Published 14/05/2012
1487 Leonardo da Vinci sketches the first flying machines 1783 The Montgolfier brothers build and fly the first hot air balloon 1785 Jean Blanchard and John Jeffries cross the English Channel by hot air balloon 1809 Sir George Cayley builds the first successful human-carrying glider 1890-1900 Clement Ader built and tested a variety of bat-winged flying machines, a monoplane and glider flown by Otto Lilienthal successfully flies and lands safely and Ferdinand von Zeppelin completes his namesake airship 1903 The Wright Brothers, Orville & Wilbur fly the first heavier-than-air machine at Kitty Hawk, NC 1909 Louis Bleriot completes the first flight across the English Channel 1910 Commercial Zeppelin passenger air service begins 1918 The first squadron of Handley Page bi-plane bombers start flying over Europe during WWI 1924 Golden Age of flight begins with the first airmail service to Alaska, Stanley Goble and Ivor McIntyre complete the first circumnavigation of Australia in 90 hours, the first of the prolific German Focke-Wulf fighter planes fly and the Douglas World Cruiser is the first airship to fly around the world. 1926 The world's first liquid-feuled rocket created by Robert Goddard is launched and the U.S. Army Air Corps is created 1927 Charles Lindbergh completes the first nonstop flight between New York and Paris and the Society for Space Travel is founded in Germany 1928 Fritz Stammer completes the first piloted rocket-powered flight and Amelia Earhart is the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic 1931 SwissAir, the first private commercial airline, was formed and the first drone place is flown by radio control 1937 The Hindenburg passenger airship crashed in New Jersey and the first prototype jet engine is tested by pilot, Frank Whittle 1940s The prototype for the first carrier-capable fighter aircraft was delivered to the U.S. Navy and the first German and Allied jet-powered bombers debut 1950s The race to claim space is on. The first Earth satellites are launched by the Soviet Union, Sputnik 1 & 11, and the US launches Explorer 1. NASA is formed in 1958. 1961 President John F. Kennedy challenged NASA to put a man on the moon before the end of the decade 1969 After triumphs and tragedy, Apollo 11 launches with astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin, landing on the moon on July 19.
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