Already a member?
Sign in
Welcome! Wikis are websites that everyone can build together. It's easy!
Aviation History
| First Powered,Controlled, Flight  On December 17, 1903, Orville Wright piloted the first powered airplane above Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The flight lasted 12 seconds and covered 120 feet. Three more flights were made that day with Orville's brother Wilbur the record flight lasting 59 seconds over a distance of 852 feet. | First Aviation Company  Shorts Brothers plc or also known as Shorts, was the first true aviation company in the world, founded in 1908. In the 1920's, 1930's and during the second world war, Shorts manufactured flying boats. In the immediate post-war period they received orders for several military and experimental aircraft. Then in the 1960's, shorts turned primarily to the production of cargo planes. In 1989 the company was bought by Bombardier, were Shorts designs and manufactures nacelle systems. Today Shorts is the largest manufacturing concern in northern Ireland. |
| First Transatlantic Flight  | Hindenburg Disaster  |
| First to Break Sound Barrier in Level Flight  On October 14, 1947, Charles "Chuck" Yeager became the first pilot to break the sound barrier, or fly faster than sound in level flight. The plane was the Bell XS-1 #1, later redesigned as the X-1. Captain Yeager named the plane, "Glamorous Glennis" in honor of his wife. It reached a speed of Mach 1.06,(700 mph) at an altitude of 43,000 feet, over the Mojave Desert near Muroc Dry Lake, California. The flight demonstrated that aircraft could be designed to fly faster that sound, crumbling the myth that no airplane could fly faster than sound. | First Commercial Jetliner  The British de Havilland Comet first flew 1949 and was the first commercial jet airliner to reach production. Early Comet models suffered from catastrofic metal fatigue, causing a string of well-published accidents, and the aircraft was temporarily withdrawn and resigned. The Comet 4 series susequently enjoyed a long and productive career of over 30 years, although sales never fully recovered. The Hawker Siddeley Nimrod, the military derivative of the Comet Airliner, is still in service. In 2007, the original decades-old airframes were being rebuilt with new wings and engines to produce the Nimrod MRA 4, expected to serve with Britain's Royal Air Force until the 2020's, more than 70 years after the Comet's first flight. |
| Fastest and Highest Flying Aircraft  The Lockheed SR-71 was in service from 1964 to 1998. It was an advanced, long range, Mach 3 strategic reconnaissance aircraft developed from the Lockheed YF-12A and A-12 aircraft by Lockheed Skunk Works. The SR-71 was unofficially named the Blackbird, and called the Habu ("snake") by its crews. The SR-71 was one of the first aircraft shaped to reduce its radar cross section, although its radar signature could be tracked by contemporary systems unlike later "stealth" aircraft. A defensive feature of the aircraft was its high speed and high operating altitude.If a surface-to-air missile were to be launched, standard evasive action would simply be to accelerate. 12 of the 32 aircraft produced were destroyed in accidents, but none were lost to enemy action. | Concorde  |
| First Human-Powered Crossing of English Channel  | First Non-Stop Flight Around the World  |
| World's Largest Aircraft  | World's Largest Commercial Jetliner  The A380's upper deck extends along the entire length of the fuselage. This allows for a cabin with 50 percent more floor space than the next largest airliner, the Boeing 747-400, and provides seating for 525 people in standard three-class configuration or up to 853 people in full economy class configuration. Two models of the A380 are available for sale. The A380-800, the passenger model, is the largest passenger airliner in the world, superseding the Boeing 747. The A380-800F, the freighter model, is designed as one of the largest freight aircraft, with a listed payload capacity exceeded only by the Antonov An-225. The A380-800 has a design range of 15,200 km (8,200 nmi, sufficient to fly from New York to Hong Kong nonstop), and a cruising speed of Mach 0.85 (about 900 km/h or 560 mph at cruise altitude). |
Latest page update: made by 1tiger9
, Apr 11 2008, 10:54 PM EDT
(about this update
About This Update
Moved from: All About Aviation
- 1tiger9
No content added or deleted.
- complete history)
Moved from: All About Aviation
- 1tiger9
No content added or deleted.
- complete history)
More Info: links to this page