List of firsts in aviation

Stained glass window showing Eilmer of Malmesbury, installed in Malmesbury Abbey in 1920.

This is a list of firsts in aviation.

The forerunners

Otto Lilienthal in mid-flight, c. 1895.

• First successful human flight:
  • In the year 559, several prisoners of Emperor Wenxuan of Northern Qi, including Yuan Huangtou of Ye, were forced to launch themselves from a tower attached to a kite, as an experiment. Yuan Huangtou was the sole survivor, successfully gliding over the city walls. He was later executed.^[1]
  • Abbas Ibn Firnas (810–887), a Muslim Andalusian polymath, is rumored to have made a successful attempt at flying, according to the account of the historian Ahmed Mohammed al-Maqqari seven centuries later. He built his own glider, and launched himself from a mountain.^[2]
  • In the early 11th century (possibly first decade), Eilmer of Malmesbury, an English Benedictine monk, attempted a gliding flight using wings. According to the Gesta Regum Anglorum, Eilmer travelled over a furlong (201 metres) through the air before falling and breaking both his legs, rendering him lame for the rest of his life.^[3]
  • Bartolomeu de Gusmão, in a balloon filled with heated air at the hall of the Casa da India in Lisbon, on August 8, 1709.
• First recorded manned flight: Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and Marquis d'Arlandes piloted a hot air balloon (built by the Montgolfier brothers) from the Château de la Muette to the Butte-aux-Cailles, Paris, on November 21, 1783.^[4][5] This was the first free manned flight; however, de Rozier had flown in a tethered balloon on October 15, 1783.^[6]
• First manned gas balloon flight: Professor Jacques Charles and Nicolas-Louis Robert flew from Paris to Nesles-la-Vallée in a hydrogen-filled balloon on December 1, 1783.^[7]
• First women in a flight: The Marchioness and Countess of Montalembert, the Countess of Podenas and Miss de Lagarde ascended in a tethered balloon over Paris, on May 20, 1784.
• First woman in an untethered balloon: Elizabeth Thible flew over Lyon singing arias on June 4, 1784, in order to entertain Gustav III of Sweden.^[8]
• First steerable balloon (or airship): On July 15, 1784, the Robert brothers (Les Frères Robert) flew for 45 minutes from Saint-Cloud to Meudon with M. Collin-Hullin and Louis Philippe II, the Duke of Chartres, in their elongated balloon. The steerable craft, designed by Jacques Charles, followed Jean Baptiste Meusnier's proposals (1783–85) for a dirigible balloon, with a rudder, but the use of oars as a means of propulsion was not successful.^[7]
• First flight across the English Channel: Jean-Pierre Blanchard and John Jeffries crossed the Channel in a balloon on January 7, 1785.^[9]
• First aviation disaster: On May 10, 1785, the town of Tullamore, County Offaly, Ireland, was seriously damaged when the crash of a hot air balloon resulted in a fire that burned down about 100 houses.^[10]
• First known fatalities in an air crash: Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and Pierre Romain died when their Rozière balloon deflated and crashed to the ground near Wimereux in the Pas-de-Calais, on June 15, 1785.^[11]
• First jump from a balloon with a parachute: Jean-Pierre Blanchard used a parachute in 1793 to escape his hot air balloon when it ruptured.
• First successful jump from a balloon with a parachute: Andre Jacques Garnerin in Paris in 1797.^[12]
• First woman to jump from a balloon with a parachute: Jeanne Geneviève Labrosse jumped from an altitude of 900 meters on October 12, 1799.
• First woman to pilot her own balloon: Sophie Blanchard flew solo from the garden of the Cloister of the Jacobins in Toulouse on August 18, 1805.
• First woman to be killed in an aviation accident: Sophie Blanchard was killed when her hydrogen-filled balloon caught fire and crashed to the ground on July 6, 1819.^[13]
• First successful steerable powered balloon: The Giffard dirigible was invented by Henri Giffard, who piloted it from the Hippodrome in Paris to Trappes on September 24, 1852.^[14]
• First balloon mail service: Paris used balloons to pass vital information over Prussian lines during the five-month Siege of Paris in 1870-71.^[15]
• First tethered balloon for passengers: Developed by Henri Giffard in the Tuileries Garden, Paris, in 1878.^[16]
• First photographed manned glider flight: Otto Lilienthal, in 1891.^[17]
• First flight in an airship powered by an internal combustion engine: Alberto Santos Dumont, 1898.^[18]
• First woman to pilot a powered aircraft; Rose Isabel Spencer, in Stanley Spencer's Airship Number 1, at Crystal Palace, London on 14 July 1902.^[19][20]

Heavier than air era

In 1999, Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones achieved the first non-stop balloon circumnavigation in Breitling Orbiter 3.

The Swiss solar-powered aircraft Solar Impulse plan to make the first solar-powered aerial circumnavigation of the globe in 2015.

• First flight in a powered airplane:
  • On October 9, 1890, Clément Ader flew uncontrolled for approximately 50 m (160 ft) in the steam-powered Éole.^[21]
  • Gustave Whitehead claimed to have flown half a mile at a height of twenty to thirty feet in the spring of 1899, but there is little evidence to support this claim.^[22] A second flight on August 14, 1901, was described in detail in a contemporary newspaper article.^[23] Whitehead's claims are dismissed by many aviation historians.^[24][25]
  • Richard Pearse is said to have flown a fixed-wing aircraft several hundred meters on March 31, 1903. Pearse himself later denied this claim.^[26]
  • The Wright brothers are widely regarded as the inventors of the first fixed-wing aircraft to achieve sustained, controlled flight, the Wright Flyer. Orville Wright made the first successful flight in this aircraft on December 17, 1903, travelling 120 feet at a speed of 6.8 mph.^[27] On September 20, 1904, Wilbur Wright made the first successful circular flight in a powered aircraft, covering 4,080 feet (1,244 m) in about a minute and a half.^[28]
• First heavier-than-air flight of more than 25 meters in Europe: On October 23, 1906, Alberto Santos-Dumont, flew a distance of 60 meters in his 14-bis at the Chateau de Bagatelle, Paris, winning the Archdeacon Prize.^[29]
• First flight certified and registered by Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI): On November 12, 1906, in the presence of official observers from the newly founded FAI, Alberto Santos Dumont flew his 14-bis a distance of 220 meters at the Chateau de Bagatelle, Paris.^[30]
• First airplane passenger:
  • Léon Delagrange, with pilot Henri Farman, on March 29, 1908.^[31]
  • Charles Furnas, Wright Company mechanic, in a Wright Flyer III flown by Wilbur Wright on May 14, 1908.^[32][33]
• First person to die in a crash of a powered airplane: Thomas Etholen Selfridge, a passenger on an aircraft piloted by Orville Wright which crashed at Fort Myer on September 17, 1908.^[34] Wright was badly injured, and was hospitalised for seven weeks.
• First ditching of an airplane in the sea: Hubert Latham, while attempting to complete the first powered flight across the English Channel on July 19, 1909, instead became the first person to perform a water landing when his aircraft suffered engine failure.^[35]
• First airplane flight across the English Channel: Louis Blériot crossed the Channel on July 25, 1909,^[36] winning the Daily Mail prize of £1,000.^[37]
• First documented and witnessed seaplane flight under power from water's surface: Henri Fabre, piloting the Fabre Hydravion, at Martigues, France, on March 28, 1910.^[38]
• First mid-air collision between two airplanes: An Antoinette monoplane, piloted by Rene Thomas, rammed Bertram Dickson's Farman biplane on October 1, 1910.^[39][40]
• First shipboard take-off and landing by an airplane: Eugene Burton Ely, in a Curtiss pusher, took off from a temporary platform aboard light cruiser USS Birmingham on November 14, 1910.^[41] Ely was also the first to land an airplane on a ship, touching down on a temporary platform aboard armored cruiser USS Pennsylvania on January 11, 1911.^[42]
• The first non-stop flight from London to Paris: Pierre Prier on 12 April 1911 in 3 hours and 56 minutes.^[43]
• First woman to die in a crash of a powered airplane: Denise Moore, on July 21, 1911.^[44]
• First flight across the Continental Divide of the Americas: Cromwell Dixon flew over the Rocky Mountains in a Curtiss pusher on September 30, 1911, reaching an altitude of 7,100 feet.^[45]
• First Chief of State to fly on an airplane: Ferdinand I of Bulgaria was a passenger in an aircraft flown by Jules de Laminne on July 15, 1910, during a visit in Belgium.^[46]
• First parachute jump from an airplane:
  • Grant Morton, according to some sources, jumped from a Wright Model B over Venice, California, in 1911.^[47][48]
  • Albert Berry jumped from a Benoist biplane over Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, on March 1, 1912.^[49] Berry is generally considered to have been the first to jump from an airplane, notwithstanding Morton's claim.^[47]
• First woman to fly across the English Channel: Harriet Quimby flew from Dover to Hardelot-Plage on April 16, 1912.^[50]
• First take-off by an airplane from a moving ship: Commander Charles R. Samson took off from a temporary platform aboard battleship HMS Hibernia in a Short Improved S.27 No. 38, on May 9, 1912.^[51]
• First bombing attack against a surface ship: Didier Masson and Captain Joaquín Bauche Alcalde, flying for Mexican Revolutionist Venustiano Carranza, dropped dynamite bombs on Federalist gunboats at Guaymas, Mexico, on May 10, 1913.^[52]
• First air drop of propaganda leaflets: Didier Masson, flying for the Mexican Revolutionist Venustiano Carranza, post May 10, 1913.^[52]
• First pilot to fly a loop: Pyotr Nesterov in a Nieuport IV, on September 9, 1913.^[53]
• First flight across the Mediterranean Sea: Roland Garros flew from the South of France to Tunisia, on September 23, 1913.^[54]
• First dogfight: Dean Ivan Lamb (flying a Curtiss pusher) and Phil Rader (in a Christopherson biplane) fired pistol shots at each other while airborne, during the Siege of Naco, Mexico. This incident took place sometime around November/December 1913; the exact date is unknown.^[55]
• First scheduled commercial flight using winged aircraft: On January 1, 1914, Tony Jannus piloted the inaugural flight of the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line, carrying former St. Petersburg mayor Abraham C. Pheill as its first paying passenger. The flight from St. Petersburg to Tampa took 23 minutes, and was repeated twice daily, six days a week, until May 5, 1914.^[56]
• First aircraft to shoot down another aircraft: A French Voisin III, piloted by Sergeant Joseph Frantz and Corporal Louis Quénault, engaged a German Aviatik B.II near Rheims on October 5, 1914. After expending all of his machine-gun ammunition, Quénault shot the German pilot (Wilhelm Schlichting) with his rifle, causing the Aviatik to crash.^[57]
• First female military pilot: Eugenie Mikhailovna Shakhovskaya was a reconnaissance pilot in the Imperial Russian Air Service, having been ordered to active service on November 19, 1914.^[58]

The actual E.5/15 aircraft used by Wintgens in his pioneering aerial engagement on July 1, 1915, as it appeared at the time of the engagement.

• First aerial victory for a fighter aircraft armed with a forward-firing synchronized machine gun: Leutnant Kurt Wintgens of the Luftstreitkräfte, flying a production prototype (M.5K/MG) of the Fokker E.I Eindecker, downed a French Morane-Saulnier L "Parasol" near Luneville, France, on July 1, 1915.^[59][60]
• First aerial torpedo attack on a ship: Charles Edmonds, flying a Short 184, torpedoed and sunk a Turkish supply ship in the Sea of Marmara on August 12, 1915. The ship was abandoned, having been crippled by a British submarine four days earlier.^[61][62]
• First combat search and rescue by airplane: Richard Bell-Davies rescued a comrade who had been shot down in Bulgaria on November 19, 1915.^[63]
• First medical evacuation (medevac) by air: Louis Paulhan evacuated the seriously ill Milan Stefanik from the Serbian front in 1915.^[64]
• First landing by an airplane on a moving ship: Squadron Commander Edwin Dunning, in a Sopwith Pup, landed on HMS Furious on August 2, 1917.^[65]
• First non-stop transatlantic flight: [66]
• First England to Australia flight: Keith Macpherson Smith and Ross Macpherson Smith (plus mechanics Sergeant W.H. (Wally) Shiers and J.M. (Jim) Bennett) completed the journey from Hounslow Heath Aerodrome to Darwin in a Vickers Vimy on December 10, 1919, winning a prize of £A10,000.^[67]
• First African-American woman to obtain a pilot's license: Bessie Coleman on June 15, 1921.^[68]
• First aerial crossing of the South Atlantic: Artur de Sacadura Cabral and Gago Coutinho flew from Lisbon, Portugal, to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, between March 30 and June 17, 1922.^[69]
• First aerial refueling: An Airco DH.4B biplane of the United States Army Air Service successfully refuelled another DH.4B in mid-air on June 27, 1923.^[70]
• First solo non-stop transatlantic flight: Charles Lindbergh, flying the Spirit of St. Louis, made the 33-hour journey from New York to Paris on May 20–21, 1927, winning the Orteig Prize.^[71]
• First transpacific flight from U.S. mainland to Hawaii: U.S. Army lieutenants Albert Francis Hegenberger and Lester J. Maitland flew from California to Hawaii in the Bird of Paradise, a C-2 transport, on June 28–29, 1927.^[72]
• First transpacific flight to Australia: Charles Kingsford Smith and crew, in the Southern Cross, flew from Oakland, California, to Brisbane, Australia, between May 31 and June 9, 1928.^[73]
• First woman to fly across the Atlantic (as passenger): Amelia Earhart was flown by Wilmer Stultz and Louis Gordon, in a Fokker F.VII, from Trepassey, Newfoundland, to Burry Port, Wales, on June 17, 1928.^[74]
• First successful trans-Tasman flight: Charles Kingsford Smith and crew, in the Southern Cross, flew from Richmond, New South Wales, to Christchurch, New Zealand, on September 9–10, 1928, becoming the first airplane pilots to successfully cross the Tasman Sea.^[75]
• First solo trans-Tasman flight: Guy Menzies, flying an Avro Avian named the Southern Cross Junior, took off from Sydney on January 7, 1931, and crash-landed in a swamp near Hari Hari, New Zealand, nearly twelve hours later.^[76]
• First people to reach the stratosphere: Auguste Piccard and Paul Kipfer ascended to the height of 51,000 feet in a hydrogen-filled balloon over Augsburg, Germany, on May 27, 1931.^[77]
• First nonstop flight across the Pacific Ocean: Clyde Pangborn and Hugh Herndon flew from Samushiro, Japan, to Wenatchee, Washington, on October 4–5, 1931. The journey took 41 hours, 13 minutes.^[78]
• First female pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean: Amelia Earhart, in a Lockheed Vega 5B, flew from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, to Culmore, Ireland, on May 20, 1932.^[79]
• First successful single-lift rotor helicopter: Alexei Cheremukhin and Boris Yuriev's TsAGI-1EA, which flew to a record altitude of 605 meters (1,985 ft) on August 14, 1932.
• First flight over the world's highest peak, Mount Everest: Lord Clydesdale and David McIntyre, in Westland's PV-3 and PV-6 respectively, flew over Everest on April 3, 1933.^[80]
• First female fighter pilot: Sabiha Gökçen (March 22, 1913 – March 22, 2001) was a Turkish/Armenian aviator. According to the Air University, she was the world's first female fighter pilot,^[81] and the first Turkish female combat pilot, aged 23.^[82] She was one of the eight adopted children of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
• First flight by a liquid-fueled rocket-powered aircraft: The Heinkel He 176, piloted by Erich Warsitz, made its maiden flight on June 20, 1939.^[83]
• First flight by a turbojet-powered aircraft: The Heinkel He 178, piloted by Erich Warsitz, made its maiden flight on August 27, 1939.^[84]
• First human to break the sound barrier: Chuck Yeager first exceeded the speed of sound in level flight in a Bell X-1 on October 14, 1947.^[85]
• First British all-female airline flight crew: An all-female crew, captained by Caroline Frost, flew for British Air Ferries from Southend to Düsseldorf on October 31, 1977.^[86]
• First supersonic scheduled passenger flights: Concorde, the world's first supersonic passenger transport, made two simultaneous maiden flights – from London to Bahrain, and from Paris to Rio de Janeiro – on January 21, 1976.^[87]
• First non-stop, un-refueled fixed-wing aircraft flight around the Earth: Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, aboard the Rutan Model 76 Voyager, December 14–23, 1986. The flight took 9 days, 3 minutes and 44 seconds.^[87]
• First trans-Pacific solo flight in a balloon: Steve Fossett flew in a helium balloon from Seoul, South Korea, to Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada, on February 21, 1995.^[88]
• First deployment of an FAA-certified whole-plane parachute recovery system: Scott D. Anderson successfully flew all 7 inflight test deployments of the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS). The tests were done in a Cirrus SR20 during the summer of 1998; the plane became type certified in October of that year.^[89][90][91]
• First non-stop balloon flight around the Earth: Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones flew from Château d'Oex, Switzerland, to Egypt, on board the balloon Breitling Orbiter 3, between March 1 and March 21, 1999, taking a total time of 19 days, 21 hours and 47 minutes.^[92]
• First solo non-stop balloon flight around the Earth: Steve Fossett, in the 10-story high balloon Spirit of Freedom, circumnavigated the globe between June 19 and July 3, 2002.^[93]
• First solo non-stop fixed-wing aircraft flight around the Earth: Steve Fossett flew from Salina, Kansas, eastbound and back, on a Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer, between February 28 and March 3, 2005, taking a total time of 67 hours.^[94]
• First black military pilot: Ahmet Ali Çelikten a.k.a. Arap Ahmet Ali was the first black military pilot in the history, served in Ottoman Aviation Squadrons.^[95][96][97] His grandmother came from Bornu (now in Nigeria) to the Ottoman Empire as a slave.^[52][98]

Notes and references

See also

• Australian aviation firsts
• Circumnavigation
• Firsts in human spaceflight

Bibliography

• Conquistadors of the Sky: A History of Aviation in Latin America. Dan Hagedorn. University Press of Florida, 2008. ISBN 0-8130-3249-0, ISBN 978-0-8130-3249-8.
• Leave No Man Behind: The Saga of Combat Search and Rescue. George Galdorisi, Thomas Phillips. MBI Publishing Company, 2009. ISBN 0-7603-2392-5, ISBN 978-0-7603-2392-2.
• Interpretive History of Flight. M.J.B Davy. Science Museum, London, 1937.