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Timeline of aviation

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This is a list of years in aviation.

pre-10th century aviation

  • c. 750 BC
    • emergence of the legend of Daedalus and Icarus.
  • c. 600 - 400 BC
    • the Chinese started to use kites.
  • c. 400 BC
    • the often-escribed pigeon of the Greek mathematician Archytas of Tarant could have been a kite.
  • c. 220 BC
    • records indicate that the Chinese used kites as rangefinders.
  • c. 875

10th - 16th century aviation

  • c. 1000
    • The glider kite is presumed to have gained currency around the Pacific. It was probably manned and used for military, religious and ceremonial reasons.
  • c. 1010
  • 1247
    • The Mongolian army uses lighted kites in the battle at Liegnitz.
  • c. 1250
    • Roger Bacon writes the first known technical description of flight, describing an ornithopter design in his book Secrets of Art and Nature.
  • 1282
    • Marco Polo reports on manned and ritual kite ascents.
  • 1486 - 1513
    • Leonardo da Vinci designs an ornithopter with control surfaces. Envisions and sketches flying machines such as helicopters. More: Flight-technical and mathematical studies of Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519). In his notes designs for a parachute, a helicopter and an Ornithopter were found as well as notes of studies of airflows and streamlined shapes. Obviously Leonardo was the first who understands mechanics of the bird flight.
  • 1496
    • The Italian Mathematician Giambattista Danti is supposed to have flown from a tower. There are many descriptions of supposed flights and attempts to fly in many countries. In the Middle Ages the ability to fly was attributed by popular belief to saints and witches.
  • c. 1500
    • Hironymus Bosch shows at his triptych "The temptation of the holy Antonius" among other things two fighting airships above a burning town.
  • 1558
    • Giambattista della Porta publishes a theory and a construction manual for a kite.

17th century aviation

  • 1638
  • 1644
    • The Italian physicist Evangelista Toricelli manages to give proof of the atmospheric pressure; he also produces a vacuum.
  • 1654
    • The physicist and mayor of Magdeburg Otto von Guericke measures the weight of air and demonstrates his famous "Magdeburger Halbkugeln" (hemispheres of Magdeburg): 16 horses are unable to pull two completely airless hemispheres, whichstick to each other only because of the external air pressure, apart from each other.
  • 1670
    • The Jesuit Francesco Lana de Terzi describes in his treatise "Prodomo" a vacuum-airship-project. This is considered to be the first realistic, technical plan for an airship. Still Lana writes: "God will never allow that such a machine be built…because everybody realises that no city would be safe from raids…"
  • 1678
    • Supposed flight of the French locksmith Besnier with a flapping wing machine
  • 1680
    • The Italian physicist Alphonso Borelli shows in his treatise "movements of animals" that the flapping of wings with the muscle power of the human arm canot be successful.
  • 1687

18th century aviation

  • c. 1700
    • The kite is popular during the course of the century.
  • 1709
  • 1716
    • Well thought-out glider-project of the Swedish scholar Emanuel Swedenborg. Basis for his construction are the bird flight and the glider kite.
  • 1738
    • In his "Hydrodynamica" the Swiss scholar Daniel Bernoulli (1700 - 1782) formulates the principle of the conservation of energy for gases (Bernoulli's law), the relationship between pressure and velocity in a flow.
  • 1746
    • The English military engineer Benjamin Robins (1707 - 1751) invented amoung others a whirling arm apparatus in order to determine drag.
  • 1766
    • The British chemist Henry Cavendish determines the specific weight of Hydrogen gas.
  • 1772
    • Abbé Desforges tries out unsuccessfully, a flying apparatus with a basket and oars made of bird feathers.
  • 1777
    • In St.Louis the prisoner Dominikus Dufort jumps with parachute garment of a high building und is rewarded with a spontaneous collection of money.
  • 1781
    • The Italian scientist Tiberiua Cavallo, then living in England sends up soap bubbles filled with Oxygen.
  • 1783
    • Sebastian Lenormand does several parachute jumps from the tower of the observatory in Montpellier.
  • 1783
    • 6/5/1783 Rise of an unmanned hot-air-balloon (Montgolfière) of the Montgolfier brothers in Vivarais/France. The Montgolfier brothers demonstrate a hot air balloon in public, at Annonay.
    • 8/27/1783 Rise of a unmanned experimental Hydrogen-balloon in Paris (built by Prof. Charles and the brothers Robert).
    • 9/19/1783 A duck, a cock and a wether fly in a Montgolfière in Versailles. The Montgolfiers launch a sheep, duck, and rooster in a hot-air balloon in a demonstration for King Louis XVI of France. The balloon rises some 500 m (1,700 ft) and returns the animals unharmed to the ground.
    • 10/15/1783 Pilâtre de Rozier and Marquis d'Arlandes rise into the air with a Montgolfière which is tied to the ground in Paris. Pilâtre de Rozier becomes the first human passenger in a hot-air balloon, rising 26 m (84 ft) on a tether.
    • 11/21/1783 J. P. Pilatre de Rozier and Marquis d'Arlandes do the first untethered ride within a Montgolfière in Paris. de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes become the first human passengers carried in free flight by a hot-air balloon in a flight that lasted 25 minutes.
    • 12/1/1783 Prof. Charles and his assistant Robert fly the first hydrogen-filled balloon (Charliere). At his second flight Prof. Charles reaches an altitude of 2,700 m in Vivarais.
    • Jacques Charles launches the first hydrogen-filled balloon. It flies 25 km (15 miles) from Paris to Gonesse and is destroyed by frightened peasants.
    • Jacques Charles and Ainé Roberts become the first to fly in a hydogen-filled balloon. They travel from Paris to Nesles, a distance of 43 km (27 miles).
  • 1784
    • Jean-Pierre Blanchard fits a hand-powered propeller to a balloon, the first recorded means of propulsion carried aloft.
    • Pilâtre de Rozier and the chemist Proust rise with a Montgolfière up to 4,000 m.
    • 9/19/1784 The brothers Robert and Colin Hullin take a balloon ride over 186 km from Paris to Beuvry.
    • Airship project of Jean Baptiste Meusnier in order to explore unknown areas with an oblong balloon, Ballonet with an airscrew powered with muscle power.
  • 1785
    • 1/7/1785 Jean-Pierre Blanchard and the American meteorologist John Jeffries cross the English Channel from Dover to Guines with an aircraft.
    • 6/15/1785 Pilâtre de Rozier and Jules Romain become the first known aeronautical fatalities when their balloon crashes during an attempt to cross the English Channel.
    • Richard Crosbie makes several unsuccessful attempts to cross the Irish Channel in a helium-filled balloon.
  • 1793
  • 1794
    • 4/2/1794 Establishment of the first airship company in the French army.
    • The first military use of balloons is made by the French Army who use one, named Entreprenant for reconnaissance of the Austrian forces at the Battle of Fleurus. Two companies of balloon observers are formed, but disband the following year.
  • 1797
  • 1799
    • The Englishman Sir George Cayley (1773 - 1857) sketched a glider with a rudder unit and an elevator unit. His manuscript is considered to be the starting point of the scientific research on flying apparatuses "heavier than air". It was Cayley who helped to sort out the confusion of that time. …"He knew more than any of his predecessors … and successors up to the end of the 19th century." - Orville Wright. Even so his ideas did not affect further development very much.

19th century aviation

  • 1803
    • 7/18/1803 Etienne Gaspar Robertson and Lhoest climb from Hamburg (Germany) up to 7,280 m.
    • 3rd and 4th of October The Frenchman André-Jaques Garnerin covered with his Montgolfière a distance of 395 km from Paris to Clausen.
  • 1804
    • Sir George Cayley builds a model glider with moveable control surfaces.
    • August/September The Physicists Joseph-Lois Gay-Lussac and Jean Baptiste Biot started for scientific measurements and disproved the thesis that the earth's pull decreases with height.
    • J. Kaiserer made the suggestion of making a Montgolfière manoeuverable with the help of tamed eagles.
  • 1807
    • Jakob Degen, a watchmaker from Vienna, did experiments with an apparatus with valve flap flapping wings
  • 1808
    • Jakob Degen tries to combine a Montgolfiere with the flapping wings.
  • 1809
    • Jacob Degen propels a hydrogen-filled balloon by flapping large ornithopter-style wings.
    • September: Sir George Cayley published his seminal paper On Aerial Navigation, setting out for the first time the scientific principles of heavier-than-air flight.
  • 1811
    • 5/31/1811 Albrecht Ludwig Berblinger, the "tailor of Ulm" (Germany) crashes with his apparatus which is copied of the one from J. Degen into the Danube. It was presumably a workable hang glider.
  • 1812
    • 7/19/1812 Usage of lamp gas for the filling of a Montgolfière (Green).
  • 1836
    • 7th and 8th of November: Drive with a Montgolfière covering a distance of 722 km from London to Weilburg passing through Green, Holland and Mason.
  • 1837
    • Robert Cocking jumps from a balloon at a height of 2,000 m (6,600 ft) to demonstrate a parachute of his own design, and is killed in the attempt.
  • 1838
    • The American John Wise introduces the ripping panel which is still used today. The ripping panel, is the solution to the problem that the Montgolfiere dragged along the ground at landing and had to be stopped with the help of anchors.
  • 1839
    • Charles Green and the astronomer Spencer Rush climb up to 7,900 m in a free balloon.
  • 1842
    • November The English engineer William Samuel Henson makes the first complete draft of a power driven aeroplane with steam engine drive. The patent follows the works of Cayley. The English House of Commons rejects the motion for the formation of a "Aerial Transport Company" with great laughter
  • 1848
    • William Henson and John Stringfellow build a steam powered model aircraft, with a wingspan of 10 ft (3.5 m) which successfully flies a distance of 40 metres before crashing into a wall. This was the world's first heavier-than-air powered flight.
  • 1849
    • Balloons are used for bombardment for the first time, with Austrian balloons used to bomb Venice.
    • Sir George Cayley launches a 10-year old boy in a smaller glider. The glider flies up while being towed by a team of people running down a hill. This is the first known flight by a person in a heavier-than-air machine, though is not as recognized as the 1853 flight.
  • 1852
    • Henri Giffard flies 27 km (17 miles) in a steam-powered dirigible, the first person to make an engine-powered flight.
  • 1853
  • 1855
    • Joseph Pline is the first person to use the word "aeroplane" is a paper proposing a gas filled dirigible glider with propellers.
  • 1857
    • Félix Du Temple flies clockwork and steam-powered model aircraft, the first sustained powered flights by heavier-than-air machines.
  • 1861
  • 1864
    • Outbreak of the Paraguayan War between Paraguay and Brazil. Brazilian forces would make much use of balloon reconnaissance over the next six years.
  • 1870
    • Balloons are used by the French to transport letters and passengers out of besieged Paris during the Franco-Prussian War. Between September and the following January, 66 flights carried 110 passengers and up to three million letters out of Paris.
  • 1872
  • 1874
    • September 20. Du Temple builds a steam-powered monoplane which achieves a short hop after gaining speed by rolling down a ramp. It carries a human passenger whose identity is no longer known.
  • 1878
    • Charles F. Ritchel has a public demonstration of his hand-powered one man rigid airship, goes on to build and sell five of them.
  • 1879
  • 1880
  • 1882
    • Wölfert unsuccessfully tests a balloon powered by a hand-cranked propeller
  • 1883
  • 1884
    • Mozhaiski finishes his monoplane (span 14 m, or 46 ft). It makes a short hop after running down a launch ramp.
    • The first fully controllable free-flight is made in a French Army dirigible La France by Charles Renard and Arthur Krebs. The electric-powered flight covers 8 km (5 miles) in 23 minutes.
    • British Army balloons are taken on the expedition to Bechuanaland in South Africa.
  • 1885
    • The Prussian Airship Arm (Preussische Luftschiffer Abteilung) becomes a permanent unit of the army.
    • British Army balloons are taken to Sudan by the expeditionary force headed there.
  • 1886
    • John J. Montgomery: A controlled heavier-than-air flight. His first two gliders did not include flight controls but his third featured aileron prototypes.
  • 1888
    • Wölfert flies a petrol powered dirigible at Seelburg. The engine was built by Daimler.
  • 1889
  • 1890s
  • 1890
    • Clement Ader: a reported powered uncontrolled low heavier-than-air flight.
  • 1891
    • Otto Lilienthal begins a series of glider flights in his attempt to develop a practical ornithopter. Although he will not achieve this goal, in the process he becomes the first person to make repeatable, controlled flights in a series of heavier-than-air devices. First controlled glider flights in excess of 300m. Performs the first well-documented and photographed flights. Breaks his spine on the 2500th flight. Leaves influential notebooks.
  • 1892
    • Clément Ader is contracted by the French War Ministry to build an aircraft to be used as a bomber.
    • Austria's army gains a permanent air corps, the Kaiserlich und Königliche Militäräronautische Ansalt ("Imperial and Royal Military Aeronautical Group")
    • Horatio Phillips built a steam-powered aircraft at Harrow which was tethered to the centre of a circular track. It successfully left the ground, even when carrying 32 kg (72 lb) of ballast. (Some sources list 1893)
  • 1893
  • 1894
    • Czeslaw Tanski successfully flies powered models in Poland and begins work on full-size gliders.
    • Octave Chanute publishes Progress in Flying Machines, describing the research completed so far into flight.
    • Hiram Maxim launches an enormous biplane (wingspan 32 m, 105 ft) propelled by two steam engines. It makes a short hop after running down a length of railway track.
    • November: Lawrence Hargrave demonstrates stable flight with a tethered box kite.
  • 1895
    • Pilcher makes his first successful flight in a glider named Bat.
  • 1896
    • Lilienthal dies of injuries sustained in the crash of one of his gliders.
    • Samuel Langley successfully flies powered model aircraft from a houseboat on the Potomac.
    • David Schwarz rigid airship makes its first flight at Tempelhof field, crashes.
  • 1897
    • Wölfert is killed in a dirigible crash
    • Salomon Andrée attempts an Arctic expedition by balloon. He and two companions crash within three days but manage to survive for several months in the pack ice. Their remains are later discovered on White Island.
    • Ader makes short hops in his steam-powered Avion III. The Army is not impressed and withdraws his funding.
    • The first flight in a rigid airship is made by Ernst Jägels, flying an all-aluminium craft designed by David Schwarz and built by Carl Berg. It is damaged beyond repair while landing.
  • 1899
    • Lilienthal's book Der Vogelflug als Grundlage der Fliegekunst ("Bird-flight as the basis for flight technology"), an important early aeronautical textbook, is published.
    • The Wright brothers begin experimenting with wing-warping as a means of controlling an aircraft.
    • Samuel Cody begins experiments with kites big enough to lift a person
    • Percy Pilcher flies various gliders and is close to completing a powered machine when he is tragically killed. Pilcher is killed when his glider crashes at Stanford Hall, England after a strut in its tail breaks. The flight was intended as a display of powered flight, but when the engine is not ready in time, Pilcher uses a team of horses to pull the glider into the air.
  • 1900
    • Ferdinand von Zeppelin flies his first airship, the LZ1
    • The Wrights fly their "Glider No. 1" first as a kite, then as a glider.

1900s in aviation

1910s in aviation

1920s in aviation

1930s in aviation

1940s in aviation

1950s in aviation

1960s in aviation

1980s in aviation

1980s in aviation

1990s in aviation

Fear of the Y2K computer bug and possible in-flight consequences for those planes flying during the night of December 31, 1999 and the early morning of January 1, 2000, spreads around the airline industry.

2000s in aviation

See also

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