Events in the aviation industry
Page last modified 22/12/2020
See
also Aviation
Companies (airlines, manufacturers)
See
also Science
and innovation
Global real-time flight
tracker, https://www.flightradar24.com/49.67,2.99/7
General aviation related,
also aircraft seat maps, https://www.seatguru.com/
Colour key:
People
Concorde
World War One air
raids
Aeroplane speed distance/height records
National
airlines start date
Balloons (inc. airships, Zeppelins)
Appendix
1 - Air
accidents and disasters
Appendix
3 – Airports
Appendix
4 – Air speed, height, distance records
19/12/2018, Gatwick Airport was closed
this evening following sightings of a drone over the runway. The airport
remained closed for 36 hours running the travel plans of some 350,000 people.
24/10/2003. Concorde made its last commercial
flight, from New York to London.
Commercial flights had begun on 21/1/1976. Economic conditions meant that many
of the plane’s regular flyers had not been booking over the past two years.
2/7/2002. Steve Fossett became
the first person to circumnavigate the
globe in a hot air balloon on his own without stopping.
7/11/2001, After a 15-month break, supersonic
flights by Concorde resumed.
17/10/1998, US Airways placed a
record-sized order for 276 Airbus A319s.
8/6/1998, British Deputy Prime
Minister John
Prescott announced plans for the privatisation of Britain’s Air
Traffic Control.
16/1/1998, For safety reasons, Russia
closed own over 200 small airlines that had started up since 1992. 315 airlines
were pared down to just 53.
8/9/1997, The Boeing 777-300 was
unveiled. It was 77 metres long, the longest aircraft to date.
2/4/1993, 1st test flight of Fokker 70.
11/1/1993. Richard Branson won a legal victory after British
Airways apologised for a ‘dirty tricks’ campaign against Virgin Atlantic
Airways.
1/9/1991, Boeing ended production of the 707 after 37 years.
18/8/1989, The Qantas Boeing 747-400 Spirit of Australia flew
non-stop from London to Sydney in 19 hours 10 minutes.
27/1/1989, Sir Thomas Octave Sopwith, designer of the World War One
biplane called the Sopwith Camel, died.
9/11/1988, The Pentagon unveiled its new ‘Stealth’ fighter plane, supposedly
invisible to enemy radar. It used radar-absorbent materials and a ‘faceted’
surface that reflected radar signals at odd angles.
28/3/1988, Roll-out of the new Airbus A320.
23/11/1987, Of the 128 new airlines created in the USA after
deregulation, only 37 were still in business.
23/12/1986, The aircraft Voyager landed in
California, to become the first aircraft to fly round the world without
refuelling.
17/8/1986, Boeing celebrated the roll-out of its 5,000th
airliner.
30/6/1985, The US
hostages from a TWA jet hijacked by two Shi’ite gunmen on 24/6/1985 and diverted
to Beirut, were released, following Syrian intervention.
22/6/1984. The first Virgin Atlantic flight left
Gatwick for New York. The single fare was £99.
9/12/1983, The 1,000th Boeing 737 was produced.
16/2/1982, Roll out of the first A310 aircraft.
15/8/1980, Gerry Breen
arrived at Land’s End, four days after having set off from John O Groats by
hang glider.
1/8/1980. The Air
Show at Oshkosh, Wisconsin opened. It ran till 8/8/1980 and attracted a record
250,000 spectators and 6,000 aircraft.
31/12/1979, In 1979 British airlines flew 47 billion passenger
kilometres; this compares with 6 million passenger kilometres flown in 1936.
20/4/1979, The last Concorde to be built made its maiden flight. Only 16 of the aircraft were ever built; they were too noisy. Even the lawyer
hired to secure landing rights publically admitted “Concorde is noisy as hell”.
13/1/1979, Concorde began a regular service
between Washington DC and Dallas airports.
24/10/1978, US President Jimmy Carter signed the Airlines
Deregulation Act. This allowed commercial airlines to ditch their
unprofitable short haul routes and to compete on the main inter-city routes and
tourist flights.
15/9/1978, Wilhelm Messerschmitt, German aviation engineer and
designer, died aged 80.
17/8/1978. The first crossing of the Atlantic by
balloon. The huge black and silver
balloon, Double Eagle II, landed in a wheat field at Miserey, near Paris, 137
hours after leaving Maine. It was flown by three Americans, Ben Abruzzo,
Max Anderson
and Larry
Newman.
9/12/1977, Concorde
began a short-lived thrice weekly service between London Heathrow and Singapore
via Bahrain. The service was initially suspended on 13/12/1977, after just
three flights, because of complaints from Malaysia about sonic booms over the
Strait of Malacca. On 24/1/1979 the route resumed, with take-offs out to sea
from Singapore avoiding Malaysia. However the route was losing £2 million a
year due to inadequate demand as was permanently withdrawn on 1/11/1980.
22/11/1977, British Airways
began regular commercial services by Concorde
between London and New York
17/10/1977, The US Supreme
Court ruled that Concorde could use
New York’s Kennedy Airport.
25/9/1977. Freddie Lakers’
Skytrain service began between
Gatwick and New York. One way fares London to New York cost £59, against the normal
price of £190; no frills, with food extra.
21/5/1977, Concorde made a
memorial flight from New York to Paris to mark the 50th anniversary of Charles
Lindbergh’s transatlantic flight. Whereas Lindbergh took 33 hours 29
minutes, Concorde completed the flight in 3 hours 44 minutes.
24/5/1976. Concorde made its
first commercial transatlantic flight from London to Washington DC.
21/1/1976. The British
Airways and French Concorde aircraft
made their first commercial flights,
from London to Bahrain and from Paris to Rio de Janeiro. See 9/1/1969 and
24/10/2003.
26/8/1974, Charles Lindbergh, US aviator, the first to
fly across the Atlantic solo non-stop in 1927, died.
26/9/1973,A French Concorde flew non-stop from Washington
to Paris in 3 hours 32 minutes. Now Concorde is out of service the same flight
takes over eight hours.
1972, British Airways
was formed by a merger of BEA and BOAC.
15/11/1972. The RAF museum at Hendon
opened.
26/10/1972, Igor Sikorsky, Russian-born US aeronautical engineer
who developed the first successful helicopter in 1939, died in Easton,
Connecticut.
13/9/1970. Concorde landed at Heathrow for the first time, to complaints about the noise.
21/1/1970, The Boeing
747 Jumbo Jet entered commercial service, see 9/2/1969. It could carry up
to 490 passengers.
10/10/1969, Concorde 001 broke the sound barrier for the first
time during a test flight over Paris.
9/4/1969, Concord’s first trial flight from Bristol to Fairford. See
21/1/1976. The French Concorde made its first flight on 2/3/1969. The
Concorde project had begun in 1962 between the British and French governments to develop a
supersonic aircraft. Sceptics doubted that it was possible to build a passenger
aircraft with over 100 seats that travelled as fast as a military fighter.
However Concorde halved flight times across the Atlantic.
31/3/1969, An airline pilots strike grounded all BOAC
flights.
2/3/1969. The French built Concorde
made its maiden flight from Toulouse Airport. See 9/1/1969. It was piloted by Andre Turcat, chief test pilot
of Sud Aviation; he got the plane to 300 mph.
9/2/1969, The Boeing
747 Jumbo Jet made its maiden flight. See 21/1/1970.
9/1/1969, Concorde
made its first trial flight from Bristol.
31/12/1968, Russia’s TU144
flew, becoming the world’s first
supersonic aircraft.
11/12/1967. The prototype of the world’s first supersonic
airliner, Concorde, was revealed in
8/2/1966. Freddie Laker formed a cut-price transatlantic
airline.
10/6/1965, A British European Airways De Havilland jet airliner flying from Paris to London made the first landing by automatic control.
21/5/1965. Sir Geoffrey
de Havilland, British aircraft designer who was knighted in 1944, died in
Stanmore, Middlesex.
29/11/1962, France and Britain agreed to develop the ‘Concorde’
airliner.
19/7/1961, TWA began showing films in the first class lounge
of its long-haul flights.
20/5/1961, The Orient
Express left Paris on its final
journey to Istanbul. The service started in 1883, and was suspended for
World War Two. It used to be the peak of
luxury travel but air travel had now superseded it.
1960, Skywriting,where planes
use contrails to make messages in the sky, was banned in the UK over aviation
safety fears.It remains legal in many other countries.
19/11/1960. The first
VTOL (vertical take off, landing) aircraft made by British Hawker Siddeley,
flew for the first time.
22/2/1960, Britain and
France announced plans to build a supersonic
airliner.
17/11/1959. Two Scottish airports, Prestwick
and Renfrew, became the first to offer duty-free
goods in
1/11/1959, Jet air
services began between London, UK, and Sydney, Australia,
run by BOAC.
10/12/1958, The first domestic jet airliner service within the US began,
operated by National Airlines between New York and Miami.
26/10/1958, Two new air services began this day. The New York
to London route was operated by BOAC, and the New York to Paris route was operated
by Pan Am.
4/10/1958. BOAC, now British Airways, began the first transatlantic jet air service,
with two de Havilland Comet IV jets. Flight
time was a record 6 hours 11 minutes.
1/4/1958, Economy class was introduced on transatlantic air
routes.
19/12/1957. Regular air services between
London and Moscow began.
11/3/1957, Richard Byrd, American aviator and polar
explorer, died.
1/2/1957, The first
turbo-prop airliner, the Bristol
Britannia, entered scheduled service in Britain.
28/9/1956. Death of US air pioneer William Boeing.
13/10/1955, Pan American
Airlines ordered 20 Boeing 707s and 25 Douglas DC-8 jet airliners. This was the start of a major shift by
world airlines into large jet aircraft for long-haul passenger flights.
27/5/1955, The French Caravelle aeroplane made its maiden flight.
26/2/1955, US pilot George Smith made the first ejection from a plane at supersonic speed. He required
surgery for damage to his liver and intestines, leaving him unable to drink
alcohol.
20/11/1954, Clyde Cessna,
6/9/1954, Rolls Royce announced that it had developed a new vertical take off plane; nicknamed the
flying bedstead because of its shape.
15/7/1954. The Boeing 707 (or 367-80)
made its maiden flight from Seattle. It could seat 219.
1/4/1954, The US Air Force Academy was created.
27/8/1953, The De Havilland Comet II made its first test
flight. Later on several crashed,
leading to the discovery of the new problem of metal fatigue.
3/4/1953, Easter air travel from Britain was up 20% on last
Easter.
5/12/1952, A Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) airliner flew
non-stop over the North Pole from Los Angeles to Copenhagen.
29/7/1952, First non-stop flight by a jet airliner over the
Pacific from Alaska to Japan.
2/5/1952. The first scheduled jet
flight , a Comet airliner, took off from London
for Johannesburg. The 18 ½ hour BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation)
flight stopped at Rome, Beirut, Khartoum, Entebbe and Livingstone. The flight
by propeller aircraft had previously taken 28 hours.
2/2/1952, The De
Havilland Comet went into service as the world’s first passenger jet.
22/1/1952, The De
Havilland Comet became the first jet
aircraft to receive a Certificate of Airworthiness.
8/11/1950. The first ever combat
between jet fighters took place when, in the Korean War, a US F86 shot down
a Soviet MIG 15.
7/7/1950, The first Farnborough
Air Show took place.
17/5/1950, Transcontinental and Western Air (TWA) was renamed
Trans World Airlines.
31/3/1950, Garuda Indonesia was established as a joint
venture with KLM, the Netherlands national airline, and began with a
fleet of 27 airplanes. In 1954, Garuda would become a fully Indonesian
business.
8/3/1950. The last Lancaster
bomber left RAF service.
4/9/1949, Britain’s largest ever aircraft, the 130-ton 8-engined, made its
first flight.
27/7/1949, The world’s first jet-propelled airliner built in the
UK, the Bristol Brabazon De Havilland DH 106 Comet, flew at
Hatfield.
13/5/1949, Britain flew its first jet bomber, the
16/6/1948, The first airline hijack took place. A gang of Chinese bandits took over a Cathay
Pacific flying boat, Miss Macao, on a scheduled flight to
30/1/1948. The
1947, The air journey from London to Australia
took 4 days, down from ten in 1938. Overnight stops were at Cairo, Karachi,
Kolkata and Singapore, with two day stops at Tripoli and Darwin.
24/6/1947, US pilot Kenneth Arnold,
flying over Mount Ranier, Washington State, filed the first report of flying
saucers; he reported seeing nine flying disc-shaped objects.
21/4/1947, The world’s first
duty-free airport shop opened, at Shannon Airport, Ireland.
24/7/1946, Aircraft fitter Benny Lynch tested the first
British ejector seat. Bailing out 8,000 feet above Chalgrove, Oxfordshire, he
landed safely in the back yard of pub, and was recovered later from the bar.
1/7/1946. British Overseas Airways Corporation
(BOAC)
began transatlantic flights between London and New York, in 19 ¾ hours
1/1/1946, Test flights began at an airfield west of London,
called Heathrow, to be developed as
a major civilian airport.
12/7/1944, The RAF
became the first air force to use jet aircraft in operational service.
30/7/1943, In Sweden, the Saab 21 became the first aircraft to fly with the modern
explosives-powered ejector seat.
18/7/1942, Germany tested its first military jet aircraft, the Messerschmitt Me262A.
13/1/1942, The first
escape by emergency ejection seat from an aircraft. The German pilot
ejected at 7,875 feet due to heavy icing, over Rechlin, Germany, and landed
safely.
15/5/1941. In the UK, the first
aircraft with a jet engine, invented by Frank Whittle, flew from
Cranwell.
2/4/1941, Germany tested the world’s first aircraft ejector seat, powered by
compressed air.
15/9/1940, The Battle
of Britain ended with victory to the Allies. 1,733 German planes were destroyed as against
915 lost by the RAF. It began on 8/8/1940. Both sides were short, not of planes
but of trained pilots. With bailed-out British pilots returning to the
airfields and bailed-out German pilots going into POW camps, the RAF slowly
gained the upper hand. The Nazis had given up hope of achieving air superiority
and invading Britain. The RAF had also destroyed much of the shipping that was
to carry German troops to England. The Luftwaffe, under Goering, also erred in
switching their attacks from RAF airfields and radar stations to British cities
on 7/9/1940 in revenge for an RAF raid on Berlin (25/8/1940). Had
the attacks on RAF airfields continued, the Luftwaffe might just have defeated
the RAF.
25/8/1940. First British air raid on Berlin.
23/8/1940. The Blitz on London began.
8/8/1940. Battle of Britain began.
31/7/1940. Hitler gave orders for a massive air offence
against Britain
2/7/1940. The first daylight bombing raid on
13/11/1939. The first German bombs fell on
19/9/1939. Britain's RAF began leaflet raids on
27/8/1939, The
world’s first jet-propelled aeroplane, the Heinkel 178, engines
designed by Dr
Von Ohain, made its first flight at Marienehe, northern Germany.
24/8/1939, Germany tested the first turbojet aircraft, at Rostock. A longer flight took place on
27/8/1939.
4/8/1939, A British transatlantic air mail service was
inaugurated by BOAC between Southampton and
27/6/1939, The first
transatlantic air service began. Pan
American Airways flying boat Yankee Clipper flew between Botwood,
Newfoundland, and Southampton, UK, seating 19 passengers on the 18 ¾ hour
flight. The fare was £140 return, for luxurious accommodation including
separate passenger cabins, ladies dressing rooms, a recreation lounge, sleeping
berths and a bridal suite.
1938, The air journey from
London to Australia now took ten days (12 in 1935).
31/12/1938, The first
pressurised airlined to enter commercial service, the Boeing 307
Stratoliner, made its maiden flight (see 7/5/1937). Pressurisation meant the
aircraft could avoid bad weather by flying above it.
14/9/1938, The largest rigid airship ever built, the 803
foot German Graf Zeppelin II, made her maiden flight. She was dismantled in April 1940.
2/7/1937, Aviatrix Amelia Earhart disappeared on a flight from
New Guinea to Howland Island.
9/5/1937, Walter Mittelholzer, Swiss aviation pioneer,
died in a crash.
7/5/1937, The first practical pressurised aircraft cabin was
used, by Lockheed. See 31/12/1938.
12/4/1937, A test-bed run of the
world’s first aircraft jet engine took place, at Cranwell, UK.
1936, Air Despatch became the first UK airline to
introduce air hostesses. They not only had to cook meals and mix cocktails, but
also type letters for businessmen during the flight.
6/6/1936. The German airship
Hindenburg crossed the Atlantic in
46 hours.
15/5/1936. Amy Johnson arrived in England
after a record-breaking 12 day, 15 hour flight from London to Cape Town and
back.
14/3/1936, An air service from London to Hong Kong was inaugurated.
5/3/1936. The Spitfire
fighter plane made its first flight from Eastleigh Aerodrome, near
4/3/1936, The airship LZ 129 Hindenburg had its first
flight.
11/11/1935, US balloonists Anderson
and Stevens reached 74,000 feet.
28/7/1935, The Boeing B-17 Flying
Fortress bomber made its first flight at Seattle.
13/4/1935. London to Australia air service began. The route was operated by Imperial Airways and QANTAS. The service took 12 days, 31
stops, and involved 4 different aircraft. There was also a train journey from
Paris to Brindisi included.
8/12/1934, The London to Australia airmail service was inaugurated.
5/4/1934, Joan Meakin became the first
female glider pilot to fly over the English Channel.
3/2/1934, The first regular transatlantic mail service was
begun by Deutsche Lufthansa between Berlin and Buenos Aires via Stuttgart,
Seville, Bathurst and Natal.
9/12/1933. London to
Singapore air service began.
7/6/1933, A Dornier Do J ‘Wal’ flying boat, the Monsun,
crossed the South Atlantic (with a stopover on the steamboat Westfalen) and
landed in the sea off Natal, Brazil.
3/4/1933. Two British planes became the first to fly over Mount Everest.
6/2/1933, Gayford and Nicholetts began a non-stop flight from England to Africa.
21/7/1932, A Dornier Do J ‘Wal’ (whale) took off from Sylt on
a three week trip around the world,
during which its pilot Wolfgang von Gronau flew 60,000 km.
27/4/1932. The Imperial Airways London to Cape Town air
service was inaugurated.
20/1/1932. The first airmail service between London and Cape Town.
8/8/1931, The US airship Akron
was launched by Mrs
Hoover.
4/4/1931, The first airmail left Croydon aerodrome for
Australia.
27/5/1931, Professor Auguste Picard became the first
man to reach the stratosphere. He
ascended 9 ¾ miles in a balloon from
25/10/1930, Transcontinental and Western Air (TWA) began a
coast to coast service across the USA.
22/8/1930. The remains of the Swedish aeronaut, Andree,
were discovered on White Island.
1/8/1930. The airship R101
arrived in Montreal after a flight of 79 hours from Cardington, Bedfordshire.
28/7/1930, The airship R101
began its maiden flight across the Atlantic.
24/5/1930, Amy Johnson arrived in
18/5/1930, The airship LZ127 Graf Zeppelin crossed the
Atlantic.
15/5/1930, Registered nurse Ellen Church became the world’s first air hostess, on a United
Airlines flight from Oakland California to Cheyenne, Wyoming. She had written
hersself to the airline suggesting that young ladies like herself be employed
as cabin attendants. Ellen was taken on and charged with training 7
others, who had to be under 5 ft 4 inches high, weigh under 8 stone 2 lb, and
be registered nurses aged under 25. They were paid US$ 125 a month for 100
hours flying in an unheated unpressurised aircraft; they also carried
passengers baggage, cleaned the interior of the plane, and assisted the pilot
and mechanic to push the plane in and out of the hangar. In flight they served
standard meals of fried chicken, fruit cocktail and bread rolls, and tea or
coffee. The total flight, with four intermediate stops, was scheduled as 18
hours but generally took nearer 24 hours. The pilots, and especially their
wives, did not welcome the new employees at first. However the passengers
appreciated the service and they stayed on.
1929, US commercial airlines
flew 30 million miles and carried 180,000 passengers, a rise from 6 million
miles and 37,000 passengers during 1927.
29/11/1929. US Admiral Richard Byrd, with pilot Bernt Balchen,
became the first to fly over the South
Pole.
14/10/1929, The R101 airship went on
its first trials above London from its Cardington hangar in Bedfordshire. The
airship was 732 feet long and held 5 million cubic feet of hydrogen; power was
from 5 diesel engines.
12/9/1929, KLM airlines now instituted a regular,
fortnightly, service between Amsterdam and Jakarta. The 9,500 mile route
included 18 stops, including Istanbul, Baghdad, Karachi, Calcutta (Kolkata) and
Bangkok.
4/9/1929, The German
airship Graf Zeppelin completed its 20-day round the world trip from
Friedrichshafen on the shore of lake Constance via Tokyo, Los Angeles, and
Lakehurst.
14/4/1929. The first air mail from
India arrived at Croydon.
30/3/1929, The first
commercial air service between London and Karachi began.
17/2/1929, The first
in-flight movie was shown, on an internal flight in the USA.
15/10/1928. The German airship Graf Zeppelin, captained by Hugo Eckener,
completed its first transatlantic flight. It flew from Friedrichshafen, Germany, to
Lakehurst in
11/10/1928, The LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin
departed Friedrichshafen with 20 passengers and 40 crew, bound for the United
States.
18/9/1928, The airship LZ 127 Graf
Zeppelin entered service.
18/6/1928. Roald Amundsen, Norwegian explorer who was the
first to reach the South Pole in 1911, was lost in the North Sea after a flying
accident..
15/6/1928. A race
between a train and a plane from London to Edinburgh was won by the train,
the ‘Flying Scotsman’.
8/6/1928, Charles Kingsford-Smith and Captain Ulm
completed the first flight across the
Pacific, landing at Brisbane, Australia.
They had taken off from Oakland, California, and flew via Hawaii and
Fiji in their plane, the Southern Cross.
15/5/1928. Australia began the flying doctor service. It began at
Cloncurry, Queensland; the first doctor was Dr Vincent Welsh.
10/1/1928. Aviators Hood
and Moncrieff
were lost whilst attempting the first flight across the Tasman Sea, from
14/10/1927, Dieudonne Costas and Joseph Le Brix
became the first persons to fly an airplane across the South Atlantic Ocean,
and the first to make an east-to-west transatlantic crossing, departing
Saint-Louis, Senegal and arriving in Port Natal, Brazil 21 hours and 15 minutes
later, at 11:40 pm local time.
1/5/1927, The first
airline cooked meals were served, from a galley aboard the Imperial Airways
Silver Ewing London to Paris flights. The galley could serve up to 18 passengers.
8/1/1927. The first
scheduled flight from London to Delhi arrived in India.
26/9/1926, Two Lufthansa Junker planes completed a round trip
from Berlin to Beijing and back, having departed on 24/7/1926.
11/6/1926, Maiden flight of the Ford 4AT trimotor plane.
12/5/1926. Roald Amundsen flew in the airship
Norge over the North Pole. They had left Spitsbergen on 11/5 and landed on
14/5/1926 at Teller, Alaska.
9/5/1926, Richard Byrd, American explorer, made the first flight over the North Pole,
with pilot Floyd
Bennett.
1/5/1926, Lufthansa began one of the world’s first passenger
night routes, from Berlin to Konigsberg, using radio beacons.
13/4/1925, Henry Ford set up the USA’s first aerial
freight service, running between Detroit and Chicago.
6/4/1925. The first in-flight movie was shown; The Lost World.
28/9/1924, Lieutenants Smith and Nelson, in US Army
Douglas airplanes, completed the first
circumnavigation of the globe. They flew a
total of 26,103 miles, with 57 stops.
1/7/1924, Inauguration of the first regular transcontinental
air mail service in the USA.
5/9/1923, Sadi Lecointe, France, set a new aviation
altitude record of 35,242 feet.
22/8/1923, Maiden flight of the Witteman-Lewis XNBL-1. This long-range bomber was then the
world’s largest plane.
15/7/1923, Regular passenger flights between Moscow and Gorki
(Nizhniy-Novgorod), 420 km, began.
13/2/1923, Charles ‘Chuck’ Yeager, American
pilot, first to fly at supersonic speed,
was born.
20/10/1922, Lieutenant Harold Harris became
the first person to avoid death by usng a parachute in a real emergency.
5/9/1922, American aviator James Doolittle
made the first coast to coast flight
across the USA, taking 21 hours 19 minutes.
6/8/1922, Freddie Laker, British airline operator, was
born.
2/4/1922, Jack Sanderson became the world’s first airline steward, on the London-Paris route.
1/12/1921, The US
Navy airship Goodyear became the
first such craft to fly using helium
gas. This was much safer than hydrogen; however the gas was then only found
within the US, and for military reasons its use was denied to other countries.
Use of hydrogen in 1937 caused the Hindenburg
airship disaster in 1937, and finally doomed airships as a means of transport.
26/9/1921, Sadi Lecointe,
France, set a new aviation speed record of 205.24 mph.
3/8/1921, The first aerial crop spraying took place at Troy Ohio, to clear a
catalpa grove infested with leaf caterpillars. Powdered arsenate of lead was
sprayed over the trees. 99% of the insects were killed.
14/4/1921. Air services between London and Amsterdam resumed.
19/3/1921. Daily air service between Paris and London resumed.
18/2/1921. The first helicopter flew, designed in
France by Etienne
Oemichen.
3/1/1921, The airships R 36
and R 37 were built; they were capable of carrying 50 passengers.
1920, Early passenger
flights could be severely hampered by low cloud and headwinds. If the cloud base was at 200
feet they had to fly at 150 feet, sometimes following railway lines along
valleys for navigation. Cross Channel flights might be at an altitude as low as
40 feet. Headinds could slow the plane up so much it was overtaken by buses on
the ground.
20/12/1920, Maiden flight of the Bleriot-Spad 33 airliner.
15/9/1920. New air mail services began in Europe, from
Copenhagen to Amsterdam, London, and Hamburg.
3/7/1920. The first RAF air display took place at Hendon.
1/7/1920, Germany
surrendered her largest airship, the L-71 to Britain.
20/5/1920. Charles Lindbergh took off on the first transatlantic solo flight.
5/2/1920, The Royal
Air Force College at Cranwell
opened to the first batch of apprentices.
4/2/1920, Aviators Pierre van Ryneveld and C J Quinton took off from Brooklands airfield
on the first flight
from London to Cape Town, South Africa.
18/12/1919, Death of British aviation expert Sir John Alcock
in a flying accident, six months after his pioneering transatlantic flight with
Sir Arthur Brown.
12/11/1919. Captain Ross Smith, his brother,
and two others began the first flight from
11/10/1919. The first airline meals were served, on a Handley-Page flight from
London to Paris. They were pre-packed lunch boxes priced at 3 shillings (15p).
1/9/1919, The first
intercontinental air service began, from Toulouse to Barcelona
and Tangier. Services were extended to Casablanca in April 1920.
8/1919, In Britain it became legal
for aircraft to take up to 4 passengers, and up to 500 people a day went on ‘joyride trips’ (see 1912), lasting 15
minutes over and around Blackpool. The experience of flying was thrilling but
evidently safe, and many began to see the benefits of air transport as a mode
of travel.
25/8/1919. Air service
between London (Hounslow) and Paris (Le Bourget) inaugurated. This was the
first international scheduled air service from Britain. The single fare was £21
for the 2 ½ hour journey, compared to the cost of rail and boat at £3 8s 5d. By
1/1/1920 three British companies were operating regular daily air services
across The Channel, to Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam, for passengers, freight,
and mail.
14/7/1919, Britain legalised passenger flights to and from
the Continent. The very next day an executive from Pilkington Glass, who had
missed the boat train, arranged to pay £50 for a one-off flight from Hendon,
London, to Le Bourget, Paris.
13/7/1919, The British
airship R34 arrived back in Pulham, Norfolk, having made the first transatlantic aerial round trip;
she set out from East Fortune, Scotland, on 2/7/1919.
6/7/1919. The British airship R34 became the first to cross
the Atlantic, flying from Edinburgh to New York in 108 hours. She
had set out from East Fortune, near Edinburgh, on 2/7/1919. She set off from
Long Island on 9/7/1919 on the return journey, arriving in Pulham, Norfolk, on
13/7/1919.
27/5/1919. Lieutenant Commander Read and a crew of five,
flying a Curtiss NC 4 seaplane, arrived in Lisbon via The Azores to complete the first flight across the Atlantic. They had left Trepassy, Newfoundland, on
16/5/1919.
26/5/1919, North Sea
Aerial Navigation Co inaugurated passenger
flights between Hartlepool and Hull. In June further routes began, between Hull, Leeds and Hounslow (for London),
and Scarborough, Leeds, Harrogate.
Businesspeople liked the new fast link between London and the North.
10/5/1919, The first
airline in Britain started. It flew the 50 miles between Alexander Park, Manchester, and Blackpool
in a 2-seater single engine Avro biplane. Services lasted until 30/9/1919, and
cost £2 2s single or £4 4s return..
15/4/1919, Passenger
air services on a route between Berlin,
Hanover and Rotthausen began, also Berlin
to Warnemunde.
14/3/1919, Passenger air services between Berlin and Hamburg began. On 15/3/1919 a service from Berlin via Brunswick and
Hanover to Gelsenkirchen began. In June 1919 these services had to be curtailed
due to lack of fuel.
6/2/1919, The first
regular passenger air service. Planes flew from Berlin to Weimar,
carrying mainly mail and newspapers, but some passengers also.
1/1/1919, The early aviation industries in
the USA and Europe began to develop in very different directions, after World
War One. In the
US there was a powerful railway lobby, but no equivalent air industry lobby.
However US cities were much further apart than European ones. Therefore the US
railways kept the passenger transport market, and US airlines concentrated on
the postal delivery sector. Sometimes, US railways had fire beacons placed
along their length by night to guide the aircraft. US airlines only got into
the passenger market in the mid to late 1920s. By contrast, in Europe the
railways had been severely damaged by the War, and European airlines ran
comparatively short hop routes between cities, as well as carrying mail.
15/5/1918, The US
inaugurated the world’s first
regular air mail service between New York and Washington. The US
Navy operated the service, for the US Post Office.
21/4/1918, Manfred von Richtofen, the ‘Red Baron’,
German World War One air ace, was shot down and died in his famous red
tri-plane behind British lines.
1/4/1918. The Royal Air Force was formed, by
amalgamating the Royal Flying Corps
and the Royal Naval Air Service. Lord Rothermere at the Air Ministry in The
Strand,
1917, The earliest experiments, by Germany, with the
use of ‘barrage balloons’. These were hydrogen-filled balloons whose
function was to hoist cables up to 3,000 metres high in the sky to disable
enemy planes flying low. Several such balloons provided a ‘barrage’ of cables
to protect cities; hieghts above 3,000 metres wree impractical due to the
weight of the cable. Bomber planes could target less accurately if fliyng high,
and the cables could force planes into areas where they could be targeted by
anti-aircraft fire.
13/12/1917, The first German airline was founded. Known
initially as Deutsche Luft Reederie, it was the forerunner of Lufthansa.
20/10/1917. 4 Zeppelins
were shot down over France after raids on the UK.
1/10/1917. Air raids on London.
20/8/1917, Over 100 killed in an air raid on Thanet
and Sheppey.
7/7/1917. Air raids on London and Margate killed 97 and injured 193.
25/5/1917. Air raid on Folkestone.
8/3/1917. Graf von Zeppelin, German airship pioneer, died in Charlottenburg,
near Berlin.
1/10/1916. A Zeppelin
was brought down at Potters Bar, Hertfordshire.
3/9/1916. The first Zeppelin
was shot down, by Captain Leefe Robinson, at Cuffley,
Hertfordshire, using the newly-invented Pomeroy incendiary bullets.
28/5/1916, The
Sopwith triplane, the first triplane fighter to enter military service, was
introduced by the British.
1/4/1916, A German Zeppelin
airship dropped its bombs on Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire.
19/3/1916. German seaplane raids on Deal, Dover, Margate, and Ramsgate.
31/1/1916. Zeppelin
raids on Shrewsbury
killed 59 persons.
29/1/1916. Zeppelins
bombed Paris
for the first time.
12/12/1915. In
7/6/1915, The
British air force downed a German Zeppelin. Sub-Lieutenant
Warneford took his aircraft over the airship and dropped six
20-pound bombs, one of which hit its target. For this Warneford was awarded the
Victoria Cross.
27/5/1915. Zeppelin
raid on Southend,
Essex.
26/5/1915. The first Zeppelin
raids on London.
A ton of bombs was dropped from one airship, killing 7 and injuring 15.
17/5/1915. Zeppelin
raid on Ramsgate,
10/5/1915. Zeppelin
raid on Southend,
Essex.
30/4/1915. Zeppelin
air raids on Ipswich
and Bury St
Edmunds.
14/4/1915. Zeppelin air raid on Lowestoft and Maldon, Essex.
20/3/1915. German air raid on Deal,
Kent.
21/2/1915. German air raid on Essex.
11/2/1915. British seaplanes and
airplanes bombarded Bruges and Ostend.
15/1/1915. German Zeppelin airships dropped bombs on villages in Norfolk, killing
five people. Great
Yarmouth was bombed.
29/12/1914, The first Zeppelin appeared over the British coast.
11/12/1914, The Royal Flying Corps adopted the roundel now used
by the RAF.
9/12/1914, The first
warship built as an aircraft carrier was commissioned. HMS Ark Royal, originally designed as a
merchant ship, but acquired by The Admiralty whilst under construction at
Blyth, was launched in September 1914.
4/10/1914, The first
bomb was dropped on London.
24/9/1914, First use
of radio in an aircraft in warfare, during the First Battle of the Aisne.
23/9/1914. British aviators
bombed the Zeppelin shed at Dusseldorf.
19/8/1914, First use
of aerial reconnaissance by Britain in warfare. Captain Philip Joubert de la Ferte
and Lt
Gilbert Mapplebeck flew over Nivelle and Genappe, to ascertain the
positions of Belgian troops and German cavalry.
23/6/1914, Britain’s Royal Air Force was formed.
1/1/1914, The USA’s first regular passenger air service
began. Passengers were carried, on at a time, twenty miles across Tampa Bay
between St Petersburg and Tampa, Florida, for US$ 5, saving a 36 mile road trip
around the Bay. The service was discontinued after 4 months.
20/8/1913. Adolphe Pegond baled out of a plane at 700 feet, becoming
the first person to parachute from a plane.
13/5/1913, The
Russians first flew the biggest aircraft to date. Designed by Sikorsky, with a
92-foot wingspan, the Bolshoi offered
luxurious civilian transport, with armchairs, sofas and ample vodka. It was
also the first plane to be fitted with a toilet.
1912, The world’s first
aeronautical library was established by French engineer AG Eiffel,
designer of the 1889 Eiffel Tower in Paris. The library at Auteuil was
dedicated to the study of aerodynamics and air currents.
1912, Early commercial aircraft encouraged a practice known as ‘joyriding’. People would make their way
out of town to a nearby airfield, to be taken up and flown a few times around
the area. The joyriders had to sign a disclaimer against any liability resulting
from injuries if the plane crashed. However several of those who experienced
‘joyriding; wanted to then fly a plane themselves, some becoming wartime pilots
after 1914. See 8/1919.
19/9/1912, The first scheduled international airline service began, when Count Zeppelin’s airships started a regular service between Hamburg, Germany, and
Copenhagen, Denmark, and on to Malmo, Sweden.
30/5/1912, Wilbur Wright, older of the two Wright Brothers who invented the airplane, died aged
45 of typhoid fever at Dayton, Ohio. Wilbur had become
ill on 4/5/1912 while on a business trip to Boston. On 17/12/1903 Wilbur became the
second man to pilot an airplane, after his brother Orville made the first flight.
8/5/1912, Pilot Lieutenant
Samson, flying a Short S38, made the first
ever take off from a moving ship.
The HMS Hibernia, off Weymouth, was moving at 10 knots.
13/4/1912, In Britain the Royal Flying Corps, forerunner of
the Royal Air Force, was formed.
1/3/1912, The first
parachute jump from a moving plane was made, over Missouri, USA, by Albert Berry.
He jumped at 1500 feet over Jefferson Barracks, St Louis.
10/1/1912, The first
flying boat, designed by Glenn Curtis, made its maiden voyage at
Hammondsport, New York.
10/11/1911, The first
regular civil airmail service began between Hounslow (London) and Paris.
Mail was surcharged at 2s 6d an ounce, of which the airline received b2s. The
high price deterred customers, and an average of only 46 letters a day were
carried.
1/11/1911. The world’s first air raid. The Italian, Lt Guilio Gavotti, took off from
31/10/1911, J.J. Montgomery, 55, American aeronautical
engineer, died in a plane crash
23/10/1911. First aerial reconnaissance in
warfare. The Italian Captain Piazza, during the Italian Turkish war of 1910-11, took off from Tripoli and
flew over Turkish troops camped at Aziza.
9/9/1911, The first
experimental airmail service in Britain began, operating between Hendon
aerodrome and Windsor, 19 miles . The service was discontinued on 26/9/1911.
9/8/1911, Captain Felix, France, set a new aviation
record of 10,466 feet.
3/8/1911. Aeroplanes
were put to military use, when Italian planes reconnoitred the Turkish
lines near Tripoli.
25/5/1911, Britain passed the Aerial Navigation Act, giving
powers to ban hostile flights.
12/5/1911. Display of military aviation at Hendon.
4/7/1911, The first
air cargo was delivered; a box of Osram lamps.
18/2/1911. The first
official airmail flight. Henri Pecquet flew a load of 6,000 letters and
cards 5 miles from Allahabad, India, to Naini Junction, where they were
transferred to the railway.
18/1/1911. US pilot Eugene Ely, in a Curtiss aircraft, made the first landing on the deck of a
ship; the cruiser Pennsylvania in San Francisco Bay.
14/11/1910. Pilot Eugene Ely, in a Curtiss biplane, made the first take-off from a ship,
the US light cruiser Birmingham, at anchor in Chesapeake Bay.
9/6/1910, The first
trials of aircraft reconnaissance. During a record-breaking2 ½ hour, 145
km, flight from Camp de Chalons, Mourmelon, to Vincennes, Captain Marconnet, squeezed
between the pilot and the engine, took aerial photographs of the territory
below.
4/6/1910, Christopher Cockerell, who invented the
amphibious hovercraft, was born in
18/5/1910. The first Air Traffic Conference opened in Paris.
28/3/1910. The first seaplane took off, from near
Marseilles. Called the Hydravion, it was designed by Frenchman Henri Fabre.
It flew 1,650 feet.
10/3/1910. The world’s first night aeroplane flight was made, in
Argentina by Aubrun.
31/12/1909, Henry Ferguson
made the first aeroplane flight from Irish soil, at Hillsborough near Belfast.
18/12/1909, Albert
Kimmerling became the first pilot in South Africa.
16/10/1909, The first commercial airline began.
Count Zeppelin’s Deutsche Luftschiffahrt
Aktiengesellschaft, or Delag, flew airships between the major German
cities.
1/8/1909. The US military accepted its first heavier-than-air
flying machine, built by the Wright
Brothers, on 2/8/1909.
25/7/1909. Louis Bleriot
became the first man to fly across the English Channel. He flew from Les Barques near Calais to
Northfall Meadow near Dover Castle, covering 26 miles in 43 minutes.
Aged 37, born on 1/7/1872 in Cambrai, France, Bleriot won £1,000 for his
flight, in a plane designed by himself, a prize awarded by the Daily Mail for
the first person to perform this feat. Bleriot died in August 1936. The
British now realised that the Channel was less of a defensive barrier than it
used to be.
20/6/1909. The German Army adopted the Zeppelin as its first
air arm.
28/4/1909, The Aerial League of Australia held its first meeting.
5/4/1909, The Aerial
League of the
19/3/1909, Britain’s first international aircraft exhibition
opened.
24/12/1908, In Paris, President Armand Fallieres opened the first international aviation show.
21/10/1908. Over
London the suffragettes made the first ever leaflet raid, hiring an airship and
throwing out leaflets demanding ‘Votes for Women!’.
24/8/1909, Bleriot set a new aviation speed record of
46.18 mph.
23/8/1909, G Curtiss, USA, set a new aviation speed
record of 43.38 mph.
14/8/1908, An airship blew up
over London, killing one person.
21/3/1908, Frenchman Henri Farman piloted the world’s first passenger flight, over Paris.
8/1/1908, Count Von Zeppelin announced plans to build an airship capable of
carrying 100 people.
13/11/1907, In
France, Mr
Paul Cornu built a prototype helicopter,
or ‘direct lifter’ as he called it. It rose 4 feet into the air and stayed
there for 60 seconds.
10/9/1907, Britain’s first military airship flew successfully at Farnborough.
1/7/1907, The US
established the world’s first air force. The aeronautical division of the US Army’s
Signal Office was set up under the command of Captain Chandler. The force
consisted of one officer, one NCO, and one enlisted man. It had one aircraft,
which had to be capable of flying for one hour at 36 mph. The biplane was
delivered to Fort Meyer, Virginia, for test flights in August 1908. It crashed
in September 1908 and a new Wright Flyer was ordered. This was delivered on
2/8/1909. By 1914 the US air force had
just 6 planes.
1/6/1907, Sir Frank Whittle, inventor of jet propulsion, was born in
30/3/1907, The first commercially produced aircraft was
delivered to its purchaser, marking the start
of the world’s aviation industry. Paris sculptor Leon Delagrange ordered the
biplane from Voisin Freres, Billancourt, France.
11/11/1906, The first balloon crossing of the Alps. A balloon
piloted by Murillo
and Cresti
lifted off from Milan and passed over Mont Blanc, highest peak of the Alps.
7/7/1906, Britain’s first hot air balloon race.
30/11/1905, The Aero Club of America was formed in New York
City.
25/5/1905, Europe’s first flight by a heavier-than-air machine.
11/2/1905, 11 Frenchmen landed in Crystal Palace from a hot air balloon after crossing the Channel.
20/9/1904. The US Army rejected heavier than air flying machines.
17/12/1903. The
Wright
Brothers made the first
successful controlled heavier-than-air flight. The flight, over the
sand dunes at Kill Devil Hill, near Kittyhawk, North Carolina, lasted for 12
seconds at a height of 8 to 12 feet and an air speed of 30 to 35 mph. The
flight was 120 foot long. Three subsequent flights were made, the longest being
59 seconds and 852 foot long, before their craft was damaged by a sudden gust
of wind.
12/11/1903, The Lebaudy
brothers made a fully controlled dirigible flight, navigating 37
miles from Moisson to Paris.
1/7/1903, The aviator Amy Johnson was born in
23/3/1903, US patent no. 821393 was filed for the first
aeroplane. The patent was filed by Orville Wright (1871-1948), and his brother Wilbur Wright
(1867-1912). They tried to sell the aeroplane but without a demonstration
flight people were sceptical of the notion that heavier-than-air machines could
fly.
22/9/1902. The earliest British airship, 75 foot long, built by Stanley Spencer, made its
maiden flight of 30 miles from Crystal Palace, London.
4/2/1902The
23/10/1901, Alberto Santos Dumont, Brazilian aviator (see 19/10/1906) collected a
prize for the first officially-observed powered flight in Europe. He flew his
airship from St Cloud to the Eiffel Tower and back, taking 30 minutes.
20/10/1901, The Aero Club of the United Kingdom was founded in
London.
19/10/1901, Brazilian aviator
Alberto
Santos Dumont circumnavigated the Eiffel Tower in his airship,
winning an aviation prize, see 23/10/1901.
30/6/1901, Herr Berson and Professor Suring set a new
balloon altitude record of 35,435 feet.
15/2/1901, The Aero Club of Belgium was founded.
2/7/1900. The first Zeppelin airship made its maiden flight from a floating hangar on
Lake Constance, Germany. It had been invented by Count Zeppelin, aged 62, who had
retired from the army 10 years ago. Zeppelin had made balloon ascents as a
military observer during the American Civil War. Powered by a 16 hp engine, the
airship had a top speed of 20 mph; it attained a height of 1,000 feet.
25/4/1900, The British Army in South Africa used balloon
observers to direct fire on Boer positions.
7/10/1898, Aero club de France was established, to represent
the country’s fliers.
26/6/1898, Wilhelm
Messerschmitt, German aviation engineer and designer, was born in
Frankfurt.
24/7/1897, Amelia Earhart, aviator,
was born in Atchison, Kansas.
9/2/1897, Sir Charles
Kingsford Smith, Australian aviator, was born.
6/11/1892, The aviator Sir John Alcock was born in Manchester. In
1919 he made the first transatlantic flight, with Sir Arthur Whitten-Brown.
6/4/1890, Birth of Anthony Fokker, Dutch aircraft manufacturer
(died 1939).
25/5/1889, Igor Sikorsky, American engineer who pioneered
the helicopter, was born in Kiev.
25/10/1888,
Richard Byrd,
US naval officer and polar explorer, was born in Winchester, Virginia. In 1926
he became the first person to fly over the North Pole.
12/8/1888, An
airship designed by the German, Karl Woelfort, was tested with a Daimler
petrol engine. The invention of a light yet powerful engine, along with the
invention in 1886 of a method of mass producing the lightweight metal aluminium
(using electrolysis) meant that practical steerable airships, or dirigibles,
were now possible.
18/1/1888. Birth of aviation pioneer Sir Thomas Sopwith.
26/9/1887, Barnes Wallis, inventor of the bouncing bomb
used in World War Two, and inventor and designer of aircraft, was born.
23/7/1886, Birth of Sir Arthur Brown, future co-pilot in the first
ever trans-Atlantic flight.
9/8/1884, Charles Renard and Arthur Krebs made a controlled
circular flight in an airship around Chalais-Meudon. The trip lasted 25
minutes, as average 13 mph. However the heavy batteries required, at 704 lbs,
meant the airship was not a practical venture.
27/7/1882, Sir Geoffrey de Havilland, British aircraft
designer and manufacturer, born in Woburn, Buckinghamshire.
11/5/1881, Theodore von Karman, Hungarian physicist, was
born in Budapest. He developed the science of aerodynamics and applied it to aircraft
wings.
5/12/1879, Clyde Cessna, American aircraft manufacturer,
was born in Hawthorne, Iowa.
31/7/1879, Richard Cowen and Charles Page made the first
balloon flight in Canada.
23/7/1878, The British Army flew its first balloon at
Woolwich, London. It cost £71 to build, out of an allocated £150; the first
British Government military aviation budget.
29/6/1877, Italian professor Enrico Forlanini tested a
steam-powered helicopter at Alexandria.
18/6/1877, Samuel Archer King made a 2-hour airmail
flight of 26 miles between Nashville and Gallatin in his balloon.
13/12/1872, Haenlein fitted
the first internal combustion engine to an airship. However the craft only made
a tethered display and further development was shelved for lack of funds.
1/7/1872, Louis Bleriot, French aviation pioneer, was
born.
19/8/1871. Orville Wright, American
aviation pioneer, was born in Dayton, Ohio, the younger of two brothers.
18/8/1871, French pioneer Alphonse Penaud
achieved a 13 second flight in his glider.
28/1/1871. Starving and surrounded by
Prussian troops, Paris surrendered to
Germany. During the 5-month siege, balloons were used to maintain contact with
the rest of France. The Prussians
tried to shoot the balloons down, so the French switched to night flights.
23/9/1870, The French defenders, surrounded and under siege in
Paris, succeeded in sending a balloon out with 227 pounds of mail. It passed
over and beyond Prussian lines, giving news to the French provisional
Government at Tours. The balloon was piloted by James Durouf.
16/4/1867. The American aviation pioneer, Wilbur Wright, was born. He was
the elder of the two brothers.
12/1/1866, The Aeronautical Society of Great Britain was
formed. The only means of flying was then by balloon.
18/10/1863. A French
photographer called Nadar took the first aerial photographs from his balloon, The Giant.
However the trip ended with Nadar breaking his leg, near Hanover.
1/10/1861, The US
Army formed a Balloon Corps. It had 50 men, 7 balloons, and was commended by
Chief Aeronaut Thaddeus
Lowe.
18/6/1861, Thaddeus Lowe sent the
world’s first aerial telegram. Using apparatus hoisted up in a tethered
balloon, he sent his dispatch to President Lincoln.
1/7/1859. The first mail was transported by
balloon. John Wise and three others piloted
their machine the 812 miles between St Louis, Missouri, and Henderson, New York
State, in 19 hours and 40 minutes.
1/2/1858, Englishman William Dean
made the first balloon ascent in Australia, flying for seven miles over
Melbourne.
2/5/1857, The
French inventor Felix
du Temple patented designs for an aircraft with a retractable
undercarriage.
1853, The first manned
heavier-than-air flight took place. Sir George Cayley, aged 80, who had written on
the topic of heavier-tha-aor flight in 1809 in his paper “On Aerial
Navigation”, glided 500 yards across a valley.
25/9/1852, The Mechanic’s Magazine published the plans
of a heavier-than-air glider capable of carrying a person.
24/9/1852, The first airship
made its maiden flight from the Hippodrome, Paris, travelling 17 miles to
Trappes at 8 mph. It was piloted by Henri Giffard. However the craft could only
travel in calm weather.
22/8/1848, The
world’s first aerial bombing raid was carried out by the Austrians
against the defenders of Venice. Unmanned hot air balloons with 30 pound bombs
were sent across; they caused little damage but much bemusement.
8/7/1838, Count Zeppelin, German builder of airships, was born in Constance.
7/11/1836, The hot air
balloon Nassau, lifted by 85,000
cubic feet of coal gas, took off from London’s Vauxhall Gardens with three
passengers. They flew over Liege and Coblenz, and landed 18 hours later in the
Nassau region. Coal gas was a cheaper lifting gas than hydrogen.
7/7/1819, The widow
of Blanchard,
who had continued his aviation career after he died of a heart attack, herself
died in a ballooning accident. Her craft was ignited by a stray firework during
a display at the Tivoli Gardens, Paris.
2/3/1819, Henry Coxwell,
English balloonist, was born (died 5/1/1900).
22/6/1817. Windham Sadler crossed the St George’s Channel by balloon.
7/3/1809, Jean Pierre Blanchard, French balloonist, who was the first person to
cross the English Channel by air, died at La Haye during practice jumps from a
balloon.
3/5/1808. The first duel to be fought from two hot air balloons was held over
Paris; one combatant was shot dead.
22/10/1797. Andre-Jacques Garnerin, 28, made a
parachute descent, from 2,230 feet, from a hot air balloon. He
jumped over the Parc Monceau, Paris. This was not the first parachute jump, but
Garnerin had improved the device so as to enable descents from a greater height
then ever before.
26/6/1794, The French
defeated the Austrians at the Battle of Fleurus. Balloon reconnaissance of the
enemy was used by the French, from a tethered balloon, for the first time.
2/4/1794, The French military formed a company of Aerostiers
for military observation from tethered hot air balloons.
15/9/1784, The first
hydrogen balloon ascent from London was made.
9/1/1793, Jean Pierre Blanchard made the first
ascent in a balloon in America, near Woodbury, New Jersey.
19/1/1785, The first balloon
ascent in Ireland was made, from Ranelagh Gardens, Dublin.
7/1/1785. Jean-Pierre Blanchard, and his sponsor, the American Dr John Jefferies,
made the first hot air balloon crossing of the English Channel from Dover to
Calais.
1/12/1783, Jacques Charles flew a
28-foot diameter hydrogen balloon made of silk, coated with rubber to make it
airtight. It flew 27 miles from its start in Paris.
21/11/1783. Man’s first free flight was made by Jean De Rosier and the Marquis D’Arlandes in the hot air balloon, the Montgolfier They travelled five miles
in 25 minutes, reaching a height of 500 feet before landing safely near the
Luxembourg Wood. On 4/6/1783 they had constructed an unmanned prototype, based
on the ideas of the 14th century Augustinian monk, Albert of Saxony,
and the 17th century priest, Francesco de Luna. On 17/10/1783
Pilatre de Rozier rose 84 feet in a hot air balloon before it reached the end
of its tether. On 1/12/1783 the Montgolfier’s rivals Charles, and Robert
ascended in a hydrogen balloon. On 27/8/1783 Jacques Alexandre Cesar Charles,
a member of the French Academy of Science, had launched a prototype hydrogen
balloon.
15/10/1783, Francois Pilatre de Rozier made the
world’s manned first flight, in a tethered balloon.
17/9/1783, In France, King Louis XVI
watched as two French papermakers, Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier, sent a
large hot air balloon into the sky with a sheep, a rooster and a duck on board.
The balloon reached 1500 feet and landed a mile away; the rooster was killed ut
the sheep and duck survived unharmed.
27/8/1783, Jacques Cesar Charles, a rival hot air balloon maker to Montgolfier who
preferred hydrogen to hot air, launched his balloon. It drifted 15 miles from
Paris to Gonesse where it was hacked to pieces by frightened peasants; it
expired with much hissing.
5/6/1783, The Montgolfier
Brothers flew the first hot
air balloon. Unmanned, it ascended to 2,000 metres and remained there for
ten minutes.
26/8/1740. Joseph-Michel Montgolfier,
pioneer balloonist, was born in Annonay, France. He and his brother got the
idea for hot air balloons by filling paper bags with smoke from a fire and
watching them rise to the ceiling.
1720, Swiss scientist Daniel Bernoulli doscivered that
flowing air xraetes low pressude – a key principle of aviation today.
8/8/1709, Father de Gusmao
demonstrated a model hot air balloon indoors in the palace of King John V
of Portugal. It rose 12 foot and threatened the expensive curtains with its
firebox. Servants shot the contraption down.
Most balloon demonstrations after that took place outdoors.
3/1/1496, Leonardo da Vinci unsuccessfully tested a
flying machine.
Appendix 1
– Air accidents and disasters
8/1/2020, An airliner with 176
people on board crashed with no survivors shortly after taking off from Tehran
on a flight to Ukraine. The plane blew up in mid-air, sparking speculation that
it had been hit by a missile. The incident, early in the morning whilst still
dark, coincided with a limited Iranian missile strike against US bases in Iraq,
in a low-key revenge attack for the assassination of Qassem Soleimani on 3/1/2020.
5/5/2019, 41 people died when a
plane made an emergency landing at Moscow Airport, and the back of the plane
scraped the runway, causing the fuel tanks to catch fire.
10/3/2019, A Boeing 737 Max airliner
crashed shortly after take-off in Ethiopia, killing all 157 people on board.
This was the second such plane to crash within a few months after a similar
plane plunged into the sea 12 minutes after taking off from Indonesia. The rest
of these planes were grounded worldwide.
18/5/2016, An EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo
crashed in the Mediterranean north west of the Nile Delta.
31/10/2015, A Russian plane disintegrated in mid-air
shortly after taking off from Sharm el Sheikh airport, Egypt, on a flight back
to St Petersburg. All 224 people on board were killed.
24/3/2015, A Germanwings plane, flying from Spain to
Germany, crashed into the Alps, killing all 320 on board. It appeared that the
co-pilot, having spiked the pilot’s coffee with a diuretic to ensure he left
the cockpit for the toilet, then locked him out of the cabin and deliberately
crashed the plane into the mountains at speed.
28/12/2014, An Air Asia flight crashed into the Java
Sea off Borneo, killing all 162 people on board. It had climbed too steeply and
then stalled.
24/7/2014, An Air Algerie flight en route from Burkina
Faso to Algiers crashed in the Sahara Desert; it was initially uncertain
whether sandstorms or terrorist activity was the cause.
8/3/2014, A Malaysia Airlines flight from Malaysia to
China vanished over the South China Sea.
Initial suspicions that it had crashed gave way to reports that its tracking
systems had been deliberately switched off and it had flown on for hours
afterwards, possibly as far as Kazakhstan, or had gone down in the southern
Indian Ocean. The fate of the plane remained unknown by end August 2014; by
which time UK£ 28.5 million had been spent on searching the seabed for it. In
September 2014 a new search initiative began, across an area of ocean of 1.1
million square kilometres west of Australia, at a further cost of UK£ 29.4
million.
1/6/2009, Air France flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro
to Paris crashed in the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 288 on board.
15/1/2009, The ‘Miracle on the Hudson’ occurred when US Airline flight 1549 hit
birds just after takeoff from New York. Both the plane’s engines were knocked out and with
insufficient height to glide to any airstrip the pilot Captain
Sullenberger put the aeroplane down flawlessly on the River Hudson.
All 155 passengers and crew survived.
12/2/2002, An Iranian
airliner crashed, killing 117.
2/10/2001, Swissair declared itself
bankrupt.
25/7/2000. An Air France Concorde
exploded and crashed into a hotel near Paris shortly after taking off from Charles De Gaulle airport, bound for New
York, killing all 109 people on board, and 5 on the ground. A piece of metal on
the runway caused a tyre on Concorde to burst, and rubber fragments punctured a
fuel tank in the wing of the aircraft. Fuel streamed into the left engines,
robbing them of power. However it was too late for the pilot to abort the
takeoff and he attempted to take the aircraft to another nearby airport. A 200
foot long tongue of flame poured from the wing, and after 2 minutes the
aircraft crashed into a hotel at Gonesse near Orly Airport, at which the pilot
was attempting to land. 4 more died on the ground. It was nearly a year before
tests were completed allowing Concorde to fly again, and in 2003 Concorde
ceased flying due to lack of demand for its fast but expensive flights, in a
time of economic slowdown.
22/12/1999, A Korean Air Boeing 747 cargo plane crashed
shortly after taking off from London Stansted Airport.
2/9/1998, Swissair flight 111, flying from New York to Geneva,
crashed into the Atlantic, killing all 229 on board.
27/1/1993, A DC-3 crashed in
Kinshasa, killing 12.
1/12/1992, Two C-141B Starlifters collided in Montana and crashed,
13 died.
4/10/1992. An Israeli El Al cargo plane
crashed into a block of flats in Amsterdam shortly
after take-off, killing 75 people.
24/2/1989, A cargo door fell off a Boeing 747 over the Pacific,
killing 51.
9/1/1989. A British Midland Boeing 737 fell short of the runway at
East Midlands Airport and ended up on the M.1 motorway, near Kegworth. 47 died
in the 12 week old aircraft, 15 seconds away from landing at the airport.
Reports suggested the pilot shut down the wrong, good, starboard, engine after
being warned of an engine failure. Witnesses saw the port engine on fire.
22/8/1985, 34 died at
Manchester Airport when a Boeing 737 burst into flames on the runway.
12/8/1985, In Japan a Japan Airlines Boeing 747 on a domestic
flight crashed into a mountain, killing 520 people.
23/6/1985, An Air India jet broke up in mid air off Ireland, killing
all 239 on board.
23/7/1984, An Air Canada Boeing 767 ran out of fuel halfway
between Montreal and Edmonton. A mistake had been made in fuelling after a switch from
gallons to litres. The pilot, a gliding enthusiast, succeeded in
safely gliding the plane to a disused military base at Gimli; the plane was
dubbed the Gimli Glider.
25/5/1979, A DC-10
airliner crashed at Chicago Airport, killing 273.
1/1/1978, An Air India
Boeing 77 crashed into the sea off India, killing all 213 people on board.
27/3/1977. Two jumbo jets collided on the ground at the single
airstrip of Tenerife Airport, in the fog, killing 582 people. The collision
between the KLM and the Pan Am, craft was the worst air disaster ever to date.
3/3/1974, A Turkish Airlines DC10 crashed into a wood near Paris,
killing all 344 people on board.
4/6/1973. A Soviet version of
Concorde crashed at the Paris Air Show. All six crew, and 27 spectators, were
killed. Sabotage was suspected.
5/3/1973, 68 people died when
two Spanish airliners collided over France, during a French air traffic
controllers strike.
18/6/1972, A BEA Trident airliner crashed at Staines, west London,
killing 118.
21/2/1970, Swiss
airliner crashed near Baden, killing 47 passengers. Palestinian terrorists
claimed responsibility.
4/6/1967, British Midland flight G-ALHG crashed in Hopes Carr,
Stockport, Manchester, killing 72 passengers and crew.
20/4/1967, A Swiss Global Air Britannia airliner was hit by
lightning and crashed at Nicosia Airport, Cyprus, killing 126.
4/2/1966, A Japanese airliner crashed into Tokyo Bay,
killing 133 people.
24/1/1966, An Air India Boeing 707 crashed into Mont Blanc, killing
all 117 passengers on board.
3/6/1962, An
Air France Boeing 707, flying from Orly, Paris to Atlanta, Georgia, crashed on
take-off, killing 130.
17/3/1957. 22 were killed and several houses demolished when a
British European Airways turbo-prop
airliner crashed at Manchester’s Ringway Airport. Failure of one wing flap
to deploy on landing was blamed; if only one wing flap deployed, the aircraft
would flip over on landing, as was seen by witnesses.
30/6/1956, Two planes collided over the Grand Canyon, killing
all 128 aboard both planes.
11/1/1954, A British Comet jet airliner crashed into
the Mediterranean near Elba. The newly
discovered phenomenon of metal fatigue was to blame.
2/5/1953, A BOAC Comet airliner crashed near Calcutta. Experts
asked why the wings came off in mid air.
28/7/1945, A B-25 bomber crashed into the 78th floor of
the Empire State Building, killing the 3 crew and 11 passengers.
6/5/1937. In Lakehurst, New
Jersey, the German Zeppelin airship Hindenburg exploded in a ball of flame as
it came in to land. 13 of 36
passengers and 22 of the 61 crew died, out of the 97 aboard. Survivors jumped out of the airship as it
plunged 20 metres to ground from its mooring tower. The official cause of the
explosion was St Elmos Fire, but the flammable silver paint used to coat the
airship also contributed. Fire devoured the canvas skin of the aircraft in just
over 30 seconds as the 16 bags of hydrogen gas inside ignited. The Hindenburg
had first flown in March 1936. Travelling twice as fast as an ocean liner,
airships were considered the height of luxury.
12/2/1935, The airship Macon crashed in America.
4/4/1933, The American helium-filled airship Abron
crashed into the sea off New Jersey during a violent storm.
5/10/1930. The 777-foot long British airship R101
crashed at the edge of a wood near Beauvais, France during a storm, killing 48
people, out of 54 passengers and crew.
The airship hit a hill and exploded. It
was captained by Flight Lieutenant Irwin, on a flight from Cardington,
Bedfordshire, to India. UK Air Minister Lord Thompson was on board, and may have
contributed to the disaster with his large amount of luggage, equivalent to the
weight of about 24 people. Britain abandoned all airship construction.
7/4/1922, The first collision between airliners. A
Farman Goliath operated by French airline Grands Express flew into the path of
a Daimler Airways DH 18 over Foix, northern France.
24/8/1921. An R38 airship crashed into the Humber
at Hull, killing 44 of the 49 crew and passengers.
14/12/1920, The first aeroplane disaster. A Handley page
Continental Air Services flight from Cricklewood Aerodrome, London, to Paris
crashed into the back of a newly built house at 6, Basinghill, The Ridgeway,
and fell in flames in the garden. 4 of the 6 passengers managed to jump clear
and escaped major injury; the other 2 passengers and 2 crew were killed.
17/9/1908. The first plane
crash fatality occurred when a passenger of Orville Wright died. The fatality was Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge, of
the US signal corps, and the accident happened near Fort Meyer, Virginia, when
a propeller broke in mid-flight and the plane plunged 150 foot to the ground.
Appendix 3
– Airports
31/10/2020, Berlin-Brandenburg Airport Willy Brandt finally opened, 9 years
late and 3 billion Euros over budget. The planned opening date had been
31/10/2011. It finally became operational in the middle of the Covid-19
pandemic, when very few people were flying anywhere. Tegel Airport.,
north of Berlin, was closed immediately, and Schonefeld Airport, close by,
became a 5th Terminal for the new facility.
27/3/2008, The new British Airways Terminal Five at London Heathrow
opened. The baggage system collapsed and many flights were delayed,
cancelled, or left without baggage.
28/4/2005, Robin Hood Airport, Doncaster, opened,on the site of RAF Finningley
which had closed in 1996.
28/2/1995, Denver International Airport opened. 23
miles from Denver city centre, it covered 53 square miles, cost US$ 4.9
billion, and replaced the 65-year-old Stapleton Airport.
1/10/1992, Pittsburgh’s new International Airport opened.
1991, The new Terminal at
Stansted Airport, Essex, designed by Norman Foster, opened.
1987, Galway Airport, Ireland,
opened.
26/10/1987. The City Airport in the London
Docklands opened for short landing and take-off aircraft.
1986, Ireland
West Airport Knock was opened, after a long campaign by Monsignor James Horan to facilitate visits by
pilgrims to the nearby Knock shrine.
12/4/1986, Heathrow Airport, London, opened its fourth
terminal.
5/6/1985, The UK Government approved Stanstead as London’s third airport site.
1983, George Best Belfast City Airport began commercial operations, as
Belfast Airport; it was renamed in honour of footballer George Best in 5/2006.
It had originally opened in 1938 as Belfast Harbour Airport, becoming RAF
Belfast during World War Two.
14/11/1983, The world’s
largest airport opened near Riyadh. The King Khalid International Airport
covered 86 square miles of desert and cost £2.1 billion.
9/6/1978, Prince
Charles opened new terminal facilities at Gatwick Airport.
21/5/1978, Despite four years of protests, Tokyo’s
new second airport at Narita opened.
12/4/1975, French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing opened the new airport at
Lyons-Satolas.
1974, Humberside Airport opened, then known as Kirmington Airport
(formerly RAF Kirmington opened 1941, abandoned 1945).
18/7/1974, The Maplin Project, which would have created a seaport and airport combined
the size of Rotterdam off the Essex coast, was scrapped.
8/3/1974, Charles de Gaulle
airport at Paris was opened.
13/1/1974, The world’s
largest airport opened, at Dallas,
Texas, USA.
26/4/1971, The British government announced its intention to
build a third London airport at Foulness.
1968, The Roskill Commission was set up to decide the possible site for London’s
third airport. It reported back in January 1971 favouring Cublington,
Buckinghamshire; Professor Buchanan dissented in favour of Foulness, on
environmental grouds,
12/5/1967, The British Government chose Stansted as the site for London’s third airport. Protestors won
another enquiry, scheduled for February 1968. Maplin then seemed to be favoured as the site of London’s third
airport, but see 18/7/1974.
1966, GlasgowAirport opened, replacing Renfrew Airport. It was renamed
Glasgow International Airport in 12989.
1/4/1966, The newly-created British Airports Authority took
responsibility for London’s’ Gatwick, Stansted and Heathrow Airports.
1965, East Midlands
Airport, Leicestershire, opened,
24/3/1964, Stanstead,
Essex, was provisionally chosen as the site of London’s third airport. It
had originally been constructed by the US Army in 1942 as a bomber base.
1963, Dundee Airport opened.
10/1961, Cork
International Airport, Ireland, opened.
30/9/1959, London’s Croydon Airport closed. The last flight was
to Rotterdam.
23/4/1959, Britain’s
first heliport opened, on the River Thames in London.
9/6/1958. Gatwick
Airport was opened by Queen
Elizabeth II. (see 6/6/1936). The new facilities cost £7 million.
1957, Occasional commercial
flights now departed from Stanstead, which was mainly a military airport for US
bombers.
1957, The present Bristol Airport opened; originally
called Bristol Lulsgate, name changed in 3/1997.
2/4/1957, Brasilia Airport opened.
16/12/1955, The new terminal buildings at London Heathrow were completed.
1954, Lydd Airport, Kent, opened.
20/7/1954. The expansion of Gatwick Airport was approved by a
public committee.
1952, Cardiff Airport began commercial flights,
to Dublin.
It had originally been built as a base to train Spitfire pilots during World War Two.
The runway was extended in 1986, facilitating more flights.
1948, Kirkwall
Airport, Orkneys, opened.
31/7/1948, Idlewild Airport, New York, opened (4,900 acres).
1947, Inverness
Airport opened.
31/5/1946, Heathrow
was officially opened as London Airport.
5/1944, Construction work began on London’s Heathrow Airport.
1942, Shannon Airport, Ireland, was established.
The forst scheduled commercial flight took off from here in 10/1945. Until the
mid-1960s many transatlantic flights from the USA
to Europe stopped to refuel at Shannon.
8/7/1939. Birmingham
Airport was officially opened by the Duke
of Kent. In 1929 Birmingham City Council decided the city should
have an airport, and in 1933 a site at Elmdon, 8 miles from the city centre,
was chosen. After the opening in 1939 services to Croydon, Glasgow, Liverpool,
Ryde, Manchester, and Southampton began. However just 2 months after opening
the airport was requisitioned by the Air Ministry as World War Two began. In July 1946
civilian flights resumed from Birmingham and 1949 saw its first overseas
flight, to Paris. In the 1950s flights began to Zurich, Dusseldorf, Palma, and
Amsterdam. By the early 1970s the terminal was suffering from congestion as
over one million passengers used the airport each year. The main runway was
extended, and there was further expansion when the National Exhibition Centre
opened in 1974. Concorde landed there in 1981 and the Queen opened a new
passenger terminal in 1984. In 1999, 7 million passengers used the airport.
1940, Dublin Airport (originally Collinstown
Airport) saw its inaugural flight; the terminal buildings were completed in
1941.
1939, La Guardia Airfield, New York, opened
(558 acres)
16/7/1938, Luton Airport,
Bedfordshire, was opened.
6/1938, Manchester Airport (originally known as
Ringway Airport) opened.
1937, Belfast City Airport opened.
1936, Coventry Airport opened.
1936, Bromma
Airport, Stockholm’s first land airport, opened. The lack of flat ground in Scandinavia
had meant most early air servces were seaplanes. Bromma Airport was blasted out
of the rock, and so needed paved runways.
13/6/1936, Shoreham
Airport opened.
6/6/1936. Gatwick
Airport opened. It was reopened as an international airport on 9/6/1958.
1933, Wick Airport opened.
1/7/1933, Speke
aerodrome, Liverpool, opened.
1932, Southampton Airport opened.
1931, Leeds-Bradford Airport opened.
1930, Bristol’s first airport
opened at Whitchurch, south of the city. See 1957.
1930, Shoreham Airport, Sussex, opened.
2/5/1928. Croydon Airport officially
opened.
30/1/1928, Croydon Aerodrome began operations, see 29/3/1920
and 2/5/1928.
15/2/1924, The world’s first ‘control tower’ was inaugurated at
le Bourget Airport, Paris. A tower with a commanding view of the airport now
enabled aircraft movements to be directed by an officer with binoculars.
29/3/1920, Croydon
was designated as London’s official airport, and Hounslow abandoned, see
30/1/1928.
1917, Belfast
International Airport opened as Aldergrove Royal Flyting Corps training
site. Civilian flights started in 1933 to Glasgow. Flights ti London began in
1934 from nearby Nutts Corner Airfield.
26/3/1910, Plans for
Aeropolis, an aerodrome at le Bourget, Paris, were announced.
19/12/1908, Port Aviation, the world’s first aerodrome, wad
completed, 12 miles from Paris.
Appendix 4
- Air speed, height, distance records
25/3/2018, The first non-stop
commercial flight from Australia to London took place, taking 17 hours (see
1935, 1938, 1947).
7/7/1981, The first crossing of the
English Channel by a solar-powered aircraft, Solar Challenger.
12/6/1979, The American Bryan
Allen made the first man-powered flight across
the English Channel. He pedalled his Gossamer Albatross from
Folkestone to Cap Gris Nez in 2 hours 50 minutes.
4/3/1976, First non-stop flight of a Japan Airlines jumbo
jet from Tokyo to New York. The jet covered the 10,000km in 11 hours 30
minutes.
4/8/1960, NASA test pilot Joseph A. Walker became the fastest man in history
as he flew an X-15 at a speed of 2,196 miles per hour, breaking a record set in
1956 by Milburn Apt, who had been killed
while flying an X-2. However
this was not done under the rules governing international speed record attempts.
15/12/1959, JW Rogers, USA, set a
new aviation speed record of 1,525.95 mph.
16/5/1958, W Irwin, USA, set a new aviation speed record of 1,404.09 mph.
7/5/1958, HC Johnson, USA, set a new aviation altitude
record of 91,244 feet.
28/8/1957,) M Randrup and W Shirley (UK) set a new aviation
altitude record of 70,308 feet.
10/3/1956, JP Twiss, UK, set a new aviation speed record
of 1,132.14 mph.
29/10/1953, FK Everest, USA, set a new
aviation speed record of 755.15 mph.
3/10/1953, JB Verdin, USA, set a new
aviation speed record of 752.94 mph.
25/9/1953, MJ Lithgow, UK, set a new
aviation speed record of 735.70 mph.
16/7/1953, A new world air
speed record, of 716 mph
or 1,152 kph was set by an F16 Sabre fighter plane.
4/5/1953, W Gibb, UK, set a new aviation altitude record
of 63,668 feet.
19/11/1952, JS Nash, USA, set a new aviation speed record
of 698.50 mph.
26/8/1952, A
Canberra bomber returned to
Aldergrove Airport, Northern Ireland, having completed the first transatlantic return trip in a single
day, taking 7 hours 59 minutes.
21/2/1951. A
British bomber aircraft crossed the
Atlantic in a record 4 hours 40 minutes.
2/3/1949. A crew of US Air Force personnel completed the first non-stop round the world flight,
refuelling four times mid-air, taking 94 hours. See 21/5/1927, first
transatlantic flight. The flight captain was James Gallagher, flying the US
Air Force B50 ‘Lucky Lady’.
15/9/1948, R Johnson, USA, set a new
aviation speed record of 670.98 mph.
6/9/1948, John Derry, piloting a De
Havilland DH 108, in a dive, became the first
pilot to fly at supersonic speed in Britain.
23/3/1948, J Cunningham, UK, set a new
aviation altitude record of 59,445 feet.
14/10/1947. The first supersonic
flight was made, by Charles Yeager of California. Major Charles Yeager was taken to 30,000 feet
from Edwards Air Base, Muroc, California, in a Bell X-1, underneath a B-29 Superfortress
plane, and released. He flew at 670mph, (Mach 1.05), held for several seconds, then landed at Edwards
Air Base again.
20/8/1947, TF Caldwell, USA, set a new
aviation speed record of 640.74 mph.
7/9/1946, EM Donaldson, UK, set a new
aviation speed record of 615.78 mph.
1/9/1946. The jet aircraft Meteor EE549 reached the
record speed of 616 mph.
7/11/1945, The jet
aircraft Meteor EE454 reached the record speed of 606 mph.
26/4/1939, F Wendell, Germany, set a new aviation speed
record of 469.22 mph.
30/3/1939, H Dieterle, Germany, set a new aviation speed
record of 463.92 mph.
24/10/1937, New
Zealand aviator Jean Batten broke
the record for flying from Australia to Britain, taking 5 days 18 hours and 18 minutes.
8/5/1937, M Pezzi, Italy, set a new aviation altitude
record of 51,361 feet.
14/8/1936, G Detre, France,
set a new aviation altitude record of 48,698 feet.
6/11/1935. The
RAF’s first monoplane fighter, the Hawker Hurricane, made its maiden flight. It
was the fastest fighter aircraft in the world, with a top speed of 325 mph at
20,000 feet.
20/10/1934. An air race began
at Mildenhall, Suffolk, at 6.30am. A prize of £10,000 and a £500 gold cup went to the fastest
flight to Australia. It was won by the Briton, Mr T Campbell-Black and Mr C W Scott,
who flew a De Havilland Comet to Australia in 2 days, 22 hours, and 58 minutes.
22/7/1933. Wiley Post, 34, completed the first solo
round the world flight. He also sliced 21 hours off the previous record for a
round the world flight of 8 days 15
hours 51 minutes he achieved with his navigator Harold Gatty.
10/4/1933. A world air
speed record of 424 mph
was set by Francesco
Agello.
27/4/1932. Mr C W Scott flew from Lympne, Kent, to
Darwin, northern Australia, in 8 days, 20 hours, 47 minutes.
28/3/1932. Mr J
A Mollison flew
from England to Cape Town in 4 days, 17
hours, 19 minutes, beating the previous record by 15 hours, 18 minutes.
30/12/1931. Mr Fielder, a British pilot, flew from London to Algiers in a day.
9/11/1931. A C Butler set a new speed record for
flying from England to Port Darwin, in 9 days, 2 hours, 29 minutes.
5/11/1931. Miss Peggy Salaman and Mr Gordon Stone set a new record
in aviation, flying from England to the Cape, South Africa, in 5 days, 6 hours,
40 minutes.
29/7/1931, R N Boardman, USA, set a new aviation distance
record of 5,011 miles.
3/9/1930, The first non-stop flight from Paris
to New York was made by Dieudonne Costes and Maurice Bellonte.
4/6/1930, A Soucek, USA, set a new aviation altitude
record of 43,166 feet.
16/1/1930. The airship R100
reached 81 ½ mph in a trial flight.
12/9/1929, AH Orlebar, UK, set a new
aviation speed record of 357.75 mph.
10/9/1929. A British seaplane reached a record speed of
355.8 mph.
26/4/1929. The first non-stop
flight from England to India of 4,130 miles in 50 hours 37 minutes was made by
two RAF officers. They were Squadron leader A G Jones-Williams and Flight
Lieutenant N
H Jenkins.
22/2/1928. Mr
Bert Hinkler
arrived in Port Darwin, having set a record time for the flight from England, 15 ½ days.
4/11/1927, M de Bernardi, Italy, set a new
aviation speed record of 297.83 mph.
15/6/1927, The flight from Amsterdam to Jakarta now took 15
days (see 10/1924) each way.
21/5/1927. Charles A Lindbergh completed the first solo Atlantic flight. He took off from Roosevelt
Field, Long Island, flew his monoplane Spirit of St Louis for 33 ½
hours, and landed at Le Bourget airfield, Paris. Landing in Paris, he won the
US$ 25,000 prize for the first
solo flight across the Atlantic.
13/11/1926, In Italy, Mario de Bernardi set a new seaplane speed
record of 246 mph.
1/10/1926, Alan Cobham made a round the world flight in 58
days.
14/7/1925, Captain Girier of France set a new aviation
flight length record of 2,930 miles.
10/1924, The first scheduled flight from Amsterdam to
Jakarta took off; it took 55 days to cover the 9,500 miles. Actual flying time
was 127 hours; average speed 75 mph. See 15/6/1927.
29/3/1923, RL Maughan, USA, set a new aviation speed
record of 236.59 mph.
15/2/1923, Sadi Lecointe, France, set a new aviation
speed record of 233.03 mph.
1/1/1923, A French pilot set a new air speed record of 217 mph.
27/2/1920, RW Schroeder, USA, set a new aviation altitude
record of 33,114 feet.
4/11/1920, R de Romanet, France, set a new aviation speed
record of 192.02 mph.
20/10/1920, Sadi Lecointre, France, set a new aviation
speed record of 187.99 mph.
9/10/1920, R de Romanet, France, set a new aviation speed
record of 181.87 mph.
15/6/1919. John Alcock and Arthur Brown completed the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic. It took them 16 hours, 12
minutes, to fly from Lester’s Field, St John’s Newfoundland, to
Derrygimla Bog, near Clifden, Ireland. They were both knighted for this
achievement.
28/12/1913, G Legagneux, France, set a new aviation
altitude record of 20,079 feet.
11/12/1912, R Garros,
France, set a new aviation record of 18,406 feet.
13/7/1912, J Vedrines, France, set a new aviation speed record of 106.12 mph.
7/3/1912. Henri Semiet made the first non-stop
flight from London to Paris, taking three hours.
8/7/1911, M Loridan, France, set a new aviation altitude
record of 10.,423 feet.
12/6/1911, A Leblanc, France, set a new aviation speed
record of 77.68 mph.
18/12/1910. Mr Tom Sopwith won a £4,000 aviation prize by flying from Eastchurch, Sheppey, to Beaumont,
Belgium. He covered the 177 miles in 3 ½ hours.
8/12/1910, G Legagneux, France, set a new aviation
altitude record of 10,171 feet.
31/10/1910, R Johnston, USA, set a new aviation altitude
record of 9,711 feet.
23/9/1910, First crossing of the Alps by aeroplane.
11/8/1910. Mr Drexel set a new aviation altitude record, reaching 6,750 feet in a
Bleriot monoplane.
9/7/1910, Walter Brookins set a new aviation altitude record of 6,175 feet. By flying over a mile high, he won a prize of
US$ 5,000.
7/7/1910, H Latham, France set a new
aviation altitude record of 4,540 feet.
2/6/1910. Mr C S Rolls flew from Dover to
Calais and back without landing in France, taking 90 minutes for the
whole return journey.
28/4/1910. M Paulham
flew from London to Manchester, winning the
Daily Mail prize of £10,000 for the first person to accomplish this.
23/4/1910, H Latham, France, set a new aviation speed
record of 48.21 mph.
7/1/1910. H
Latham,
France, set a new aviation altitude record of 3,281 feet.
30/12/1909, The first
aeroplane flight of over 100 miles
was made.
1/12/1909, H Latham,
France, set a new aviation altitude record of 1,486 feet.
18/10/1909, Comte de
Lambert, France, set a new aviation altitude record of 984 feet.
29/8/1909, H Latham, France, set a new aviation altitude record of 509 feet.
31/12/1908, Wilbur Wright set a new aeroplane flight duration time of 2 hours 20 minutes.
18/12/1908, Wilbur Wright became the first man to attain the height of 360 feet in
a plane.
16/10/1908, The
first powered aeroplane flight in
Britain, at Farnborough, piloted by the American Samuel Franklin Cody. He flew
1,390 feet in 27 seconds.
12/11/1906, A Santos-Dumas of France set an aviation speed
record of 25.65 mph.
5/10/1905. Orville Wright became the first
man to fly an aircraft for 38 minutes. He flew
in a 24.5 mile circular course at Dayton, Ohio.
6/5/1896, In the
US, Samuel Pierpoint
Langley succeeded in flying a glider 3,300 feet (one
kilometre).
9/10/1890, Clement Ader,
Frenchman, flew his monoplane, the Ecole,
165 feet. However
it was not a truly sustained or controllable flight.