[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 32, Number 50 (Monday, December 16, 1996)]
[Pages 2505-2506]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 6965--Wright Brothers Day, 1996

December 13, 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

[[Page 2506]]

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 improvements, 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.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 9:01 a.m., December 17, 
1996]

Note: This proclamation will be published in the Federal Register on 
December 18.