Aviation History Timeline - A timeline of events in the evolution of aviation.Most of us believe that the aviation history timeline is relatively young. I suppose it is in relation to the evolution of mankind, however, aviation history is over 2800 years old. The Chinese invented the first kite in c.1000 B.C. If you are one who believes in the Greek, Roman and Norse Gods, then you can trace aviation history all the way back to the Greek named Icarus who was imprisoned, with his father Daedalus, on the island of Crete by King Minos. Daedalus fashioned a pair of wax wings for himself and Icarus. Before they took off from the island, Daedalus warned his son not to fly too close to the sun, nor too close to the sea. Overcome by the sublime feeling that flying gave him, Icarus soared through the sky joyfully, but in the process he came too close to the sun, which melted his wings. Icarus kept flapping his wings but soon realized that he had no feathers left and that he was only flapping his bare arms. And so, Icarus fell into the sea in the area which bears his name, the Icarian Sea near Icaria, an island southwest of Samos. Below are two aviation history timelines. The second one of the aviation history timelines is slightly different than the first. Aviation History Timeline 1783-1918 1783 - Montgolfier Brothers construct the first lighter-than-air vehicle (a balloon)
1900 - Count Ferdinand Zeppelin's airship flies
1902 - Charles A. Lindbergh Jr. is born on Feb. 4
1903 - Orville and Wilbur Wright fly first successful self-propelled airplane
1906 - Anne Morrow born June 20
1909 - Louis Bleriot crosses English Channel in a monoplane
1909 - Raymonde de Laroche becomes the first licensed female pilot
1913 - Salim Ilkucan crosses Sea of Marmara by achieving the longest over-sea flight in a doubleplane
1914-1918 - World War 1
1918 - United States Post Office establishes airmail service
1920 - Lindbergh enrolls in the University of Wisconsin as an engineering student
1922 - Bessie Coleman becomes the first licensed African-American aviator in the world
1922 - Lindbergh leaves college in February to become flying student at Nebraska Standard Aircraft Corporation; makes first flight, Apr. 9
1923 - Lindbergh buys first plane, a war-surplus Curtiss Jenny; goes barnstorming
1924 - Lindbergh enlists as a U.S. Army Flying cadet
1924 - First flight around the world
1926 - Lindbergh makes his first Chicago-to-St. Louis airmail flight
1926 - Air Commerce Act marks first federal attempt to set safety regulations for civil aeronautics and requires the registration and licensing of pilots and planes
1927 - Charles Lindbergh makes first solo, nonstop transatlantic flight
1928 - Anne Spencer Morrow graduates from Smith College
1929 - Charles Lindbergh and Anne Spencer Morrow marry
1930 - Anne Morrow Lindbergh becomes the first licensed female glider pilot in the United States
1931 - Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh survey potential commercial air routes from the U.S. to the Orient via Canada, Alaska and Russia
1932 - Amelia Earhart becomes the first female pilot to cross the Atlantic Ocean
1933 - Boeing 247 is built
1933 - Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh survey North and South Atlantic air routes
1934 - Anne Morrow Lindbergh is awarded Hubbard Gold Medal for accomplishments in 40,000 miles of exploratory flying
1937 - Zeppelin Hindenburg burns
1939-1945 - World War 2
1942 - Tuskegee Airmen all-Black 99th Fighter Squadron forms
1946 - Radar bounces off the moon for the first time
1947 - The sound barrier is broken by Chuck Yeager
1950s - Technologies such as long-range missiles, computer systems, electronic controls, combustion chemistry, and new composite structures made possible by the aerospace industry
1950-1953 - Korean War
1953 - Jacquelin Cochran becomes the first woman to break the sound barrier
1954 - Lindbergh is appointed to rank of brigadier general; awarded Pulitzer Prize for The Spirit of St. Louis
1955 - Anne Morrow Lindbergh's book, Gift from the Sea, is published
1958 - The first American satellite to be placed in orbit around the Earth, "Explorer 1", is launched
1959 - NASA selects its first seven astronauts
1961 - Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space
1966-72 - Charles Lindbergh serves on World Wildlife Fund Board of Trustees
1969 - Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first persons to walk on the moon
1971 - NASA's Mariner 9 orbits Mars, becoming the first spacecraft to orbit another planet
1971 - The first time a golf ball is hit on the moon
1971 - Boeing 747 makes its first commercial flight from New York to London
Aviation History Timeline 1972-1991
1972 - NASA announces the shuttle program
1974 - Charles Lindbergh dies in Maui, Hawaii, on August 26, buried at Kipahulu
1976 - Concorde flies
1977 - The Charles A. Lindbergh Fund is created
1978 - NASA selects its first group of women astronauts
1981 - First Space Shuttle flight
1982 - Falklands War
1983 - Sally Ride, the first American female astronaut, becomes the first U.S. woman to go up in space on the Space Shuttle Challenger
1986 - Challenger Space Shuttle explodes shortly after takeoff, all seven crew members die
1991 - Gulf War
1994 - The Charles A. Lindbergh Fund becomes The Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation 1996 - Anne Morrow Lindbergh is inducted into The National Women's Hall of Fame 2001 - Anne Morrow Lindbergh dies in Vermont, on February 7 2002 - The Charles A. and. Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation celebrates its 25th Anniversary 2003 - Aviation celebrates its first century 2004 - Mach 10 is achieved in the NASA X-43 2004 - Space Ship One wins the X Prize after 3 successful trips into space 2005 - Airbus A380 makes maiden flight 2006 - Boeing 777 enters service 2007 - Assembly of the first Boeing 787 Dreamliner begins 2008 - Planned first flight of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner
Aviation History Timeline c. 1000 B.C.E-1500
c. 1000 B.C.E. Kite is invented in China. c. 852 B.C.E. English King Bladud is apparently killed attempting to fly. c. 400 B.C.E. Archytas of Tarentum is reported to have made a steam-propelled pigeon. c. 1250 A.D. Roger Bacon, English cleric, writes about mechanical flight. 1485-1500 Leonardo da Vinci designs flying machines and parachute.
Aviation History Timeline c. 1670-1852
1670 Francesco de Lana Terzi publishes a design for lighter-than-air ship. 1680 Giovanni Borelli, Italian mathematician, concludes human muscle is inadequate for flight. 1709 Bartolomeu Laurenço de Gusmao designs model glider. 1783 Jean François Pilâtre de Rozier and Marquis d'Arlandes make the first free aerial voyage in a Montgolfier hot-air balloon. 1783 Jacques Alexandre César Charles and M.N. Robert fly in a hydrogen balloon. 1785 Jean-Pierre Blanchard and John Jeffries cross the English Channel by balloon.
1785 Jean François de Rozier and Pierre Romain are the first ballooning fatalities. 1797 André Jacques Garnerin makes the first human parachute descent, from a balloon. 1809 George Cayley publishes classic treatise on aviation.
1843 William Henson's design for aerial steam carriage is published. 1843 George Cayley's biplane design is published.
1852 Henri Giffard's steam-powered airship makes first flight.
1867 Wilbur Wright is born. 1870 Alphonse Pénaud experiments with twisted rubber to power model helicopter. 1871 Orville Wright is born. 1889 Otto Lilienthal publishes Der Vogelflug als Grundlage der Fliegekunst. 1891 Otto Lilienthal begins successful gliding experiments. 1895 Otto Lilienthal flies biplane gliders.
1896 Octave Chanute begins biplane gliding experiments in Michigan. 1896 Samuel P. Langley produces successful steam-powered models that fly. 1896 Otto Lilienthal crashes while gliding and dies next day. 1901 Alberto Santos-Dumont, Brazilian aviator, circles Eiffel Tower in airship. 1903 Samuel Langley's full-size manned "Aerodrome A" crashes on take-off. 1903 Orville and Wilbur Wright make first powered, sustained, and controlled flight in a heavier-than-air flying machine.
Aviation History Timeline c. 1906-Present Day
1906 Alberto Santos-Dumont makes first successful powered flight in Europe.
1909 Louis Bleriot, French aviator, makes first airplane crossing of English Channel. 1926 Robert H. Goddard makes first free flight of a liquid-fueled rocket. 1927 Charles A. Lindbergh completes first solo, nonstop trans-Atlantic flight. 1930 Frank Whittle, British inventor, invents the jet engine. 1932 Amelia Earhart is the first woman to fly a solo non-stop trans-Atlantic flight. 1933 A modern airliner, Boeing 247, flies for the first time. 1939 Germany's Heinkel 178 is the first fully jet-propelled aircraft to fly. 1947 Charles E. Yeager pilots Bell X-1--the first aircraft to exceed the speed of sound in level flight.
1957 Soviet Union launches first man-made earth satellite, Sputnik 1. 1961 Soviet cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, is the first man in space. 1962 John H. Glenn, Jr., is the first American to orbit the earth. 1969 U.S. astronauts Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr., are the first to walk on the moon.
1971 First space station, Soviet Salyut 1, is launched into earth's orbit.
1981 U.S. launches the first reusable spacecraft, the Columbia shuttle.
1998 First two modules of the International Space Station are launched and joined together in orbit. 2000 First crew arrives to take up residence in the International Space Station. 2003 A century of flight arrives.
2004 Space Ship One wins the X Prize after completeing 3 successful trips into space
2005 The Airbus A380 makes her maiden flight
2006 The Boeing 777 enters service
2007 The arrival of the first Boeing 787 Dreamliner gets closer
A Look At The First Airplane Invented
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Aviation History Timeline 1918-1945
Aviation History Timeline 1942-1971
Aviation History Timeline 1994-Present Day
Aviation History Timeline c. 1867-1903
