Aviation development

By AJLombardo

  • Father Bartolomeu de Gusmao

    Father Bartolomeu de Gusmao
    demonstrated a model hot air balloon to King John V.

  • George Cayley

    George Cayley
    invented the concept of the fixed-wing aircraft.

  • George Cayley

    George Cayley
    George Cayley builds and flies the world's first successful model glider.

  • The Wright Brothers

    The Wright Brothers
    The Wright brothers made there first glider flight. The Wrights modify their 1902 glider by replacing the fixed double rear fin with a rear rudder linked with the wing-warping control to counteract wrap-drag.

  • U.S. Launch

    U.S. Launch
    Explorer I: First U.S. launched artificial satellite which made the first records of micrometeorite activity and led to the discovery of the Van Allen radiation belts around the earth.

  • Apollo 13

    Apollo 13
    First NASA flight in a YF-12A with Fitzhugh Fulton as pilot. April 11-17 Apollo 13: Mission aborted after loss of oxygen pressure; crew used lunar module as lifeboat to return to Earth (Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, Jack Swigert, command module pilot).

  • Solar Maximum Mission

    Solar Maximum Mission
    Solar Maximum Mission was the first satellite to study the Sun in detail.

  • Largest Long Range WideBody TwinJet

    The first Boeing 777, the world's largest long-range widebody twinjet, is delivered to United Airlines and, later the same month, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration awards 180-minute ETOPS clearance, making the 777 the first airliner to carry this rating at its entry into service. It had made its maiden flight in June 1994.

  • The world's first civilian tiltortor aircraft

    The Bell Agusta 609, the world's first civilian tiltrotor aircraft, rose vertically for the first time from Bell Textron's Flight Research Center in Arlington, Texas. The maiden flight lasted 36 minutes and included hovering, turns, forward and backwards flight as well as four takeoffs and landings.

  • Engine Maker

    Engine maker Pratt & Whitney announced Monday, 28 June 2010, that Lockheed Martin's F-35B Lightning II Short Takeoff and Vertical Landing aircraft successfully made its maiden supersonic flight. U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Col. Matt Kelly climbed to 30,000 feet and accelerated to Mach 1.07 in the off-shore supersonic test track near Naval Air Station Patuxent River, MD. This marks the first time in aviation history that a production ready, stealthy, short take-off vertical landing capable aircraft has