Year: 1934

March 13. Orville is named by Secretary of War George H. Dern to a special committee of aeronautical experts to investigate the carrying of mails by U.S. Army, but he declines to serve because ill health does not permit him to travel.

March 31. In interview with Fred C. Kelly, published in magazine Today, Orville declares that sport, not capitalism, furnishes the true incentive to human achievement, citing his own experience in the development of the airplane. He foresees drift toward some form of socialism in the United States.

April 3. National Institute of Social Sciences, New York, votes Orville gold medal, to be awarded him the second time on February 21, 1940. Since did not attend either ceremony and it was not given in absentia, Orville never received the medal.

April 11. Wright model EX (Vin Fiz), formerly in Carnagie Museum in Pittsburgh, transferred to the National Museum in Washington, where it is renovated and exhibited.

June 9. Orville accepts honorary membership in Carolina Aero Club, Greensboro, N.C.

October. Orville appointed member of Oakwood Library Board of Trustees, serving in this capacity, and for 11 years as vice-president, until his resignation on December 19, 1946.

October 8. Louis Blériot, pioneer French aviator, attending National Aeronautic Association meeting in Washington, October 11-13, flies over Kitty Hawk, N.C., and drops wreath bearing inscription "Louis Blerior to Wilbur Wright" over Wright Memorial.

November 24. December 17th, anniversary date of first successful heavier-than-air flight, designated National Aviation Day by Eugene I. Vidal, director of Bureau of Air Commerce, Department of Commerce.

December 6. Orville appointed member of Society of Automotive Engineers' Aircraft Activity Committee for 1935.

December 17. In observance of 31st anniversary of Wrights' 1903 flights, Marshall Earl Reid flies Wright model B airplane, given to the Franklin Institute by Grover Bergdoll, from Camden Airport.

            Eugene I. Vidal personally delivers to Orville, at his home in Dayton, a letter of congratulation from President Franklin D. Roosevelt on the anniversary of the first successful Wright flight. Mr. Vidal is accompanied by Maj. Gen. Benjamin D. Foulois, Army Air Corps Chief, and Rear Adm. Ernst J. King, chief of the Navy Bureau of Aeronautics.

December 23. Mrs. Mabel Hammer Ashton, daughter of William J. Hammer, consulting engineer and early friend of the Wright brothers, visits Orville at his home in Dayton.