Aviation History Flashcards
The French Montgolfier brothers fly in a hot-air balloon for 5.5 miles in 25 minutes.
1783
Observation balloons are used by both sides in the Civil War.
1861-65
American scientist Samuel Langley flies the first (unmanned) powered aircraft.
1896
American brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright achieve the first recognized powered, manned flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
DEC. 17, 1903
First airplane takeoff from a ship (USS Birmingham) by Eugene B. Ely.
NOV. 14, 1910
First successful shipboard landing (USS Pennsylvania) by Eugene B. Ely.
JAN. 18, 1911
Igor Sikorsky builds first multi-engined aircraft in Russia.
1913
United States establishes National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), first government-sponsored support of aviation research and development.
1915
First transatlantic air crossing by Navy and first nonstop transatlantic air crossing.
1919
Launch of first aircraft carrier, the USS Langley, CV-1.
- (Three Curtiss flying boats, each with a crew of six, were involved: NC-1, NC-3, and NC-4.)
Robert H. Goddard, considered the father of American rocketry, launches the first liquid propellant rocket.
1926
Charles Lindbergh makes first solo flight across the Atlantic.
1927
First jet engine designed and patented by Great Britain’s Frank Whittle; however, it is not tested on an airplane until a decade later.
1930
First practical helicopter design, developed by Russian Igor Sikorsky, has a large main rotor and a smaller vertical rotor on the tail boom, setting a standard for helicopter design still in use today.
1930
Which War -ushers in mass production of U.S. aircraft, increasing from 500 a year to 50,000 a year by war’s end.
1939-1949. WWII
First jet aircraft, a German effort
1939
Coordination of airpower with ground troops in Europe and amphibious landings in the Pacific proves to be a significant advantage for the Allies. The Battles of the Coral Sea and Midway in the Pacific are the first where enemy ships never see each other, and all attacks are by naval aircraft.
WWII
What aircraft’s laminar-flow wing reduces drag and improves aerodynamics, helping give it the range to escort Allied bombers into Germany?
P-51 Mustang’s WWII
German Luftwaffe deploys the first operational jet, the Me-262 fighter-bomber
1944
The B-29 Superfortress is the first bomber with crew cabin pressurization and remote-controlled powered turrets; two B-29s drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Aug 1945
The FH-1 Phantom is the first jet combat aircraft to operate from the deck of a U.S. aircraft carrier and the Navy’s first airplane to fly 500 mph.
1946
Chuck Yeager, in the Bell X-1 rocket-powered research aircraft, is the first man to verifiably break the sound barrier. First swept-wing jet fighter (F-86 Sabrejet) and first swept-wing multi-engine bomber (B-47 Stratojet) are introduced. U.S. Air Force is established.
1947