List of years in aviation

Table of contents

1 pre-18th century aviation 2 18th century aviation 3 19th century aviation 4 1900s in aviation 5 1910s in aviation 6 1920s in aviation 7 1930s in aviation 8 1940s in aviation 9 1950s in aviation 10 1960s in aviation 11 1970s in aviation 12 1980s in aviation 13 1990s in aviation 14 2000s in aviation 15 See also

pre-18th century aviation

• c. 875 - Abbas Ibn Firnas flew a glider built of wood and feathers outside of Córdoba, Spain.
• c. 1010 - Eilmer of Malmesbury built a wooden glider and launching from a bell tower flew 200 metres.
• c. 1250 - Roger Bacon writes the first known technical description of flight, describing an ornithopter design in his book Secrets of Art and Nature.
• c. 1490 - Leonardo da Vinci designs an ornithopter with control surfaces. Envisions and sketches flying machines such as helicopters.
• 1638 - John Wilkins, Bishop of Chester, suggests some ideas to future would-be pilots in his The Discover of the World in the Moon book.

• 1709 - Father Laurenco de Gusmao designs a model hot air balloon and demonstrates it to King John V of Portugal.
• 1783
  • The Montgolfier brothers demonstrate a hot air balloon in public, at Annonay.
  • Jacques Charles launches the first hydrogen-filled balloon. It flies 25 km (15 miles) from Paris to Gonesse and is destroyed by frightened peasants.
  • The Montgolfiers launch a sheep, duck, and rooster in a hot-air balloon in a demonstration for King Louis XVI of France. The balloon rises some 500 m (1,700 ft) and returns the animals unharmed to the ground.
  • Pilâtre de Rozier becomes the first human passenger in a hot-air balloon, rising 26 m (84 ft) on a tether.
  • de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes become the first human passengers carried in free flight by a hot-air balloon in a flight that lasted 25 minutes.
  • Jacques Charles and Ainé Roberts become the first to fly in a hydogen-filled balloon. They travel from Paris to Nesles, a distance of 43 km (27 miles).
• 1784 - Jean-Pierre Blanchard fits a hand-powered propeller to a balloon, the first recorded means of propulsion carried aloft.
• 1785
  • Blanchard and Dr John Jeffries cross the English Channel by balloon.
  • Richard Crosbie makes several unsuccessful attempts to cross the Irish Channel in a helium-filled balloon.
  • de Rozier and Jules Romain become the first known aeronautical fatalities when their balloon crashes during an attempt to cross the English Channel.
• 1793 - Blanchard makes the first balloon ascent in the United States
• 1794 - the first military use of balloons is made by the French Army who use one, named Entreprenant for reconnaissance of theAustrian forces at the Battle of Fleurus. Two companies of balloon observers are formed, but disband the following year.

• 1804 - Sir George Cayley builds a model glider with moveable control surfaces.
• 1809
  • Jacob Degen propels a hydrogen-filled balloon by flapping large ornithopter-style wings.
  • September: Sir George Cayley published his seminal paper On Aerial Navigation, setting out for the first time the scientific principles of heavier-than-air flight.
• 1837 - Robert Cocking jumps from a balloon at a height of 2,000 m (6,600 ft) to demonstrate a parachute of his own design, and is killed in the attempt.
• 1848 - William Henson and John Stringfellow build a steam powered model aircraft, with a wingspan of 10 ft (3.5 m) which successfully flies a distance of 40 metres before crashing into a wall. This was the world's first heavier-than-air powered flight.
• 1849
  • Balloons are used for bombardment for the first time, with Austrian balloons used to bomb Venice.
  • Sir George Cayley launches a 10-year old boy in a smaller glider. The glider flies up while being towed by a team of people running down a hill. This is the first known flight by a person in a heavier-than-air machine, though is not as recognized as the 1853 flight.
• 1852 - Henri Giffard flies 27 km (17 miles) in a steam-powered dirigible, the first person to make an engine-powered flight.
• 1853 - Late June or early July: Sir George Cayley's coachman successfully flies a glider, designed by his employer a distance of roughly 423ft (130m) across Brompton Dale in Yorkshire, becoming the world's first (uncontrolled) adult aeroplane pilot.
• 1855 - Joseph Pline is the first person to use the word "aeroplane" is a paper proposing a gas filled dirigible glider with propellers.
• 1857 - Félix Du Temple flies clockwork and steam-powered model aircraft, the first sustained powered flights by heavier-than-air machines.
• 1861
  • the first telegraph message is sent from the air, by Thaddeus Lowe in the balloon Enterprise.
  • the American Army Balloon Corps is formed under Lowe's command, for observation and artillery direction. Balloons would see major use in the US Civil War over the next four years.
  • the USS George Washington Parke Curtiss becomes the first warship dedicated to air operations, transporting and towing reconnaissance balloons along the Potomac River.
• 1864 - Outbreak of the Paraguayan War between Paraguay and Brazil. Brazilian forces would make much use of balloon reconnaissance over the next six years.
• 1870 - Balloons are used by the French to transport letters and passengers out of beseiged Paris during the Franco-Prussian War. Between September and the following January, 66 flights carried 110 passengers and up to 3 million letters out of Paris.
• 1872 - Paul Haenlein flies a dirigible with an internal combustion engine on a tether in Vienna, the first use of such an engine to power an aircraft.
• 1874 - Du Temple builds a steam-powered monoplane which achieves a short hop after gaining speed by rolling down a ramp. It carries a human passenger whose identity is no longer known.
• 1878 - Charles F. Ritchel's has a public demonstration of his hand-powered one man rigid airship, goes on to build and sell five of them.
• 1879 - The British Army gains its first balloon, the Pioneer.
• 1880
  • Aleksandr Mozhaiski patents a steam-powered aircraft
  • Karl Wölfert and Ernst Baumgarten attempt to fly a powered dirigible in free flight, but crash.
  • Balloons are used in British military maneuvers for the first time at Aldershot
• 1882 - Wölfert unsuccessfully tests a balloon powered by a hand-cranked propeller
• 1883 - The first electric-powered flight is made by Gaston Tissander who fits a Siemens electric motor to a dirigible.
• 1884
  • Mozhaiski finishes his monoplane (span 14 m, or 46 ft). It makes a short hop after running down a launch ramp.
  • The first fully controllable free-flight is made in a French Army dirigible La France by Charles Renard and Arthur Krebs. The electric-powered flight covers 8 km (5 miles) in 23 minutes.
  • British Army balloons are taken on the expedition to Bechuanaland in South Africa.
• 1885
  • The Prussian Airship Arm (Preussische Luftschiffer Abteilung) becomes a permanent unit of the army.
  • British Army balloons are taken to Sudan by the expeditionary force headed there.
• 1886
  • John J. Montgomery: A controlled heavier-than-air flight. His first two gliders did not include flight controls but his third featured aileron prototypes.
• 1888 - Wölfert flies a petrol powered dirigible at Seelburg. The engine was built by Daimler.
• 1889
  • Percival Spencer makes a successful parachute jump from a balloon at Drumcondra, Ireland
  • Percy Pilcher builds a human-carrying glider, the Hawk, and begins development of a light internal combustion engine.
• 1890s
  • Samuel Pierpont Langley flies some heavier-than-air powered unmanned aircraft which he calls Aerodromes.
• 1890 Clement Ader: a reported powered uncontrolled low heavier-than-air flight.
• 1891 - Otto Lilienthal begins a series of glider flights in his attempt to develop a practical ornithopter. Although he will not achieve this goal, in the process he becomes the first person to make repeatable, controlled flights in a series of heavier-than-air devices. First controlled glider flights in excess of 300m. Performs the first well-documented and photographed flights. Breaks his spine on the 2500th flight. Leaves influential notebooks.
• 1892
  • Clément Ader is contracted by the French War Ministry to build an aircraft to be used as a bomber.
  • Austria's army gains a permanent air corps, the Kaiserlich und Königliche Militäräronautische Ansalt ("Imperial and Royal Military Aeronautical Group")
  • Horatio Phillips built a steam-powered aircraft at Harrow which was tethered to the centre of a circular track. It successfully left the ground, even when carrying 32 kg (72 lb) of ballast. (Some sources list 1893)
• 1893 - Lawrence Hargrave demonstrates a human-carrying glider in Australia. It is based on the box kite, an invention of Hargrave's.
• 1894
  • Czeslaw Tanski successfully flies powered models in Poland and begins work on full-size gliders.
  • Octave Chanute publishes Progress in Flying Machines, describing the research completed so far into flight.
  • Hiram Maxim launches an enormous biplane (wingspan 32 m, 105 ft) propelled by two steam engines. It makes a short hop after running down a length of railway track.
  • November: Lawrence Hargrave demonstrates stable flight with a tethered box kite.
• 1895 - Pilcher makes his first successful flight in a glider named Bat.
• 1896
  • Lilienthal dies of injuries sustained in the crash of one of his gliders.
  • Samuel Langley successfully flies powered model aircraft from a houseboat on the Potomac.
  • David Schwarz rigid airship makes its first flight at Tempelhof field, crashes.
• 1897
  • Wölfert is killed in a dirigible crash
  • Salomon Andrée attempts an Arctic expedition by balloon. He and two companions crash within three days but manage to survive for several months in the pack ice. Their remains are later discovered on White Island.
  • Ader makes short hops in his steam-powered Avion III. The Army is not impressed and withdraws his funding.
  • The first flight in a rigid airship is made by Ernst Jägels, flying an all-aluminium craft designed by David Schwarz and built by Carl Berg. It is damaged beyond repair while landing.
• 1899
  • Lilienthal's book Der Vogelflug als Grundlage der Fliegekunst ("Bird-flight as the basis for flight technology"), an important early aeronautical textbook, is published.
  • The Wright brothers begin experimenting with wing-warping as a means of controlling an aircraft.
  • Samuel Cody begins experiments with kites big enough to lift a person
  • Percy Pilcher flies various gliders and is close to completing a powered machine when he is tragically killed. Pilcher is killed when his glider crashes at Stanford Hall, England after a strut in its tail breaks. The flight was intended as a display of powered flight, but when the engine is not ready in time, Pilcher uses a team of horses to pull the glider into the air.
• 1900
  • Ferdinand von Zeppelin flies his first airship, the LZ1
  • The Wrights fly their "Glider No. 1" first as a kite, then as a glider.

• 1900 - The Zeppelin airship makes its first flight.
• 1901
  • Royal Aero Club founded.
  • Alberto Santos-Dumont flies his airship Number 6 from the Parc Saint Cloud around the Eiffel Tower and back in under thirty minutes.
• 1902 - First balloon flight in Antarctica.
• 1903
  • Richard Pearse flies a motor powered aircraft March 31 - uncontrolled and poorly documented, (also first crash landing).
  • Karl Jatho makes a flight August 18 with his motored airplane in front of four people
  • Wilbur Wright and Orville Wright's Flyer I aeroplane takes off December 17 for the first time.
• 1904
  • The Wrights ask for patents for their flying machine in Germany and France.
  • Wright's Flyer 2 on September 20th is used to fly the first complete circle in an airplane (aeroplane). Some flights without catapult or headwind assisted takeoff.
• 1905 - Wilbur Wright flies for 38 minutes and 24.2 miles (39 km).
• 1906
  • March: Traian Vuia: a short powered flight without headwind or catapult assisted takeoff. Not launched from a height.
  • October: Alberto Santos-Dumont: a powered flight without headwind or catapult assisted takeoff. Not launched from a height. Generally recognized as first to fly an aircraft in Europe.
• 1907 - Robert Esnault-Pelterie becomes first pilot to fly using a control stick.
• 1908
  • The United States Army announces plans to buy flying machines.
  • May: First heavy-than-air passenger carrying flight - Wilbur Wright flew Charles W. Furnas for a distance of 2.5 miles in a Wright Model B.
  • September: Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge became the first person killed in a powered airplane and the first military aviation casualty when Wilbur crashed his two-passenger plane during military tests at Fort Myer in Virginia.
• 1909
  • John A.D. McCurdy flys the Silver Dart; the first controlled powered flight in Canada and the British Empire.
  • July: Louis Bleriot becomes first person to fly over the English Channel.

• 1910
  • Frederick Baldwin and John A.D. McCurdy, using a Curtiss biplane, are the first pilots to send radio messages to the ground.
  • August: The first international aviation meeting is held at Reims in France.
  • October: Romanian inventor Henri Coanda (1886-1972), constructed the first prototypical thermojet.
• 1911
  • Andre Beaumont beats Roland Garros in the Paris to Rome air race.
  • First coast-to-coast airplane flight across the USA by the Vin Fiz Flyer - taking 49 days, with several crashes en-route.
  • July: First ever commercial cargo to be carried by an aircraft, a case of electric lamps, from Shoreham to Hove in England.
  • October: First aircraft to be used in war was a Bleriot monoplane flown from Tripoli to Azizia to spy on Turkish positions.
• 1912
  • King George V approves the Royal Flying Corps, establishing the UK's first Air Force.
  • First all-metal aircraft flies, the Tubavion monoplane built by Ponche and Primard in France.
• 1913 - China receives its first air fleet, 12 planes designed by French plane maker Rene Cuadron
• 1914
  • The St. Petersburg/Tampa Airboat Line starts services, becoming the first airline to provide services. A.C. Pheil is the first airline passenger.
  • Germany builds 1200 plane air force at start of WW1. First aerial combats.
• 1915
  • Aerobatic ace Adolphe Pegoud dies from hemorrage after landing his plane successfully.
  • Captain Lanoe Hawker of the RFC wins first VC for aerial combat, over France, July 25
• 1916 - William Boeing commences to build planes with his company, The Boeing Co
• 1917 - Manfred von Richthofen's Red Baron plane flies.
• 1918 - The Red Baron is shot and Manfred von Richthofen dies.
• 1919
  • Henry Farman carries 11 paying passengers in his F.60 Goliath plane from Paris to London, in what became the first commercial flight between the two European cities. NC-4, then Alcock & Brown, fly across the Atlantic. Avianca begins services.
  • May: A US Navy flying boat NC-4 flew by short stages from Long Island, New York to Lisbon, Portugal over 19 days.
  • June: John Alcock and Arthur Brown completed the first non-stop Atlantic crossing, flying a Vickers Vimy from Newfoundland to Ireland in 16 hours.
  • November: Keith and Ross Smith fly another Vickers Vimy, G-EAOU, from England to Australia, the first flight between these two places.

• 1920 - KLM and Qantas begin services.
• 1921 - Bessie Coleman, an African-American woman, attends flying school in France. Mexicana de Aviacion begins services.
• 1922 - The first commercial night flight between London and Paris is completed.
• 1923
  • US Army lieutenants Oakley G. Kelly and John A. MacReady complete the first non-stop flight from New York to Los Angeles in history. Sabena starts services.
  • May: The first non-stop USA coast-to-coast flight.
• 1924 - Imperial Airways begins services. Huff Daland Dusters, later to become Delta Airlines, begins services.
• 1925 - In Germany, in-flight silent movies are shown in commercial airliners for the first time.
• 1926 - A merge of the two leading German airlines results in the creation of Lufthansa. United Airlines established.
• 1927
  • May 20-May 21: Charles Lindbergh flies The Spirit of St. Louis across the Atlantic nonstop and solo, direct from New York City to Paris.
  • June 29: Canadian innovator Wallace Turnbull's variable-pitch propeller was first flight tested
• 1928 -
  • Amelia Earhart becomes first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean.
  • May: Charles Kingsford-Smith, Ulm, Lyon and Warner flew the Southern Cross, a modified Fokker Trimotor from San Francisco to Brisbane - the first crossing of the Pacific Ocean by air.
  • June: First recognized rocket-powered plane, the Ente.

• 1929 - LOT Polish Airlines, Cubana de Aviacion and Pan Am begin services.

• 1930 -
• 1931 -
• 1932 -
• 1933 -
• 1934 -
• 1935 -
• 1936 - Focke Fa 61, first practical helicopter by Heinrich Focke
• 1937 - Sir Frank Whittle builds the first jet engine designed to power an aircraft.
• 1938 -
• 1939 - Heinkel He 176 and He 178: first functional jetplanes, powered by liquid-fulled rocket and by turbojet respectively.

• 1940 -
• 1941 -
• 1942 - Messerschmitt Me 262: first jet fighter, test-piloted by Fritz Wendel.
• 1943 -
• 1944
  • The Gloster Meteor became the RAF's first operational jet fighter, July 27, against the V1.
  • Saudi Arabian Airlines begins services.
• 1945
  • on July 28 a B-25 Mitchell bomber crashed into the Empire State Building
  • December 3 - A Mk5 Sea Vampire became the first jet aircraft to take off and land from an aircraft carrier, HMS Ocean.
• 1946 -
• 1947 - October: Chuck Yeager took the rocket-powered Bell X-1 past the speed of sound.
• 1948 - July 14: Six de Havilland Vampire F3s became the first jet aircraft to fly across the Atlantic Ocean.
• 1949 - Aerolineas Argentinas established.

• 1950 - Arrow Air begins services.
• 1951 -
• 1952
  • The British state airline BOAC introduced into service the first jet airliner the De Havilland Comet.
  • The first non-stop, unrefuellled flight from England to Australia was completed by an English Electric Canberra bomber in under 24 hours.
• 1953 - Jacqueline Cochran becomes the first woman to break the sound barrier.
• 1954 -
• 1955 -
• 1956 -
• 1957 -
• 1958 -
• 1959 - Rock stars Ritchie Valens, Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper die when their plane crashes during snow storm in Iowa.

• 1960 -
• 1961 - First known manned space flight by Yuri Gagarin, once around the planet within 108 minutes.
• 1962 -
• 1963 -
• 1964 -
• 1965 -
• 1966 - Puerto Rican International Airlines begin services.
• 1967 - Air speed record of 4,534 mph (Mach 6.1) is established by the North American X-15 research aircraft.
• 1968 -
• 1969
  • Boeing 747 is unveiled. At the time the largest passenger carrying aircraft ever built and one which was to revolutionise commercial air travel.
  • March 2 - The Concorde supersonic aircraft makes its first test flight, in Bristol, England.
  • July: Neil Armstrong is the first man to walk on the moon.

• 1970 -
• 1971 - Southwest Airlines begins service.
• 1972 -
• 1973 - Icelandair established.
• 1974 -A SR-71 Blackbird crossed the Atlantic Ocean in less than two hours.
• 1975 -
• 1976 - First commercial Concorde flights.
• 1977
  • August: Gossamer Condor became the first human-powered aeroplane, flying a figure-8 course to demonstrate sustained, controlled flight.
• 1978 -
• 1979 -

• 1980 -
• 1981 -
• 1982 - Braniff International stops flying, Pan Am Boeing 727 crashes in Kenner, Louisiana.
• 1983 -
• \1984 - Virgin Atlantic Begins service to north america
• 1985 - TWA Boeing 727 hijacked over the Mediterranean.
• 1986
  • Space Shuttle Challenger destroyed at launch on January 28.
  • December: First non-stop flight around the planet without refueling.
• 1987 - Soviet Union: Mathias Rust, 19 years old, a West German pilot, shocks people by landing his Cessna 172 plane on Red Square.
• 1988 - The ATR-72 makes its maiden flight. Pan Am flight 103 explodes over Scotland.
• 1989 - The ATR-72 begins commercial services, with Kar Air

• 1990 -
• 1991 -
• 1992 -
• 1993 -
• 1994 -
• 1995 -
• 1996 - TWA Flight 800 explodes off the coast of New York. seven year old pilot Jessica Dubroff dies during attempt to set record.
• 1997 -
• 1998 -
• 1999 - Fear of the Y2K computer virus and possible in-flight consequences for those planes flying during the night of December 31, 1999 and the early morning of January 1, 2000, spreads around the airline industry.

• 2000 - On July 25 a Concorde of Air France (Air France Flight 4590) catches fire at launch, crashing and killing all 100 passengers, 9 crew and 4 people on the ground at Gonesse, France.
• 2001 - 4 jet-liners, 2 each of American Airlines and United Airlines, are hijacked and crashed in the September 11 terrorist attacks, killing more than 3,000 people.
• April: The unmanned aircraft Global Hawk flies automatically from Edwards AFB in the US to Australia non-stop and unrefuelled. This is he longest point-to-point flight ever undertaken by an unmanned aircraft, and took 23 hours and 23 minutes.
• 2002 -
• 2003 - The Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates, killing all seven occupants. Fina Air begins services. Boeing 727 mysteriously disappears in Angola, along with pilot Ben Charles Padilla. United Transit 141 crashes in Benin, spreading rumors that it is the Boeing 727 that disappeared earlier during the year. On November 26, the last commercial Concorde flight.
• October: First totally autonomous flight across the Atlantic by a computer-controlled model aircraft.
• '''2004
• March 27: Nasa's X-43 pilotless plane breaks world speed record for an atmospheric engine by briefly flying at 7,700 kilometers (4,780 miles) per hour (seven times the speed of sound)

• Early flying machines
• Aviation history
• Incidents in Aviation