History of Aviation
Timeline developed by M. Rouch
| 1480 - 1500 | Leonardo de Vinci draws designs for helicopters, ornithopters, and parachutes. |
| November 21, 1783 | Rozier and the marquis d'Arlandes make the first free flight in a hot-air balloon. |
| October 22, 1797 | The first parachute descent is made by a human. |
| 1894 | Otto Lilienthal is the first human to be photographed in flight. |
| December 17, 1903 | Orville Wright makes the first powered, sustained, and controlled heavier-than-air flight. |
| November 13, 1907 | Paul Cornu achieves the first free flight of a helicopter with a human on board and hovers for 20 seconds. |
| August 2, 1909 | The U.S. Army buys its first airplane - a Wright biplane. |
| July 1, 1911 | The first flight of a U.S. Navy aircraft, a Curtiss seaplane. |
| 1924 | First flight around-the-world: the Chicago and New Orleans circle the world in 175 days. |
| May 21, 1927 | First Nonstop Solo Transatlantic Flight : Charles Lindbergh completes the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean. |
| August 8 - 29, 1929 | The Graf Zeppelin achieves the first around-the-world flight by an airship. |
| May 20, 1932 | Amelia Earhart is the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic in a Vega aircraft.. |
| July 15 - 22, 1933 | Wiley Post achieves the first solo around-the-world flight in a Vega aircraft, called the Winnie Mae in 7 days and 19 hours. |
| December 31, 1938 | The prototype Boeing 307 Stratoliner, first pressurized airliner takes first flight. |
| August 27, 1939 | The first flight of a jet-powered airplane is achieved by the Heinkel He 178. |
| October 14, 1947 | First aircraft to travel faster than the speed of sound. U.S. Air Force test pilot Chuck Yeager flies the Bell X-1 to Mach 1.07, becoming the first human to fly faster than the speed of sound. |
| May 2, 1952 | The De Havilland Comet becomes first jet-powered aircraft to offer regular passenger service. |
| October 4, 1957 | First Artificial Satellite: Russian spacecraft Sputnik I becomes the first satellite to be launched into the Earth's orbit. |
| January 31, 1958 | First Successful United States Satellite: Explorer 1 becomes the first successful artificial satellite launched by the United States. |
| 1959 - 1967 | First winged aircraft to achieve Mach 4, 5, & 6 and to operate at altitudes above 30,500 meters (100,000 feet). X-15 |
| April 12, 1961 | Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to travel in space in the spaceship Vostok 1. |
| February 20, 1962 | First American, John Glenn to orbit the Earth. |
| June 3, 1965 | First American Spacewalk by astronaut Edward H. White II performs an Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA) or "spacewalk" for 20 minutes outside Gemini IV. |
| March 2, 1969 | The first flight of the prototype of the Supersonic-transport (SST) aircraft Concorde. |
| July 20, 1969: | U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong becomes the first human to walk on the moon |
| May 14, 1973 | Skylab, an earth-orbiting space station that allowed people to live in space for several weeks, is launched. |
| July 20, 1976 | First Spacecraft to operate on the surface of Mars: Viking 1 spacecraft lands on Mars and sends back pictures to Earth. |
| April 12, 1981 | First piloted orbital test flight of the U.S. Space Shuttle STS-1. |
| June 1983 | Pioneer 10 is the first spacecraft to venture beyond the planets. |
| December 14 - 23, 1986 | Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager make the first around-the-world flight on the Voyager without refueling in 9 days. |
| June 7, 1994 | Vicki Van Meter, age 12 becomes youngest pilot to fly transatlantic in a Cessna 210. |
| September 26 - 1996 | Dr. Shannon Lucid sets U.S. record presence in space: 188 days. |
| March 1 - 21, 1999 | Breitling Orbiter 3 sets a record for first successful circumnavigation of the world. |
| July 30, 2002 | First successful hypersonic scramjet engine test flight in Australia. |
| October 15, 2003 | First manned Chinese space flight. |
| December 17, 2003 | First Flight Centennial Celebration |
