Aviation Information and Resources

"When the citizens of the distant future look back on the 20th century, they will surely remember it as the time when human beings took to the sky." Excerpt from the Final Report for the Centennial of Flight Commemoration, April 2004.

A ranger salutes an airplane passing over the Wright Memorial in North Carolina.

NPS Photo

In this section you will find pertinent information and resources that NPS aviation uses to accomplish its mission to the public. While it is not an exhaustive list of all of the tools that we use, it is a collection of some of the most important.

The website links available in the Resources and Information sections have been compiled over the years and have proved valuable to NPS aviation in many circumstances. Scroll down to access these pages.

The National Park Service Natural Sounds Program

The Natural Sounds Program, part of the Natural Sounds and Night Skies Division, works to protect the overall sound environments in national parks. Sound management is key to reducing noise and improving the condition of park resources as well as visitor experiences. Noise from aircraft is one kind of sound that can impact park visitors and wildlife. Air tours, military overflights, and other aviation activities are examples of aircraft sound that must be managed. To this end, the Natural Sounds Overflights team works to prevent and reduce noise impacts from aircraft in order to protect park resources and visitor use without compromising aviation safety or the nation’s air traffic control system. Read about the ways the Overflights team mitigates the impacts of aviation in and around the country's national park lands.

Centennial of Flight

Visit the official website for the Centennial of Flight where you can learn more about the celebrations focused on the First Flight of December 17^th, 1903. You can also access the Final Report for The Centennial of Flight Commemoration document to download and/or read the report in sections. Originally maintained and provided by The Centennial of Flight Commission and then NASA, the website was passed on to and is now operated by The American Aviation Historical Society.