| History of Aviation | |
|---|---|
| Leonardo da Vinci designs a flying machine | 1487 |
| Francesco de Lana designs the first airship | 1670 |
| Laurenco de Gusmao fails in his attempt to launch a bird-shaped glider | 1709 |
| Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier's hot air balloon reaches a height of 6,560 feet (2,000 m) | 1783 |
| Jacques Charles tests the first hydrogen hot air balloon in Paris | 1783 |
| Jean Blanchard and John Jeffries become the first to cross the English Channel by air balloon | 1785 |
| Pilâtre de Rozier and Pierre Romain become the first men to be killed in a hot air balloon | 1785 |
| André Jacques Garnerin makes first successful parachute jump above Paris | 1797 |
| Jeanne-Genevieve Garnerin, became the first woman to make a parachute jump | 1799 |
| André Jacques Garnerin makes parachute jump of 8,000 feet (2,438 m) | 1802 |
| Jacob Degen survives a crash in Vienna in his ornithopter | 1809 |
| The Vauxhall air balloon flies from England to Germany, covering 480 miles in 18 hours | 1836 |
| George Cayley builds a triplane glider | 1849 |
| Henri Gifford builds an airship powered by a 3-hp steam engine | 1852 |
| Louis Charles Letur builds a parachute-glider in France | 1853 |
| A triplane built by George Cayley flies 900 feet (275 m) across a small valley | 1853 |
| Louis Charles Letur is killed in his pilot-controlled air machine | 1854 |
| Alphonse Pénaud's aeroplane travels 131 feet (39.92 m) in 11 seconds | 1871 |
| Vincent de Groof is killed when his aircraft launched from a balloon crashes | 1874 |
| Alexander Mozhaiski's aeroplane travels 98 feet (29.87 m) at Krasnoye Selo, Russia | 1884 |
| Otto Lilienthal, a German engineer, publishes a book outlining his theories on flight | 1889 |
| Clement Adler's aircraft, Eole, travels 165 feet (50.29 m) at Gretz | 1890 |
| Percy Pilcher flies his Bat glider for the first time | 1895 |
| Otto Lilienthal, the German engineer, is killed while flying his recently designed glider | 1896 |
| Percy Pilcher is killed when flying his new aircraft, the Hawk | 1899 |
| The LZ airship, designed by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, makes its first flight | 1900 |
| Samuel Pierpont Langley builds the first aircraft powered by a gasoline engine | 1901 |
| Samuel Pierpont Langley abandons his experiments when his aircraft, Aerodrome, crashes | 1903 |
| Orville and Wilber Wright's fly the first heavier-than-air machine at Kitty Hawk | 1903 |
| Orville and Wilber Wright's Flyer II fails to take-off | 1904 |
| Ferdinand Ferber builds a biplane glider with fixed tail | 1904 |
| Orville and Wilber Wright's Flyer III flies 24.2 miles (38.95 km) in 38 minutes | 1905 |
| Blériot VII reaches a speed of about 50 mph (80 kpm) | 1907 |
| Louis Bleriot becomes the first man to fly across the English Channel | 1909 |
| The establishment of the Aéronautique Militaire | 1910 |
| First parachute jump from an aeroplane take place at St. Louis | 1912 |
| The establishment of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) | 1912 |
| A Zeppelin airship bombs Liege in Belgium | 1914 |
| Roland Garros uses deflector plates | 1915 |
| Zeppelin raid on London kills 28 people | 1915 |
| First lightweight aircraft receiver tested in England | 1916 |
| First heavy bomber, the Handley Page, goes into action | 1916 |
| Charles Augustus Lindbergh flies nonstop between New York and Paris | 1927 |
| Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly the Atlantic Ocean | 1928 |
| Robert Watson-Watt demonstrates his radar system to Air Ministry | 1935 |
| The Hawker Hurricane, designed by Sydney Camm, makes its first flight | 1935 |
| The Spitfire, designed by Reginald J. Mitchell, makes its first flight | 1936 |
| The Messerschmitt 110 makes its first flight | 1936 |
| Frank Whittle tests the first prototype jet engine | 1937 |
| Amelia Earhart killed during an attempt on a round-the-world flight | 1937 |
| Junkers Ju 88A makes its first flight | 1939 |
| The Vought Corsair becomes the first fighter aircraft to fly at 400 mph | 1940 |
| Frank Whittle's jet-propelled Gloster E28 takes its first flight | 1941 |
| Wernher von Braun demonstrates his V2 Rocket to Nazi leaders | 1942 |
| The Messerschmitt Me 262 makes its first test flight | 1942 |
| The B-29 Superfortress makes its first flight | 1942 |
| Wing Commander Guy Gibson leads the Dambusters Raid | 1943 |
| The Arado Ar 234, the world's first jet bomber, makes its first flight | 1943 |
| Gloster Meteor, Britain's first jet-fighter, is used by the Royal Air Force | 1944 |
| The turbo-jet Heinkel He 162 makes its first test flight | 1944 |