The Record (Bergen County, NJ) December 17, 2003
Milestones of FLIGHT
SOURCE: North Jersey Media Group
1904: The Wright brothers build their second machine, but their total flying time during 1904 is only 45 minutes.
July 4, 1908: Glenn Curtiss makes the first official public flight of more than one mile at the Stony Brook Farm racetrack in the June Bug.
Sept. 7, 1909: The U.S. Army's first aerodrome is established in College Park, Md.
1910s
May 25, 1910: Orville and Wilbur Wright make a short flight at Huffman Field in Dayton, Ohio. It is the only time the brothers are in the air together.
Sept. 16, 1910: Bessica Faith Raiche is officially recognized as the first American woman to solo.
September 1911: The first daily airmail route in the U.S. begins in New York between Garden City and Mineola, flown by Earle Ovington.
Dec. 10, 1911: Cal Rodgers completes the first transcontinental flight in the Wright EX Vin Fiz from Long Island, N.Y., to Pasadena, Calif.
May 3, 1919: The first municipal airport in the United States is dedicated at Atlantic City.
1920s
Feb. 22, 1920: First transcontinental mail service by air arrives in New York from San Francisco. The trip takes 33 hours and 20 minutes.
May 2-3, 1923: Lieutenants Oakley Kelly and John Macready complete the first non-stop coast-to-coast flight. New York to San Diego: 26 hours, 50 minutes.
1926: Air Commerce Act marks first federal attempt to set safety regulations for civil aeronautics and requires the registration and licensing of pilots and planes.
Feb. 13, 1926: The U.S. Post Office Department puts new 10-cent airmail stamp on sale.
March 16, 1926: Robert Goddard launches the world's first liquid-propellant rocket in an orchard. The rocket climbed 41 feet in 2 1/2 seconds and landed 184 feet away.
May 9, 1926: Comdr. Richard E. Byrd and pilot Floyd Bennett complete the first flight over the North Pole.
May 20-21, 1927: Charles A. Lindbergh makes the first non-stop solo flight across the Atlantic in the Spirit of St. Louis. He flies 3,610 miles in 33 1/2 hours.
1930s
1930: First airline stewardess, Ellen Church, is hired by United Airlines.
June 23-July 1, 1931: First circumnavigation of the world by a single aircraft by Wiley Post and Harold Gatty in the Lockheed Vega Winnie Mae.
May 20-21, 1932: Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic.
July 15-22, 1933: Wiley Post makes the first round-the-world solo flight in Winnie Mae.
June 12, 1934: The Air Mail Act of 1934, which includes the provision for the appointment of a Federal Aviation commission, is signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Jan. 1, 1935: Helen Richey becomes the first woman employed as an airline pilot (Central Airlines).
March 28, 1935: Robert Goddard launches the first rocket with a gyroscope to 4,800 feet.
November 11, 1935: A. W. Stephens and O. A. Anderson reach a height of over 74,000 feet in a huge (3.7 million cubic feet) helium balloon Explorer II. For the first time, it is shown that humans can travel and survive in a pressurized chamber at extremely high altitudes. This sets a milestone for aviation and paves the way for manned space travel.
Dec. 1, 1935: The first airway traffic control center goes into operation in Newark.
1936: Heinrich Focke and Gerd Achgelis develop the Focke-Achgelis Fa-61, the first totally successfully helicopter.
June 1, 1937: Amelia Earhart departs Miami to begin her world flight attempt in a Lockheed Electra. Earhart is lost en route to Howland Island from Lae, New Guinea on July 2. In 1939, Earhart is legally declared dead.
June 28, 1939: Pan American Airways begins the first trans-Atlantic passenger service.
Aug. 24, 1939: The Heinkel He 178 makes the first jet-powered flight.
1940s
July 8, 1940: The first flight of the Boeing Stratoliner, the first airliner with a pressurized cabin. This allows the plane to fly up to 20,000 feet, avoiding turbulence.
April 16, 1941: Igor I. Sikorsky sets a national helicopter record by hovering virtually motionless over a Stratford, Conn., airport, for 65 minutes.
June 20, 1941: The U.S. Army Air Force is formed.
July 19, 1941: The Tuskegee Airmen, the first black fighter squadron in the United States armed forces, is formed.
Dec. 7, 1941: Japan pulls a surprise air raid on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, doing heavy damage to the U.S. Fleet and destroying the majority of military aircraft at Hickman Field.
June 6, 1944 (D-Day): The Europeon invasion begins as 822 aircraft, carrying parachutistis or towing gliders, roar to Normandy landing zones. They are a fraction of the air armada of 13,000 aircraft that would support naval operations.
August 12, 1946: President Truman signs a bill authorizing appropriation of $50,000 to establish a National Air Museum in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.
September 16, 1947: The United States Air Force is established as a separate and equal element of the United States armed forces.
October 14, 1947: Capt. Charles E. Yeager flies faster than sound for the first time in the rocket powered Bell X-1.
November 2, 1947: The "Spruce Goose," a flying boat and the largest airplane ever built, flies for one mile at an altitude of 80 feet.
March 2, 1949: Lucky Lady II: This Boeing B-50A makes the first non-stop around-the-world flight
May 18, 1949: New York City's first helicopter station begins operating from a pier on the East River.
1950s
July 26, 1952: Two monkeys and two mice are recovered alive and unharmed after being fired to approximately 200,000 feet in an Arobee rocket from Holloman AFB, New Mexico.
1953: Jacqueline Cochran becomes the first woman to break the sound barrier.
1953: The North American F-100 Super Sabre becomes the first operational supersonic jet fighter.
Nov. 20, 1953: A. Scott Crossfield reaches the aviation milestone of Mach 2 (twice the speed of sound) or more than 1,320 miles per hour in the D-558-II Skyrocket.
Nov. 24, 1954: The First Air Force One is christened.
1957: The Boeing 707 becomes the first successful jet airliner to enter passenger service.
Oct. 4, 1957: The Russians launch Sputnik I, the first artificial Earth satellite.
Nov. 3, 1957: Sputnik II is launched carrying the dog Laika.
1958: More than a million passengers fly across the Atlantic in 1958, for the first time surpassing those who travel by steamship.
1958: The Federal Aviation Administration is established in the United States.
Oct. 1, 1958: National Aeronautics and Space Administration becomes operational.
Oct. 11, 1958: Pioneer 1, NASA's first launch.
1960s
January 31, 1961: NASA sends a 3-year-old chimpanzee named Ham into space in the MR-2 program.
April 12, 1961: Maj. Yuri Gagarin becomes first person to travel in space; completes one full orbit of the earth.
May 5, 1961: Alan Shepard is first U.S. astronaut in space.
February 20, 1962: John Glenn becomes first American to orbit Earth.
Fall 1962: First armed helicopters, 15 Bell Hueys, see combat in Vietnam.
June 16, 1963: Russian cosmonaut, Valentina Tereshkova, becomes the first woman to solo in space.
August 22, 1963: The X-15, an experimental aircraft, sets altitude record of 354,200 feet (67 miles) with a speed of 4,159 mph.
March 18, 1965: Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov takes the first walk in space.
June 3-7, 1965: The first U.S. spacewalk is made by Ed White.
Dec. 15-16, 1965: First orbital rendezvous by two manned spacecraft. Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford in Gemini VImeet up with Frank Borman and Jim Lovell in Gemini VII.
1966: Boeing 747 "Jumbo Jet" revolutionizes mass air transport.
Oct. 3, 1967: X-15 sets speed record at 4,520 mph.
Dec. 21-27, 1968: First manned flight to orbit the moon (Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders).
March 2, 1969: The initial flight of the Concorde, the first supersonic passenger jet.
July 16-24, 1969: Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and "Buzz" Aldrin land on the lunar surface while command module pilot Michael Collins orbits overhead.
1970s
April 11-17, 1970: Apollo 13 mission aborts after a faulty oxygen tank explodes halfway to the moon, damaging power, guidance, and life-support systems. Astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert crowd into lunar module to make use of its system before returning to the control module for reentry.
Sept. 3, 1971: The Concorde makes its first transatlantic crossing.
Dec. 7-19, 1972: Apollo 17: Last of six lunar landing missions sends Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans, and Harrison Schmitt, the only scientist-astronaut/geologist, to the moon.
June 4, 1974: Lt. Col. Sally Murphy becomes the first woman to qualify as a U.S. Army aviatrix.
Feb. 18, 1977: Enterprise, the first space shuttle orbiter, is tested at the Dryden Flight Research Center.
Aug. 23, 1977: The man-powered aircraft Gossamer Condor successfully demonstrates sustained, maneuverable man-powered flight.
Jan. 27, 1978: The eighth Astronaut Candidates Class is the first to include women: Anna Fisher, Shannon Lucid, Judith Resnik, Sally Ride, Rhea Seddon, and Kathryn Sullivan.
1980s
Sept. 1-30, 1982: H. Ross Perot Jr. and Jay Coburn of the United States complete the first around-the-world flight in a helicopter, the Spirit of Texas.
Nov. 11-16, 1982: The space shuttle Columbia is launched on its first operational mission. Astronauts deployed two commercial communications satellites.
June 18-24, 1983: Shuttle astronaut Sally K. Ride becomes the first American woman in space.
Aug. 30, 1983: Shuttle astronaut Guy Bluford becomes the first African-American in space.
Dec. 14-23, 1986: Jeana Yeager and Dick Rutan co-pilot the Voyager on the first non-stop flight around the world without refueling.
1988: Cosmonauts Vladimir Titov and Musa Manarov complete the first yearlong spaceflight, aboard the Russian space station, Mir.
July 17, 1989: The first flight of the U.S. Air Force's B-2 "Spirit" bomber, which blends composite materials with stealth technology.
1990s
Oct. 3, 1991: Marta Bohn-Meyer becomes the first woman crew member of the SR-71 Blackbird, a high-velocity, high-altitude military spy plane.
April 21, 1994: Maj. Jackie Parker becomes the first U.S. woman to be qualified in a F-16 combat fighter.
July 6, 1994: Vicki Van Meter, age 12, becomes the youngest pilot to make a transatlantic flight in a Cessna 210.
Feb. 3-11, 1995: Shuttle astronaut Eileen Collins becomes the first woman to pilot a spacecraft, and Vladimir Titov is the first Russian to be launched aboard a U.S. spacecraft.
Sept. 26, 1996: American astronaut Shannon Lucid returns from the Mir after setting a U.S. record for a continuous stay in space.
Oct. 29-Nov. 7, 1998: At age 77, John Glenn becomes the oldest astronaut in space.
Nov. 20, 1998: Zarya, an unpiloted space "tugboat" that provides early propulsion, steering, and communications for the International Space Station, is the first element launched.
Dec. 6, 1998: Unity, a six-sided connector for future station components, is connected to Zarya by shuttle astronauts. The modules form the new, 70,000-pound, 76-foot-long International Space Station.
July 22-27, 1999: Eileen Collins becomes the first woman to command an American space mission.
2000s
Nov. 2, 2000: Soyuz Commander Yuri Gidzenko, Expedition 1 Commander Bill Shepherd, and Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev dock with the International Space Station and become the first residents to live on board.
Nov. 2, 2001: The International Space Station marks one full year of continuous international human presence in orbit.
July 29, 2003: The 1,000th consecutive day of people living and working aboard the International Space Station.
SOURCES: NASA; warbirdalley.com; theaerodrome.com; wfu.edu; blackbirds.net; globalaircraft.org; allstar.fiu.edu; www.army.mil; pbs.org; globalsecurity.org; www.airshipsonline.com; about.com; airdisaster.com; centennialofflight.gov; sprucegoose.org; lindberghfoundation.org; goremeballoons.com; flyingmachines.org; fiddlersgreen.net; "The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Book Of Flight"; American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc.; "100 Years of Flight," by Bill Sweetman.
RESEARCH BY DOROTHY FERSCH, LEN IANNACCONE, MADELEINE NASH, AND PAUL WILDER / STAFF LIBRARIANS
© Copyright 2003, Bergen Record Corporation
