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25th Century B.C.

in ancient Greece and China, the Idea of a flying machine was first conceived in
this era

21st Century B.C.

The idea or the perspective of an unarmed flight started in this era.

1000 B.C.
Kites are invented in china

425th B.C.
Archytas, from the city of Tarantas in south Italy, was accredited for the first
known autonomous flying machine. built a mechanical bird which he called “the
pigeon”. According to Cornelius Gellius in his Noctes Atticae, the bird was nicely
balanced with weights and flew using air (steam) enclosed in its stomach and was made
out of wood. It is alleged that the pigeon flew about 200 meters before falling to the
ground, once all steam or energy was used. It could not fly again, unless the
mechanism was reset.

400th B.C.
The idea of a vertical flight was first documented by the Chinese. The earliest
version of the Chinese top consisted of feathers at the end of a stick. The stick was
spun between the hands to generate enough lift before released into free flight. Over
the years, the Chinese experimented with other types of flying machines such as hot air
balloons, rockets or kites.

There are historical records of a “wooden hawk” that was used for
reconnaissance around 450 B.C., as well as a kite in the shape of a crow, which was
employed during the Ming Dynasty to bomb enemy positions

1483
Several centuries later, Leonardo Da Vinci, in 1483, designed an aircraft capable
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of hovering, called aerial screw or air gyroscope. It had a 5 meter diameter and the idea
was to make the shaft turn and if enough force were applied, the machine could spun
and fly. This machine is considered by some experts as the ancestor of today’s
helicopter.

1508
Da Vinci also devised a mechanical bird in 1508 that would flap its wings by
means of a double crank mechanism as it descended along a cable.

1709
Bartolomeu Laurenço de Gusmao designs a model glider.

1783
The first widely recognized manned flight took place in 1783 using a hot air
balloon designed by the Montgolfier brothers.
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Soon after, similar attempts took place in England and for several years
ballooning dominated manned flights, until the first helicopters in the 1860s and later
fixed-wing aircraft. Many flying machines were designed between 1860 and 1909,
initially focusing on vertical take-off and landing aircraft because of the limitations of the
steam powered engines that were in use at the time. As the power to weight ratio of
engines improved, these early machines were transformed to the helicopter and
airplane designs that are in use today.

1843

George Cayley’s biplane design is published.

1859
Otto Lilienthal flies biplane gliders.

1903
Designed and built by Orville and Wilbur Wright, the Flyer I was the first
successful heavier-than-air aircraft. The Wright brothers flew it four times on December
17, 1903 at Kitty Hawk, in North Carolina, US. They made the first controlled, powered
and sustained human flight in History.
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1904
Richard Pearse from New Zealand makes his first recorded powered flight of
more than a few seconds, though witnesses contend his first flight may have been just
before the Wright brothers.

Richard Pearse’s monoplane

Richard Pearse’s monoplane resembled a modern-day microlight. Witness accounts
suggest he flew it before the Wright brothers flew theirs. This monoplane is a replica
from the South Canterbury Museum in Timaru.

There is evidence that Richard Pearse did not achieve controlled flight before the Wright
brothers in 1903.

1906
Alberto Santos-Dumont makes the first successful powered flight in Europe.

1908 (17th of September) – First fatal airplane crash

Thomas E. Selfridge was the first person to die in a crash of a powered airplane.
He was a passenger on the Wright Flyer piloted by Orville Wright in an exhibition.
Selfridge was not wearing any headgear and died three hours after the crash. Wright
was only wearing a cap and he survived.

1909 (25th of July) – First flight of English Channel

Louis Blériot became world famous for making the first flight across the English
Channel in his Type XI monoplane, winning the prize of £1,000 offered by the Daily
Mail newspaper. The flight, from Calais (France) to Dover (UK), took 36 minutes and 30
seconds.
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1911
Kiwi aviator George Bolt’s flying career began in the South Island in 1911. Aged
just 18, he launched a glider that he had designed and built himself from the Cashmere
Hills above Christchurch.In 1911 Bolt took New Zealand’s first aerial photographs. In
1916 he began work as an apprentice mechanic at the Walsh brothers’ New Zealand
Flying School in Auckland.

1914 (1st of January) – First commercial flight

The first scheduled air service was operated on a Benoist XIV flying boat and
crossed the Tampa Bay (in Florida, US), from St. Petersburg to Tampa. It took 23
minutes and the only passenger was Abram C. Pheil, former Mayor of St. Petersburg,
who paid $400 for the privilege.

1918 (21st of April) Red Baron’ shot down

Aircraft started to be used on a large scale in World War I. Ace fighter pilots
became popular heroes. The most feared and respected was German pilot Manfred von
Richthofen, a.k.a. the Red Baron.

Credited with 80 air combat victories, he became leader of the Jagdgeschwader unit,
better known as the "Flying Circus". Richthofen was shot down and killed near Amiens
(France) in the spring of 1918, during one of the last German offensives in World War I.
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1920 (17th of May) KLM operated its first flight

KLM the oldest carrier still in operation today. Founded in 1919, it was one of the
world's first commercial airline companies.

In 1920, it started operating scheduled flights between London and Amsterdam, which
continue to this day.

1927 (21st of May) – First solo transatlantic flight

Charles Lindbergh won the $25,000 prize offered by a businessman to the first
pilot to fly directly across the Atlantic Ocean between New York and Paris.

Lindbergh completed the first solo nonstop transatlantic flight in history, covering 3,610
miles in 33 hours and 30 minutes with a Ryan NYP monoplane called "Spirit of St.
Louis". He became a world hero.

1928 (18th of September) De la Cierva’s autogyro flights from London to Paris

Juan de la Cierva was a Spanish aeronautical engineer who invented the
autogyro, the world's first successful rotary-wing aircraft and the forerunner of the
modern helicopter. In 1928 De la Cierva made the first flight of a rotorcraft across the
English Channel, piloting himself the experimental autogyro model Cierva C.8 and
carrying a french journalist as a passenger.

1930 – Jet engine invented

British inventor Frank Whittle invents the jet engine.

1932 – First woman flies across Atlantic

Amelia Earhart is the first woman to fly a solo non-stop trans-Atlantic flight.
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1937 (2nd of July) – Amelia Earhart disappears in the Pacific Ocean

The American heroine Amelia Earhart was the first female aviator to fly solo
across the Atlantic Ocean in May 1932, emulating Charles Lindbergh's achievement.

She died five years later. During her round-the-world flight's attempt with Fred Noonan
both disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean near Howland Island, almost halfway
between Hawaii and Australia.

1938 – First transatlantic commercial flight

Seaplanes were used for transatlantic flights in the 1930s. In 1938 a Focke-
Wulf Fw 200"Condor" operated by Lufthansa flew non-stop from Berlin to New York in
about 25 hours, proving that landplanes could be used to carry passengers across the
ocean. A regular Lufthansa transatlantic service was planned but then World War II
started.