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The first Pilot, and Airplane
On December 17, 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright made four brief flights at Kitty Hawk with their first powered aircraft. The Wright brothers had invented the first successful airplane. The Wrights used this stopwatch to time the Kitty Hawk flights. -
First take off from a ship
Eugene Ely pilots a Curtiss biplane on the first flight to take off from a ship. In November he departs from the deck of a cruiser anchored in Hampton Roads, Virginia, and lands onshore. In January 1911 he takes off from shore and lands on a ship anchored off the coast of California. Hooks attached to the plane's landing gear, a primitive version of the system of arresting gear and safety barriers used on modern aircraft carriers. -
Automatic gyrostabilizer leads to first automatic pilot
Lawrence Sperry demonstrates an automatic gyrostabilizer at Lake Keuka, Hammondsport, New York. A gyroscope linked to sensors keeps the craft level and traveling in a straight line without aid from the human pilot. Two years later Sperry and his inventor father, Elmer, add a steering gyroscope to the stabilizer gyro and demonstrate the first "automatic pilot." -
Passenger service across the English Channel introduced
Britain and France introduce passenger service across the English Channel, flying initially between London and Paris. 1919 the first nonstop transatlantic flight, from Newfoundland to Ireland. -
First nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic
On May 21, Charles Lindbergh completes the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic, traveling 3,600 miles from New York to Paris in a Ryan monoplane named the Spirit of St. Louis. On June 29, Albert Hegenberger and Lester Maitland complete the first flight from Oakland, California, to Honolulu, Hawaii. At 2,400 miles it is the longest open-sea flight to date. -
Douglas introduces the 12-passenger twinengine DC-1
In that summer Douglas introduces the 12-passenger twin-engine DC-1, designed by aeronautical engineer Arthur Raymond for a contract with TWA. A key requirement is that the plane can take off, fully loaded, if one engine goes out. -
First practical radar
British scientist Sir Robert Watson-Watt patents the first practical radar (for radio detection and ranging) system for meteorological applications. During World War II radar is successfully used in Great Britain to detect incoming aircraft and provide information to intercept bombers. -
jet engines designed
Jet engines designed independently by Britain’s Frank Whittle and Germany’s Hans von Ohain make their first test runs. (Seven years earlier, Whittle, a young Royal Air Force officer, filed a patent for a gas turbine engine to power an aircraft, but the Royal Air Ministry was not interested in developing the idea at the time. Meanwhile, German doctoral student Von Ohain was developing his own design. -
Sound barrior broken
U.S. Air Force pilot Captain Charles "Chuck" Yeager becomes the fastest man alive when he pilots the Bell X-1 faster than sound for the first time on October 14 over the town of Victorville, California. -
First jet-powered commercial aircraft
The prototype De Havilland Comet makes its first flight on July 27. Three years later the Comet starts regular passenger service as the first jet-powered commercial aircraft, flying between London and South Africa. -
Discovery of the area rule of aircraft design
Richard Whitcomb, an engineer at Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, discovers and experimentally verifies an aircraft design concept known as the area rule. A revolutionary method of designing aircraft to reduce drag and increase speed without additional power, the area rule is incorporated into the development of almost every American supersonic aircraft. He later invents winglets, which increase the lift-to-drag ratio of transport airplanes and other vehicles. -
First small jet aircraft to enter mass production
The prototype Learjet 23 makes its first flight on October 7. Powered by two GE CJ610 turbojet engines, it is 43 feet long, with a wingspan of 35.5 feet, and can carry seven passengers (including two pilots) in a fully pressurized cabin. It becomes the first small jet aircraft to enter mass production, with more than 100 sold by the end of 1965. -
Boeing 747
Boeing conducts the first flight of a wide-body, turbofan-powered commercial airliner, the 747, one of the most successful aircraft ever produced. -
Concorde SST introduced into commercial airline service
The Concorde SST is introduced into commercial airline service by both Great Britain and France on January 21. It carries a hundred passengers at 55,000 feet and twice the speed of sound, making the London to New York run in 3.5 hours—half the time of subsonic carriers. But the cost per passenger-mile is high, ensuring that flights remain the privilege of the wealthy. After a Concorde accident kills everyone on board in July 2000. -
Voyager circumnavigates the globe (26,000 miles) nonstop in 9 days
Using a carbon-composite material, aircraft designer Burt Rutan crafts Voyager for flying around the world nonstop on a single load of fuel. Voyager has two centerline engines, one fore and one aft, and weighs less than 2,000 pounds (fuel for the flight adds another 5,000 pounds). It is piloted by Jeana Yeager (no relation to test pilot Chuck Yeager) and Burt’s brother Dick Rutan, who circumnavigate the globe (26,000 miles) nonstop in 9 days. -
B-2 bomber developed
Northrop Grumman develops the B-2 bomber, with a "flying wing" design. Made of composite materials rather than metal, it cannot be detected by conventional radar. At about the same time, Lockheed designs the F-117 stealth fighter, also difficult to detect by radar. -
Fifirst aircraft produced through computer-aided design and engineering
Boeing debuts the twin-engine 777, the biggest two-engine jet ever to fly and the first aircraft produced through computer-aided design and engineering. Only a nose mockup was actually built before the vehicle was assembled—and the assembly was only 0.03 mm out of alignment when a wing was attached. -
Joint research program to develop second-generation supersonic airliner
NASA teams with American and Russian aerospace industries in a joint research program to develop a second-generation supersonic airliner for the 21st century. The centerpiece is the Tu-144LL, a first-generation Russian supersonic jetliner modified into a flying laboratory. It conducts supersonic research comparing flight data with results from wind tunnels and computer modeling. -
First vertical landing and takeoff with a F-35B
June 12, 2008 - Lockheed Martin makes the first F-35B short-take-off-and-vertical-landing -
landing at sea
April 8, 2016 – SpaceX Completes Historic Booster Landing at Sea – Following four previously unsuccessful attempts to land a spent rocket booster on a drone ship at sea, SpaceX successfully pulls off the feat Friday, April 8, 2016, in its first launch to resupply the International Space Station since one of its rockets exploded in 2015.
