print shop. It was in Dayton, OH, that they had the 
bicycle shop that was referred to a moment ago by Senator Helms.
  It was at Huffman Prairie, in Montgomery County, actually what is now 
enclosed in Wright Patterson Air Force Base, technically in Greene 
County, that the Wright brothers learned to fly. So, those of us from 
Ohio are very proud of the Wright brothers, as this whole country is.
  We are also proud in Ohio that ever since the time of the Wright 
brothers, Ohio has continued to build a proud aviation history. From 
the Wright brothers to World War I flying ace David Ingalls, to John 
Glenn who just walked on to the floor of the Senate, the first man, the 
first American to orbit the Earth, to Neil Armstrong, the first man to 
walk on the Moon, to the incredible research being done right now at 
NASA Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, OH, has continually been a 
part of the great epic of aviation.
  This is, indeed, cause for celebration, and that is what this bill is 
all about. It would create a commission to coordinate the centennial of 
flight celebration in the year 2003. The commission will be composed of 
21 members: the Secretaries of the Interior, Transportation, and 
Defense; the Director of the National Air and Space Museum; the 
Administrator of NASA; two people from North Carolina; the president 
and chairman of the First Flight Centennial Commission; and two people 
from the State of Ohio, the Governor and the chairman of the 2003 
Committee, and 12 additional Presidential appointees.
  Madam President, this commission will help the United States take a 
leadership role in planning international celebrations of the 
centennial of flight, promoting participation and sponsorship by the 
aerospace industry, the commercial aviation industry, educational 
institutions, and State and local governments.
  The commission is going to distribute a calendar, a register of 
national and international programs and projects concerning the flight 
centennial.
  What I hope most of all is that these celebrations will recognize 
that the history of flight is not just the story about machines or 
about the triumph of technology. It is rather a story about people. It 
is a story of how human creativity overcame one of the most fundamental 
barriers that humans ever faced.
  For hundreds of thousands of years, human beings could not fly, but 
in this century, thanks to the freedom and spirit of creativity in this 
country, the human race broke the bonds of Earth. So, from Dayton to 
Kitty Hawk and beyond the limits of our solar system, this is a story 
to truly celebrate.
  Madam President, I see my distinguished senior Senator from the State 
of Ohio, the honorable John Glenn, is on the floor. I yield to Senator 
Glenn.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio is recognized.
  Mr. GLENN. Thank you, Madam President. I thank my distinguished 
colleague.
  I rise as a cosponsor of this legislation to establish a national 
Commission on the Centennial of Flight. We have been very proud through 
the years to have worked with the people of Dayton, OH, in an effort to 
recognize the very exceptional contribution of the two brothers who ran 
the bicycle shop and dreamed of flight. They watched the birds and 
dreamed of flight, not knowing whether it would ever be possible.
  In 1992, it was my privilege to sponsor the legislation that 
established the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park which 
commemorates the extraordinary lives of Wilbur Wright, Orville Wright, 
and Paul Lawrence Dunbar, a black man, a poet, one of the finest poets, 
who was a close friend of the Wright brothers.
  That park and the memorial in North Carolina recall that on December 
17, 1903, Orville Wright flew 120 feet in 12 seconds. Can we imagine 
that, 120 feet in 12 seconds? But it was under power. It was the 
airplane that is over in the Smithsonian now. It was under powered 
flight with an engine and propeller. It was the first sustained flight 
in a power-driven, heavier-than-air machine.
  There were three other flights that day. We don't often hear about 
those. There were three other flights that day, and Wilbur Wright set a 
new world record flying on one of those flights 352 feet in 59 seconds. 
It was more than the length of a football field.
  Very little attention was paid at that time. People were very 
doubtful. Octave Chanute reported the achievement in Popular Science 
Monthly in March 1904. But the first--I think this is very 
interesting--the first eyewitness report about those flights appeared 
in a publication called Gleanings in Bee Culture, and that was in 
January 1905. That was the first real eyewitness report of Orville and 
Wilbur Wright's flights.
  The work had begun in 1899 with a serious study of everything the 
Wrights could find on aeronautics. In 1900, to test their glider, they 
selected Kitty Hawk on the word of the weather bureau because of the 
steadiness of the winds and direction of the winds at that time. The 
test glider in 1900 and 1901 failed to achieve the lifting power that 
they thought they needed and anticipated.
  They went back to Dayton and built a 6-foot wind tunnel to conduct 
experiments with over 200 different wing models. They developed the 
first reliable tables on the effects of air pressure on curved 
surfaces, the principles that we use today and that you see on every 
airplane, whether it is a general aviation small light airplane or a 
giant 747 or whether it is the Concorde flying at supersonic speed 
across the Atlantic Ocean.
  They developed these 200 different wing models and experimented with 
them. They developed the first reliable tables on the effects of air 
pressure on curved surfaces.

[[Page S11966]]

  In 1902, they conducted over almost 1,000 tests with a more promising 
glider. In 1903, the Wright brothers had completed the construction of 
a larger plane powered by their own lightweight gas-powered engine.
  Arriving in Kitty Hawk in September, storms and mechanical 
difficulties delayed trials until December. On the 17th, four men and a 
boy witnessed the very first flight, and a memorable photograph, 
fortunately, was captured. Four men and a boy witnessed that first 
flight.
  Back home in Dayton in 1904 and 1905, the Wright brothers continued 
testing their invention at Huffman Prairie, which is the area adjacent 
to what is today Wright Patterson Air Force Base where they first 
achieved maneuverable flight.
  In 1908, Wilbur and Orville signed a contract with the War Department 
for the first military airplane. In September, Orville circled the 
parade ground at an altitude of 120 feet just across the Potomac River 
from us today, over at Fort Meyer in Virginia.
  When most people these days think of the Wright brothers, we tend to 
think of them as having lived a long, long time ago. We tend to think 
of the Wright brothers as being part of ancient history. We also think 
of their airplane, the Wright Flyer III, as being an incredibly 
primitive machine, at least by today's standards. And it was a 
primitive machine. There were no fancy guidance systems or high-tech 
controls.
  By swiveling their hips from one side to the other, Orville and 
Wilbur could steer the airplane. To this day, when young people come 
in, when school groups come to Washington and visit my office and they 
say they are going over to the Air and Space Museum, I always tell them 
to get up on the gallery level and look down on the Wright brothers' 
airplane and see how they controlled flight, because the person flying 
lay on the lower wing and had a wooden yoke around his hips. That 
wooden yoke slid back and forth and there was a wire that went to the 
trailing edge of the upper wing, and they would slide in the direction 
they wanted to go, slide their hips over, pull that wire and literally 
warp the trailing edge of the wing down and made more lift on the wing 
on that side and the airplane would turn in the direction their hips 
were slid toward.
  I am glad they developed later on in aviation a better means of 
control. We can imagine a 747 pilot today making an approach swiveling 
his hips back and forth. But that was the way the Wright brothers 
controlled those very early flights.
  The first flight at Kitty Hawk and Huffman Prairie seemed so far 
removed from what we did later on, from my own experience in orbital 
flight in 1962, or from the first lunar landing, or from living aboard 
the orbiting space station for weeks on end, as Shannon Lucid did. She 
was up there for 188 days. She will be honored at the Smithsonian this 
evening, as a matter of fact. Yet, all this occurred within a lifetime.

  I know we kid Senator Thurmond around here quite a lot about his age, 
but Senator Thurmond was born December 5, 1902. The Wright brothers did 
not fly until a year later, on December 7, 1903. So we have in this 
body right now a man whose lifetime spans all of manned flight, powered 
flight, from that first day at Kitty Hawk into space. Strom Thurmond 
has witnessed the complete history of flight. And we marvel at just how 
far we have come in an incredibly short period of time. We have 
literally gone from the Wright brothers to the Moon and beyond in a 
single lifetime.
  That is amazing. In that sense, I think it is fair to say that 
Orville and Wilbur Wright were our first astronauts, really, because 
they were the first who really did rise off the Earth's surface in a 
sustained way and make flight that then advanced to higher and higher 
altitudes until we are above the Earth's atmosphere now with different 
kinds of machines; though I think in some ways we could say that they 
were the first two who, as the poem goes, ``slipped the surly bonds of 
Earth''--slipped the surly bonds of Earth and ventured into the air 
under the power of a motor.
  Everything since then has just been going higher and going faster. I 
also think it is fair to say the Wright brothers personified something 
that is behind every single leap or advancement in science or human 
knowledge since the beginning of time. The one characteristic they 
had--we could lump it all together and say that is something that is in 
the heart of all human progress--is curiosity and an innate curiosity 
about how we can do things differently or whether we can explore and 
find new shores or whether we can do experiments and do research in new 
areas.
  Whether you look at the voyage of Christopher Columbus, who brought 
Europeans to the shore of North America, whether you look at the 
experiments of Alexander Fleming--you know what Alexander Fleming was 
curious about? It was plain old green mold on bread. He did not know 
why the patterns formed around the mold the way they did. The green 
mold, it was a particular pattern. He was curious about that.
  You know what that led to? His curiosity led to the discovery of 
penicillin and the development of modern antibiotics. That curiosity 
about green mold on bread has led to increased life expectancy of 
people all around this Earth. We have gone up in life expectancy more 
in the last 100 years than in the previous 2,000 years, I read in a 
magazine just a short time ago. So the discovery of penicillin and 
Alexander Fleming's curiosity about green bread mold that led to that, 
has really revolutionized this Earth.
  Or we go ahead with the unexpected circumstance in a small electronic 
switching device that led to the development of the first transistor 
and ultimately to today's incredibly sophisticated computer systems.
  It is clear to me that curiosity isn't what killed the cat. It is 
also the goose that laid the golden egg for all of humankind. That is 
going to be true in the future as well as the past. In field after 
field, in discipline after discipline, in industry after industry, it 
is curiosity, that insatiable, relentlessly questioning spirit that 
keeps asking ``why'' that has moved our species ahead.
  The irony, of course, is any time someone or a group such as the 
Wright brothers, or a group of people undertake an exploration or 
undertake to demonstrate a new idea, whether in a laboratory, a 
spaceship, a bicycle shop or on a production line, there are many who 
question the wisdom of it all. Those naysayers who wanted to know when 
their bike would be fixed with the Wright brothers believed that if we 
were to fly God would have given us feathers, they said.
  So there was a joke about the Wright brothers at that time. ``If God 
wanted us to fly, why don't we have feathers?" Well, they fortunately 
laughed along with everybody else, but at the same time went ahead with 
their work. They were not deterred. But if there is one thing we know 
for sure about research or any kind of exploration of the unknown, it 
is that it is impossible to know what we will see at the end or what it 
may lead to.
  I believe that today, as perhaps never before, we cannot afford to 
lose that kind of curiosity and questing spirit that the Wright 
brothers had. With it, we can continue to learn new things, first, for 
this Nation, putting them to practical application, staying ahead of 
global competition. That has been the story of this country's 
advancement. Without it, we will quickly become yesterday's leader, 
yesterday's leader, not tomorrow's leader but yesterday's leader, 
hopelessly trying to hold back the hands of the clock and to hold on to 
a past glory that can never be just retained or recaptured.
  So the spirit of the Wright brothers is needed as much today as 
before their very first flight. That is why today I am pleased to join 
with my colleagues--my colleague from Ohio, my colleagues from North 
Carolina--in introducing this legislation to establish a national 
commission to assist in the commemoration of the centennial of powered 
flight that will occur in 2003 and the achievements of the Wright 
brothers. Those who worked to build our national parks and memorials to 
the Wright brothers in Ohio and North Carolina where flight was born 
and first achieved will now work together to recall and remember the 
spirit of flight to be commemorated as we approach the centennial of 
flight in 2003.
  The spirit represented by the Wright brothers was captured in their 
own day by their good friend, Paul Lawrence

[[Page S11967]]

Dunbar, who captured in the prophetic verse which he penned the 
triumphs that are remembered at the Dayton Aviation Heritage National 
Historical Park. One of his notations was:

     What dreams we have
     and how they fly
     like rosy clouds
     across the sky;
     of wealth, of fame
     of sure success . . .

  That is certainly what curiosity has brought us and what the Wright 
brothers brought us.
  Think of all that has occurred since that first flight at Kitty Hawk 
in 1903. Think of aviation today and all it entails and the giant 
industry. It has revised all the world's transportation, has revised 
our military, our security. All of that stemmed from that first flight 
in 1903.
  So we are happy to put in this legislation today. We hope that it is 
supported by all here, not just those from Ohio and North Carolina, 
because what started there in 1903 is something that affects everyone. 
It affects every State and every nation around the globe, even these 
days. And we look forward to this commission doing a great job in 
assisting in the commemoration of the centennial of powered flight and 
the achievements of the Wright brothers.
  Mr. FAIRCLOTH. Mr. President, today I am pleased to be an original 
cosponsor of legislation being introduced by Senator Helms--the two 
Senators from Ohio--that would establish a National Commission to 
oversee the 100th anniversary of the first flight.
  Mr. President, on a cold, windy December morning in 1903, in the 
Outer Banks of North Carolina, the Wright brothers changed the history 
of the world. Orville Wright flew for just 12 seconds--but it was the 
first manned flight.
  Today, many people take for granted what was accomplished by the 
Wright brothers that day, but at the time it was a historic 
achievement. Man had been thinking of flight for thousand of years--and 
yet the Wright brothers, here in the United States, were the first to 
do it.
  The development of flight grew rapidly. A little over a decade later, 
airplanes were used in the battles of World War I. Two decades after 
the 12-second first flight--Charles Lindbergh flew over the Atlantic.
  And of course, in 1962, in just a half century after the first 12-
second flight, our distinguished colleague John Glenn was the first man 
to fly around the world in space. Seven years after that, we landed a 
man on the Moon.
  It is hard to believe that all of this has taken place in the span of 
less than 100 years.
  This is why the centennial anniversary of first flight is so 
significant to us, the sponsors of this legislation.
  The Commission will coordinate the plans for the celebration. The 
Wright brothers were from Ohio, of course, where they ran a bicycle 
shop. The State of North Carolina's license plates bear the slogan 
``First in Flight''--so we are especially proud of this achievement in 
my State. To these two States, the celebration is important.
  But much more than that, I think the anniversary should be used to 
inspire students to learn more about the history of flight. Hopefully, 
it will remind people that this is a great nation inventors--and that 
American ingenuity has made us the greatest country in the history of 
the world. Finally, it should remind our citizens that America is a 
land of opportunity and freedom--where anyone's imagination can change 
the world. This is an entrepreneurial spirit that we must keep alive.
  I want to thank Senator Helms and Senators Glenn and DeWine for 
joining together today to introduce this legislation. I hope that the 
Senate will take it up soon.
                                 ______