List of firsts in aviation

First person to fly

• In 559 A.D., several prisoners of Emperor Wenxuan of Northern Qi, including Yuan Huangtou of Ye, were said to have been forced to launch themselves with a kite from a tower, as an experiment. Only Yuan Huangtou survived, only to be executed later.
• In the 9th century, the Andalusian Abbas ibn Firnas attempted a short gliding flight with wings covered with feathers from the Tower of Cordoba but was injured while landing.
• In the early 11th century, Eilmer of Malmesbury, an English Benedictine monk, attempted a gliding flight using wings. He is recorded as travelling a modest distance before breaking his legs on landing.
• According to some accounts, during the Chinese Ming dynasty, Wan Hu is said to have attempted to fly unsuccessfully, by means of forty-seven rockets and two kites attached to a chair.
• In c. 1509, the Italian alchemist and abbot of Tongland, John Damian, is said to have made an attempt at human-powered flight off the walls of Stirling Castle in the Kingdom of Scotland, if a satirical account in two poems by the poet William Dunbar is based on facts.
• Between 1630 and 1632, Hezarfen Ahmed Çelebi is said to have glided over the Bosphorus strait from the Galata Tower to the Üsküdar district in Istanbul.
• In 1633 his brother Lagari Hasan Çelebi may have survived a flight on a 7-winged rocket powered by gunpowder from Sarayburnu, the point below Topkapı Palace in Istanbul.

Lighter than air ([aerostat]s)

• First animals to fly in a balloon: A sheep called Montauciel, along with a duck and a rooster were sent on a balloon flight by the Montgolfier brothers on September 19, 1783.
• First manned flight: Étienne Montgolfier went aloft in a tethered Montgolfier hot air balloon on October 15, 1783.
• First manned free flight in an untethered balloon: Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and Marquis d'Arlandes flew in a Montgolfier hot air balloon from the Château de la Muette to the Butte-aux-Cailles, Paris, on November 21, 1783.
• 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.
• First women to fly: 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 free flight in an untethered balloon: Élisabeth Thible flew over Lyon singing arias on June 4, 1784, in order to entertain Gustav III of Sweden.
• First flight in a steerable balloon : On July 15, 1784, the Robert brothers flew for 45 minutes from Saint-Cloud to Meudon with M. Collin-Hullin and Louis Philippe II, the Duke of Chartres, in an elongated balloon designed by Jacques Charles, following Jean Baptiste Meusnier's suggestions, but the oars did not work.
• First primitive airmail: John Jeffries dropped four letters from a balloon over London on November 30, 1784.
• First flight across the English Channel: Was made by Jean-Pierre Blanchard and John Jeffries in a balloon on January 7, 1785.
• First aviation disaster: Occurred in Tullamore, County Offaly, Ireland, when a hot air balloon caused a fire that burned down about 100 houses on May 10, 1785.
• First known fatalities in an air crash: Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and Pierre Romain died when their Rozière balloon deflated and crashed near Wimereux in Pas-de-Calais, on June 15, 1785.
• First blood chit equivalent carried by an airman: By Jean-Pierre Blanchard on the first balloon flight in America, on January 9, 1793.
• First jump from a balloon with a parachute : Jean-Pierre Blanchard claimed to have used a parachute in 1793 to escape his hot air balloon when it ruptured, but there were no witnesses.
• First jump from a balloon with a parachute : Andre Jacques Garnerin in Paris in 1797.
• First balloon ascent on horseback. Pierre Testu-Brissy ascended from Belleville Park in Paris.
• First woman to jump from a balloon with a parachute: Jeanne Geneviève Labrosse jumped from an altitude of 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 balloon ignited on July 6, 1819.
• First successful steerable powered balloon: The Giffard dirigible was developed and flown by Henri Giffard, from the Paris Hippodrome to Trappes on September 24, 1852.
• First balloon mail service: Passed vital information over Prussian lines during the 1870–71 Siege of Paris.
• First flight in an airship powered by an internal combustion engine: Was made by Alberto Santos Dumont in 1898.
• First flight of a rigid airship: Was made by the Zeppelin LZ 1 from Lake Constance on July 2, 1900.
• First woman to pilot a powered aircraft: Rose Isabel Spencer, in Stanley Spencer's Airship Number 1, at Crystal Palace, London on July 14, 1902.
• First trans-Atlantic rigid airship flight: Was made by the R34 from RAF East Fortune to Mineola, New York from July 2 to July 6, 1919. This flight carried the first trans-Atlantic stowaways: William Ballantyne and his tabby cat, Wopsie. Wopsie and two homing pigeons were the first animals to cross the Atlantic in an aircraft, with Wopsie being the first quadruped known to have flown across a major body of water.
• First helium-filled rigid airship to fly: Was the USS Shenandoah on August 20, 1923, although it did not make a powered flight until September 24, 1923.

• First people to reach the stratosphere: Were Auguste Piccard and Paul Kipfer, who ascended to the height of in a hydrogen balloon on May 27, 1931.
• First crossing of the Atlantic by balloon: Was made by Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson, and Larry Newman in the helium-filled Double Eagle II, on August 17, 1978.
• First non-stop balloon crossing of North America: Maxie and Kris Anderson in the helium-filled Kitty Hawk, on May 12, 1980.
• First trans-Pacific crossing by balloon: Ben Abruzzo, Larry Newman, Ron Clark and Rocky Aoki, in gas-filled Double Eagle V, in November 1981.
• First balloon flight on another planet: Was conducted by the Soviet Vega 1 Balloon in the skies above Venus between June 11, 1985, and June 13, 1985. This was the first flight of any man-made object in another planet's atmosphere.
• First non-stop balloon circumnavigation of the Earth: Was made by Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones who flew from Château d'Oex, Switzerland, to Egypt, on Breitling Orbiter 3, between March 1 and March 21, 1999, in 19 days, 21 hours and 47 minutes.
• First solo non-stop balloon flight around the Earth: Steve Fossett, in the Spirit of Freedom, circumnavigated the globe between June 19 and July 3, 2002.

  Heavier than air (aerodynes)

Pioneer era">Aviation in the pioneer era">Pioneer era 1853–1914

• First manned glider flight: Was made by an unidentified boy in an uncontrolled glider launched by George Cayley in 1853.
• First confirmed manned powered flight: Was made by Clément Ader in an uncontrolled monoplane of his own design, in 1890.
• First controlled manned glider flight: Was made by Otto Lilienthal in a glider of his own design, in 1891.

• First controlled, sustained flight in a powered airplane: Was made by Orville Wright in the Wright Flyer on December 17, 1903, covering.
• First circular flight by a powered airplane: Was made by Wilbur Wright who flew in about a minute and a half on September 20, 1904.
• First aircraft to fly using ailerons for lateral control: Was Robert Esnault-Pelterie's October 1904 glider, although ailerons were only named that in 1908 by Henry Farman.
• First flight of an aircraft with pneumatic tires: Was Traian Vuia's March 18, 1906 flight with his Vuia 1, travelling at a height of about for about.
• First heavier-than-air unaided takeoff and flight of more than in Europe: Was made by Alberto Santos-Dumont, flew a distance of in his 14-bis to win the Archdeacon Prize on October 23, 1906.
• First flight certified by Fédération Aéronautique Internationale : Was made by Alberto Santos Dumont, when he flew his 14-bis, without liftoff aid, over a distance of in the presence of official observers from the newly founded FAI on November 12, 1906.
• First airplane passenger: Was Léon Delagrange, with pilot Henri Farman, on March 29, 1908.
• First use of the modern aircraft flight control system: Was in the Blériot VIII, which took to the air with Robert Esnault-Pelterie's control layout, using a joystick for pitch and roll control, and a foot-bar for lateral control, in April 1908.
• First person to die in a crash of a powered airplane: Was Thomas Etholen Selfridge, a passenger on an aircraft flown by Orville Wright which crashed on September 17, 1908. Wright was badly injured, and was hospitalised for seven weeks.
• First return flight between two towns: Was made by Louis Blériot, who flew from Toury to Artenay, and back on October 30, 1908, for a total distance of.
• First official pilot's licence: Was licence number 1, which was issued to Louis Blériot by the Aéro Club de France on January 7, 1909.

• First aircraft to fly with a rotary engine: Was a Farman III biplane, in April 1909.
• First ditching of an airplane: Was made by Hubert Latham, while attempting to complete the first powered flight across the English Channel in an Antoinette IV monoplane, but experienced an engine failure on July 19, 1909.
• First airplane flight across the English Channel: Was completed by Louis Blériot in a Blériot XI on July 25, 1909, to win a £1,000 Daily Mail prize.
• First animal to fly on an airplane: Happened when John Moore-Brabazon, in the Short Biplane No. 2 took a pig later named Icarus II aloft on November 4, 1909, as a joke to prove the adage that pigs could fly.
• First flight in Latin America: Dimitri Sensaud de Lavaud, flies a São Paulo Airplane constructed with help of his assistant Lourenço Pellegatti, he flew a distance of in Osasco-Brazil, on January 7, 1910.
• First flight in complete darkness: Henry Farman, flies a Farman biplane without the benefit of moonlight, on March 1, 1910.
• First woman to earn a pilot license: Was Raymonde de Laroche, on March 8, 1910.
• First flight in Asia: Was made by Giacomo D'Angelis, in a biplane built by D'Angelis entirely from his own designs, experimenting with a small horse-power engine, on March 29, 1910, in Chennai, India.
• First documented and witnessed seaplane flight under power from water's surface: was made by Henri Fabre, in the Fabre Hydravion Le Canard, on March 28, 1910.
• First aircraft flight simulator: Was built by aircraft manufacturer Antoinette to teach pupils to fly their monoplanes on May 7, 1910.
• First Chief of State to fly on an airplane: Was Ferdinand I of Bulgaria, as a passenger in a Farman III biplane flown by Jules de Laminne during a visit in Belgium on July 15, 1910.
• First airborne radio communications: Were made by Frederick Walker Baldwin and Douglas McCurdy with a morse radio message from a Curtiss biplane while in flight, which was received by a nearby ground station on August 27, 1910. They were also responsible for the first radio message received by an aircraft in flight, on March 6, 1911.

• First flight across the Pennine Alps: Was by Peruvian aviator Jorge Chávez in a Blériot XI on 23 September 1910, from Ried-Brig to Domodossola, during which he reached an altitude of.
• First mid-air collision between two airplanes: Happened when an Antoinette IV, flown by René Thomas, rammed Bertram Dickson's Farman III biplane on October 1, 1910. Both initially survived, but Dickson's injuries contributed to his death in 1913.
• First flight by a former US president: Was made by 26th US president Theodore Roosevelt in Wright brothers-designed aircraft from Kinloch Airfield, St. Louis, Missouri, on October 11, 1910.
• First shipboard take-off and landing by an airplane: Was made by Eugene Burton Ely, in a Curtiss Model D pusher, from a temporary platform aboard light cruiser USS Birmingham on November 14, 1910. 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.
• The first non-stop flight from London to Paris: Pierre Prier flew a Blériot XI on April 12, 1911, from London to Paris in 3 hours and 56 minutes.
• First woman to die in a crash of a powered airplane: Was Denise Moore, who fell from a Farman III, on July 21, 1911.
• First known spin recovery: Was made by F. P. Raynham in an Avro Type D biplane on September 21, 1911.
• First flight across the Continental Divide of the Americas : Was made by Cromwell Dixon in a Curtiss pusher on September 30, 1911, reaching an altitude of.

• First ordnance dropped from an airplane: Lieutenant Giulio Gavotti dropped grenades from his Etrich Taube airplane on Ottoman troops in Libya on November 1, 1911.
• First transcontinental flight across North America: Calbraith Perry Rodgers flew the Vin Fiz Wright Model EX biplane through a seventy-plus-stop trek across the United States from Sheepshead Bay, New York to Long Beach, California from September 17 to December 10, 1911.
• First parachute jump from an airplane: Was made by Grant Morton from a Wright Model B over Venice, California, in 1911. However credit is generally given to Albert Berry, who jumped from a Benoist biplane over Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, on March 1, 1912.
• First night mission: Was made by Lieutenant Giulio Gavotti during the campaign against the Ottoman Empire on March 4, 1912.
• First woman to fly across the English Channel: Was Harriet Quimby, who flew from Dover to Hardelot-Plage on April 16, 1912.
• First airplane flight across the Irish Sea: Was made by Denys Corbett Wilson took 100 minutes to fly a Blériot XI from Goodwick in Wales to Enniscorthy in Ireland, on April 22, 1912.
• First take-off by an airplane from a moving ship: Commander Charles R. Samson took off from a platform aboard the battleship HMS Hibernia in a Short Improved S.27 No. 38, on May 9, 1912.
• First flight of an all-metal aircraft: The Reissner Canard, designed by Professor Hans Reissner, whose structure and skin were both all metal, was first flown on May 23, 1912, by Robert Gsell.
• First national identification markings used on aircraft: Was in France following instructions from the Inspection Permante de l'Aeronautique to paint roundels with an outer diameter of in red, with a white ring of and an inner blue dot of on July 26, 1912. Proportions and diameter would later be adjusted. Both Germany and the UK issued orders for national markings only when they mobilized in 1914, for the First World War.
• First observed spin recovery: Was made by Wilfred Parke in an Avro Type G on August 25, 1912.
• First aircraft to be captured: Was that of Captain Moizo of the Italian Servizio Aeronautico, on September 10, 1912, during the Italo-Turkish War, but sources disagree on whether he was shot down, or had mechanical problems.
• First non-stop transcontinental flight: Robert G. Fowler and Ray Duhem flew from the Pacific to the Atlantic along the route of the Panama Canal in a single-engine hydroplane in one hour and 45 minutes, on April 27, 1913.
• First use of a flight data recorder: Invented by George M. Dyott and used in the 1913 Dyott monoplane. It used three pointers to record movements of the control surfaces on a strip of paper run between two rollers.
• First four-engine aircraft to fly: The Russian Russo-Baltic Wagon Works Большой Балтийский, developed by Igor Sikorsky; took to the air on May 10, 1913, after having two additional engines installed in pusher configuration, in tandem behind the pair of installed engines; when the original pair were found to leave it underpowered.
• First bombing attack against a surface ship: Didier Masson and Captain Joaquín Bauche Alcalde dropped dynamite bombs on Federalist gunboats at Guaymas, Mexico, on May 10, 1913, while flying for Mexican Revolutionist Venustiano Carranza.
• First propaganda leaflet flight: Didier Masson distributed propaganda leaflets from the air for the Mexican Revolutionist Venustiano Carranza, post May 10, 1913.

• First flight across the Alps: Was by Swiss aviator Oskar Bider in a Blériot XI on 13 July 1913, from Bern to Domodossola and Milan during which he reached an altitude of.
• First loop: Pyotr Nesterov looped a Nieuport IV, on September 9, 1913.
• First flight across the Mediterranean: Roland Garros flew a Morane-Saulnier G from the South of France to Tunisia, on September 23, 1913.
• First aircraft to exceed in level flight: Maurice Prévost flew a Deperdussin Monocoque in the 1913 Gordon Bennett Trophy race averaging over 100 mph during a lap on September 28, 1913.
• First dogfight: Dean Ivan Lamb flying a Curtiss pusher and Phil Rader in a Christofferson biplane traded pistol shots while airborne, over Naco during the Mexican revolution, November or December 1913.
• First scheduled commercial airplane flight:Tony Jannus flew a Benoist XIV biplane flying-boat of the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line from St. Petersburg to Tampa in 23 minutes on January 1, 1914, with a paying passenger. This service ran until May 5, 1914.
• First piloted flight indoors: Lincoln Beachey flew inside the Palace of Machinery intended for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, in San Francisco, California on either February 16 or 17, 1914.
• First flight across the North Sea: On July 30, 1914, Tryggve Gran flew the from Cruden Bay in Scotland to Jæren in Norway in 4 hours and 10 minutes, using a Blériot XI aircraft.