Aviation Milestones

Originally published in 2002

“First Feats” in Aviation

• German engineer Otto Lilienthal made his first glider flight 1891.
• After the Wright brothers, the first American to fly was Glenn Curtiss (1908).
• Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge, the first person to be killed in an airplane crash, was flying with Orville Wright (1908)
• The first in-flight motion photography was shot by Orville Wright (1909).
• The first shipboard landing was made by Eugene Ely (Curtiss Pusher, 1911).
• The first pilot to break the 100-mph barrier was Jules Vedrines (108 mph, Deperdussin, 1912, Chicago).
• The first U.S. airmail delivery was conducted between New York City and Washington, DC (May 15, 1918, Curtiss JN-4H).
• The first around-the-world flight took 175 days (April 6- Sept. 28, 1924, U.S. Army Air Service).
• The first transpacific flight was accomplished by a U.S. Navy team (1925).
• The first full-length motion-picture film to feature aviation was called Wings (1927).
• The first woman to fly cross the Atlantic Ocean in an airplane was Amelia Earhart (1928).
• The first plane to stay aloft for more than 100 consecutive hours was a Fokker C-2 (1929).
• The first airplane to make a 30-year production run was the Beech 18 (1937-69).
• The “Spirit of St. Louis,” the first plane to cross the Atlantic Ocean with just one person aboard, was built in San Diego.
• The first airplane to be produced by the Cessna Aircraft Corporation was the Model A.
• Louis Becherau developed the first pedal system for rudder control.
• The Experimental Aircraft Association’s first chapter is located in Riverside, California.
• Orville Wright, the first man to fly a powered, heavier than- air aircraft, did not live to see or hear about the first dog fight between military jet aircraft.
• Richard VanGrunsven’s first homebuilt, the RV-1, was a modified Stits Playboy.
• Burt Rutan, designer of the Voyager, the first aircraft to fly around the world without refueling, once worked for Bede Aircraft.