AIR TRAVEL

First Air Flight

Nov 23, 1783

The Montgolfier brothers launched the first hot air balloon

History of Air Travel

Period: Nov 23, 1783 to Mar 25, 2013

First Airship

Dec 31, 1852

Steam engine airship was flown by Henri Giffard from Paris.
Could only fly forwards.

Wright Brothers

Dec 31, 1903

First engine powered flight in 'The Flyer'.
Flew for 12 seconds and travelled 37 metres.

First Metal Plane Built

Dec 31, 1915

Built by a German, Herman Junkers.
Travelled at 170 km an hour.

First Sea Plane

Dec 31, 1926

Having one or two floats in place of the usual undercarriage this plane took off from, and landed on, water.

Flying Boats

Dec 31, 1930

Used to cross oceans because aircraft could not carry enough Could fly between seaports and islands, refuelling as they went.
Didn't need runways, and it was thought to be safer to fly across water in an aircraft that could float.
Have floats where the undercarriage would be on a land-based aircraft.

First Helicopter

Dec 31, 1940

Could carry passengers
Still called a flying boat.
Built of wood in 1947.
Only flew once, distance of about - 2 kilometres.
Largest plane ever.

Jetliners

Dec 31, 1950

Jet liners carried approx 40 passengers
Had jet engines with propellers called turbo-prop engines.

No Propellors

Dec 31, 1952

Jetliners no longer needed propellors and used turbo jets

First supersonic passanger aircraft

Dec 31, 1968

Flew on December 31, 1968;
(Two months ahead of the first flight for the Concorde SST)
Concorde flew at speeds of up to 2100 kilometres per hour carrying 100 passengers.

Commercial jetliners

Dec 31, 1969

Able to carry over 400 passengers

First re-useable space shuttle

Dec 31, 1981

Space shuttle 'Colombia' was launched.

Largest Passenger aircraft

Dec 31, 2005

Double-decked, Airbus A380 can carry more than 800 passengers.