Cold War Timeline

January 12, 1984 The U.S. Marines get the first McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier IIs, which will be used in the Persian Gulf War.

January 21, 1984 The Air Force successfully fires an ASAT (antisatellite) missile from an F-15 over the Pacific.

January 25, 1984 In his State of the Union address, President Ronald Reagan calls for building a space station.

Flight Pictures

Peter M. Bowers Collection
Voyager was an all-composite aircraft designed by Burt Rutan. His brother Dick Rutan made the first flight on June 22, 1984. See more pictures of flight.

February 3-11, 1984 Space Shuttle Challenger is launched. It tests the Manned Maneuvering Unit, in which astronaut Bruce McCandless orbits, untethered, around the shuttle.

February 24, 1984 The General Dynamics F-16XL is defeated by the McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle in competition.

March 6, 1984 The comeback of lighter-than-air craft is signaled by the first flight of the British Airship Industries Skyship.

March 31, 1984 The last Avro Vulcan is removed from RAF service.

April 6-13, 1984 The Space Shuttle Challenger mission makes the first on-orbit satellite repair of Solar Max.

May 15, 1984 A consortium of Aeritalia/Aermacchi/EMBRAER creates the AMX close-support aircraft, which makes its first flight. On a subsequent flight 15 days later, it crashes, killing the pilot.

June 22, 1984 Voyager flies for the first time.

June 22, 1984 Virgin Airlines launches operations.

July 17-19, 1984 The 100th human space flight occurs with the launch of the Soviet Soyuz T-12.

July 25, 1984 Svetlana Savitskaya becomes the first woman to make a space walk, from Salyut 7.

August 4, 1984 European space flight exploration continues with the launch of Ariane 3 from French Guinea.

August 14, 1984 The last of 1,832 Boeing 727s is rolled out in Renton, Washington.

August 29, 1984 A Rockwell International B-1A crashes.

August 30, 1984 The Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on its maiden flight.

September 14-18, 1984 Joe Kittinger, famous for high-altitude parachute drops, makes the first nonstop solo balloon flight across the Atlantic.

October 5, 1984 The Space Shuttle Challenger is launched.

Peter M. Bowers Collection
The Rockwell B-1B bomber had one of the longest and most controversial development periods. After a rocky start, the swing-wing Mach 1.25 B-1B has done an outstanding job.

October 18, 1984 The Rockwell International B-1B makes its first flight. One hundred are ordered.

November 8-16, 1984 The Space Shuttle Discovery makes its second flight.

December 14, 1984 The Grumman X-29 technology demonstrator, with forward swept wings, makes its first flight.

January 24-27, 1985 The Space Shuttle Discovery conducts a classified defense assignment; military aviation has melded with space flight.

March 21, 1985 The RAF selects EMBRAER Tucano as its new basic trainer.

April 12-19, 1985 The Space Shuttle Discovery carries Senator Jake Garn into orbit.

April 29-May 6, 1985 The Space Shuttle Challenger launches with Spacelab 3.

May 29, 1985 The Soviet Union unveils the world's largest airplane, the Antonov An-124 heavy transport, at the Paris air show.

June 11, 1985 The Soviet Vega-1 spacecraft is sent to rendezvous with Halley's Comet.

June 17-24, 1985 The Space Shuttle Discovery is launched with two foreign astronauts, Patrick Baudry of France and Sulton Abdelazizi Al-Saud of Saudi Arabia.

July 29-August 6, 1985 The Space Shuttle Challenger is launched; it experiences the first major in-flight emergency of shuttle history when one main engine shuts down during ascent.

August 12, 1985 The world's worst aircraft disaster to date occurs when a Japan Air Lines Boeing 747 crashes into the mountains. Japan Air Lines later faults Boeing quality control for the accident.

August 18, 1985 The Japa­nese launch a space probe for a flyby of Halley's Comet.

August 27-September 3, 1985 Space Shuttle Discovery is launched; it deploys three satellites and repairs another.

September 10, 1985 The Lockheed C-5B Galaxy makes its first flight.

September 13, 1985 An ASAT missile fired from an F-15 successfully intercepts an orbiting satellite.

September 30, 1985 Italians acquire a new aircraft carrier for helicopters and VSTOL aircraft, the Giuseppe Garibaldi.

October 3-7, 1985 The Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on its maiden flight; it sets a new shuttle altitude record with an orbit of 1,725,000 miles.

October 30-November 6, 1985 Space Shuttle Challenger is launched with German and Dutch astronauts as part of the largest (eight-member) crew in history.

November 15, 1985 The last independant general aviation manufacturer -- Cessna -- is purchased by General Dynamics.

November 26-December 3, 1985 Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched in an experiment with space station structures.

December 17, 1985 On the 82nd anniversary of the Wright Brothers flight, the Douglas DC-3 celebrates its 50th birthday. Approximately 400 are still in use.

December 28, 1985 The U.S. Pioneer 12 probe passes within 25,000,000 miles of Halley's Comet.

1986-1987 Flight Timeline

January 8, 1986 The first Lockheed C-5B transport is delivered to the Air Force.

January 12-18, 1986 Space Shuttle Columbia is launched.

January 24, 1986 The U.S. planetary spacecraft Voyager 2 makes a Uranus flyby (passes within 66,500 miles) and encounters moons and ring system, then is redirected toward Neptune.

Peter M. Bowers Collection
The Grumman X-29 was particularly valuable in testing the high angle of attack flight regimes. Germany had experimented with forward swept wings before, but not until the development of fly-by-wire and composite materials was further research rewarding.

January 28, 1986 The Space Shuttle Challenger blows up 72 seconds into liftoff; teacher Christa McAuliffe is on board. Seven astronauts perish; the Shuttle fleet is grounded for 30 months.

February 15, 1986 The futuristic Beech Starship 1 business aircraft makes its first flight.

March 9, 1986 Soviet comet probe Vega 2 observes Halley's Comet from a distance of 4,990 miles.

March 13-14, 1986 The European Space Agency's Giotto satellite flies within 335 miles of Halley's Comet.

April 14-15, 1986 The United States strikes Libya in retaliation for terrorist activities. Attacking aircraft include EF-111As and F-111s from the United Kingdom (France won't allow flight over its airspace), as well as Navy A-6s and A-7s.

July 1, 1986 The first close look at MiG-29 fighters occurs on a goodwill visit to Finland. The aircraft closely resembles the F-15 and has similar performance.

July 4, 1986 The Eurofighter, the Dassault-Breguet Rafale, makes its first flight.

July 10-14, 1986 On a test flight, the Voyager flies 11,336.9 miles nonstop, unrefueled.

July 11, 1986 Reports of the crash of the second Lockheed F-117A stealth fighter give rise to unfounded concerns that it is too unstable for pilots.

August 11, 1986 The Westland Lynx becomes the world's fastest production helicopter, flying at 249.09 miles per hour.

September 2, 1986 An unusual combination hot-air/helium balloon makes a record flight from Amsterdam to St. John, Newfoundland, in 50 hours, piloted by Henk and Evelyn Brink of the Netherlands.

September 23, 1986 The Piaggio Avanti twin turboprop makes its first flight; it is a potential competitor to the Beech Starship.

November 6, 1986 Forty-five people are killed in the crash of a Chinook helicopter near Scotland. It is the worst civilian helicopter crash in history.

November 30, 1986 The Fokker 100 twin-turboprop passenger liner makes its first flight.

December 4, 1986 The McDonnell Douglas MD-87, a smaller version of the older DC-9 airliner, makes its first flight.

December 11, 1986 The McDonnell Douglas F-15E Eagle, a combination air superiority/ground support fighter, makes its first flight.

December 14-23, 1986 Burt Rutan's specially designed Voyager makes the first nonstop, unrefueled circumnavigation of the world.

­

Peter M. Bowers Collection
On July 4, 1987, a B-1B set four world records for speed, distance, and payload. The B-1B also has a tremendous conventional weapon capability.

January 21, 1987 Lois McCallan sets a human-powered record for women in MIT's Michelob Light Eagle.­

February 6-July 30, 1987 Soyuz TM-2 is launched; it uses a new automatic docking system to dock with space station Mir. The Soviet Union provides full television coverage.

February 6, 1987 The Aerospatial Super Puma helicopter flies.

February 19, 1987 The Boeing E-6A TACAMO relay aircraft makes its first flight.

February 22, 1987 The Airbus 320, with fly-by-wire system, makes its first flight.

March 1987 Patrice Fran­cheske makes the first microlight round-the-world flight.

April 26, 1987 The first prototype of the Saab JAS 39 Gripen is unveiled.

May 29, 1987 Mathias Rust lands a Cessna 172 in Red Square.

June 26, 1987 Richard Branson and Per Lindstrand cross the Atlantic by hot-air balloon for the first time. They reach 153 miles per hour in a jet stream.

September 30, 1987 A NASA report indicates that there are 18,400 trackable artificial objects in space.

October 9, 1987 The preproduction EH 101 helicopter makes its first flight.

November 19, 1987 Northrop is awarded a $2 billion contract to develop the B-2 stealth bomber.

November 29, 1987 A Korean Airlines Boeing 707 is blown up by a terrorist bomb.

December 29, 1987 Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Romanenko sets a new human space duration record of 326 days, 11 hours, and 38 minutes.

1988-1989 Flight Timeline

January 1988 The first Low Level Wind Shear Alert System is installed.

January 1988 Tupelov Blackjacks enter operational service with the Soviet Air Force.

January 29-30, 1988 A 747 SP sets a round-the-world record of 36 hours and 54 minutes.

February 8, 1988 The Department of Defense begins SDI (Star Wars) experimentation with the launch of the Delta 181.

Peter M. Bowers Collection
The Beech Starship made its first flight on February 15, 1986, a significant landmark in the history of general aviation.

March 1988 Germany revives a World War II idea of using the Sänger concept to "skip" a reusable aerospace plane through upper levels of atmosphere.

April 15, 1988 A modified Tupelov Tu-154, the first aircraft fueled by liquid hydrogen, flies for the first time.

April 16, 1988 The British Aerospace/McDonnell Douglas T-45A Goshawk trainer makes its first flight.

April 23, 1988 Smoking is banned on U.S. domestic airline flights.

May 23, 1988 The first Bell/Boeing V-22 Osprey prototype is rolled out.

May 27, 1988 The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom celebrates the 30th anniversary of its first flight.

June 26, 1988 An Airbus Industries A320 airliner flies into the ground; questions are raised concerning the fly-by-wire concept.

July 3, 1988 An Airbus 300 of Iran Air is shot down by the guided missile cruiser USS Vincennes; there are 290 casualties.

July 7, 1988 The Soviet Phobos 1 spacecraft is launched to study Mars; communications are lost on August 29, 1989.

July 12, 1988 Phobos 2, the companion spacecraft to Phobos 1, is launched to study Mars, arriving on January 29, 1989.

August 17, 1988 President Zia of Pakistan is killed in the crash of a Lockheed C-130.

August 28, 1988 Three Aermacchi MB-339s from an Italian air demonstration team collide during an air show at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

September 28, 1988 The Ilyushin Il-96 wide-body transport makes its first flight.

September 29, 1988 The Space Shuttle Discovery is launched in the first shuttle flight since the Challenger disaster.

November 5, 1988 Soviets unveil the Antonov An-225 Mriya transport. It is the largest aircraft in the world, weighing more than 1,000,000 pounds when fully loaded.

November 10, 1988 The U.S. Air Force confirms the existence of the Lockheed F-117 stealth fighter.

November 15, 1988 Soviets launch their counterpart to the Space Shuttle, the Buran; it is totally automatic, no humans are onboard. The program is later canceled.

November 22, 1988 The Northrop B-2A Spirit stealth bomber is rolled out.

December 2-6, 1988 The Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on a classified defense mission.

December 9, 1988 The Saab JAS 39 Gripen multirole fighter makes its first flight.

December 15, 1988 The FAA issues a type certificate for the Airbus A320, the first fly-by-wire airliner.

December 21, 1988 Terrorists blow up a Pan Am 747 over Lockerbie, Scotland; 269 are killed.

January 2, 1989 The Tupelov Tu-204 makes its first flight.

January 4, 1989 Navy F-14A Tomcats shoot down two Libyan MiG-23s over international waters, which Libya claims as territorial.

January 10, 1989 The FAA requires the Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System on all airliners with more than 30 seats.

January 29, 1989 The Soviet Space probe Phobos 2 swings into orbit around Mars.

February 14, 1989 The first U.S. second-generation Nav­Star Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite is launched. It will be crucial in the Gulf War.

March 13-18, 1989 The Space Shuttle Discovery is launched; it deploys a
TDRS-D satellite.

March 24, 1989 The SDI satellite, Delta Star, is launched by the USAF.

May 4, 1989 The Magellan probe is launched by the Space Shuttle Atlantis. The probe arrives at Venus on August 10.

June 14, 1989 The USAF launches the first Titan IV.

July 17, 1989 The Northrop-Grumman B-2 stealth bomber makes its first flight.

July 19, 1989 A United DC-10 crashes while attempting an emergency landing; 107 perish.

August 8-13, 1989 The Space Shuttle Columbia is launched on a classified military mission.

August 22, 1989 Legendary Soviet aircraft designer Alex­ander Yakovlev dies at age 84.

August 25, 1989 Voyager 2 passes within 3,000 miles of Neptune.

September 14, 1989 The Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey successfully transitions from helicopter mode to horizontal flight for the first time.

October 18, 1989 The Galileo probe to Jupiter is launched by the Space Shuttle Atlantis. The probe arrives at Jupiter in December 1999.

1990-1991 Flight Timeline

January 10, 1990 The McDonnell Douglas MD-11 makes its first flight.

January 23, 1990 Japan launches the Hiten (Muses A) satellite.

April 24-29, 1990 The Space Shuttle Discovery carries the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit.

August 2, 1990 Iraq seizes Kuwait.

September 6, 1990 A Boeing 747 becomes the new Air Force One.

Peter M. Bowers Collection
The EMBRAER firm was formed in 1969 and was an instant success with a wide variety of aircraft. The company expanded its range with the Tucano, a trainer originally intended for the Brazilian Air Force.

September 29, 1990 The Lockheed Martin YF-22 Raptor supersonic stealth fighter debuts.

October 29, 1990 Boeing gives the formal go-ahead for the 777, a twin-engine jet with a wider body than the 767. It is designed to compete with the Airbus A330 and A340.

November 9, 1990 Kansai Airport, built on a human-made island, becomes Japan's first 24-hour airport.

December 21, 1990 Famed aircraft designer Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson dies at age 80. He designed the P-80, F-104, U-2, and SR-71.

1991 Mil-Brooke Helicopters in Miami becomes the support organization for Mil aircraft in North America.

January 15-19, 1991 Richard Branson and Per Lindstrand fly the first transpacific balloon flight, covering 6,700 miles.

January 17, 1991 Operation Desert Storm begins: The technology of modern warfare is unveiled.

February 13, 1991 The Swearingen SJ-30 small business jet makes its first flight.

February 27, 1991 The homebuilt Questair Venture sets three time-to-climb records.

April 23, 1991 Lockheed, Boeing, and General Dynamics are selected to build the F-22.

April 30, 1991 Boeing delivers the last 707 airframe, a Navy E-6A communications aircraft.

May 3, 1991 Robert Randolph's model airplane sets a duration record of 32 minutes and 9 seconds.

June 13, 1991 The Soviets display the MiG-31 and the Beriev A-40 at a Paris air show.

July 1991 The Beech T-1A Jayhawk makes its first flight.

July 16, 1991 The Falcon 900 B sets a distance record of 5,012 miles, flying from Paris to Houston.

July 22, 1991 Kari Castle sets the women's hang-gliding record with a flight of 208 miles.

August 12, 1991 Delta acquires most of Pan Am's operations.

September 15, 1991 The McDonnell Douglas C-17 makes its first flight.

October 25, 1991 The Airbus A340, the first European long-haul airliner in 30 years, makes its first flight.

December 4, 1991 Pan American World Airways makes their last flight after 64 years of operations.

1992-1993 Flight Timeline

March 23, 1992 Beechcraft (now part of Raytheon) delivers their 50,000th aircraft, a King Air 90B.

May 12, 1992 Lockheed Martin delivers the 2,000th C-130.

May 18, 1992 The first production McDonnell Douglas C-17 makes its first flight.

June 11, 1992 McDonnell Douglas delivers the 2,000th DC-9/MD-80/MD-90 series aircraft.

Warren M. Bodie Collection
Airbus threw down the gauntlet to Boeing's 747 and 777 aircraft with its A340 series of aircraft, which made its first flight on October 25, 1991. The later models of the A340 can carry up to 380 passengers over a 7,500 nautical mile range.

September 1992 The existence of the National Reconnaissance Office is declas­sified.

September 12, 1992 Dr. Mae C. Jemison becomes the first African American woman in space when she is launched onboard the Space Shuttle Endeavor.

September 25, 1992 NASA launches Mars Observer to study the Red Planet. Communication with the craft will be lost August 22, 1993.

November 2, 1992 The Airbus A330 335-passenger twin makes its first flight.

December 16, 1992 The McDonnell Douglas (Boeing) C-17 sets altitude records.

March 4, 1993 The Saab JAS 39B Gripen (a multirole aircraft) makes its first flight.

March 12, 1993 Lockheed acquires General Dynamics' Fort Worth division, the builder of the F-16.

June 8, 1993 The first Saab JAS 39 Grippen is handed over to the Swedish Air Force.

June 26, 1993 The NavStar Global Position System (GPS) satellite constellation is completed.

August 6, 1993 Sheila Widnall becomes Secretary of the U.S. Air Force.

August 17, 1993 NASA selects Boeing as its prime contractor for the International Space Station.

December 2-13, 1993 The Hubble's optical flaw is repaired by the Discovery Shuttle crew.

World War I Flight Timeline

1914 The Chinese Army Air Arm is formed.

January 1914 The Naval Aeronautical Center is established at NAS Pensacola,­ Florida.

Flight Timeline

Peter M. Bowers Collection
The Navy established a flight training station in Pensacola, Florida. See more ­flight pictures.

January 1914 The Il'ya Muromets bomber is flown for the first time.

January 1, 1914 Tony Jannus flies a Benoist flying boat between Tampa and St. Petersburg, Florida, to inaugurate the first regularly scheduled passenger airline.

February 23, 1914 A prototype of the Bristol Scout flies.

April 1914 The Fokker M.5, a prototype of the Eindecker, appears.

April 25, 1914 Navy Lieutenant P.N.L. Bellinger makes the first U.S. combat flight off Vera Cruz, Mexico, to scout for sea mines.

May 6, 1914 Navy Lieutenant P.N.L Bellinger's aeroplane is hit by rifle fire. This is the first recorded U.S. aerial combat damage.

July 7, 1914 Robert Goddard secures a patent for his two-stage solid fuel rocket.

August 1, 1914 Germany declares war on Russia. In subsequent days, it becomes a true world war, with Allies versus the Central Powers.

August 22, 1914 The British RFC takes a reconnaissance of German lines.

August 26, 1914 Russian staff Captain Peter Nesterov rams an Austrian plane; both pilots are killed.

August 27, 1914 The first RFC squadrons arrive in France.

August 30, 1914 German Army Lieutenant Ferdinand von Hiddessen bombs Paris from his Taube; a woman is killed.

October 5, 1914 Corporal Louis Quénault and Sergeant Joseph Frantz of the French Air Force shoot down a German Aviatik. It's the first victory in aerial combat.

November 21, 1914 Three Avro 504s bomb Zeppelin sheds at Friedrichshafen, Germany.

December 21, 1914 A German airplane drops bombs on Dover; it's the first attack on England.

December 25, 1914 Seven British hydroaeroplanes are launched from Royal Navy carriers. They succeed in bombing German facilities in Cuxhaven.

January 19, 1915 The first Zeppelin raids begin in England.

Peter M. Bowers Collection
It is difficult to imagine the tremendous grip the dirigible had on the public, especially in Germany.

February 17, 1915 HMS Ark Royal, the first ship converted to aircraft duty, launches a seaplane to reconnoiter Turks at Gallipoli, Turkey.

March 3, 1915 The United States forms the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), which will become the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1958.

April 1, 1915 Roland Garros uses a machine gun fired through a propeller (unsynchronized) to shoot down a German plane.

May 31, 1915 The first Zeppelin raid on London kills seven civilians.

June 1, 1915 The prototype de Havilland D.H.2 makes its first flight.

June 5, 1915 Flight Sub-Lieutenant R.A.J. Warneford is awarded the Victoria Cross for dropping a bomb on an LZ 37. He is killed 12 days later.

July 1915 Fokker E 1 monoplanes ("E" standing for eindecker, or monoplane) arrive at the front, the first to have a synchronized gun firing through the propeller.

July 15, 1915 Lieutenant Kurt Wintgens scores a victory with an Eindecker fitted with a synchronized gun.

July 25, 1915 Captain Lanoe Hawker of the RFC earns the first Victoria Cross for air-to-air combat.

Fall 1915 The "Fokker Scourge" begins as Fokker Eindeckers reign supreme on the western front.

December 12, 1915 Hugo Junkers' J 1 "Tin Donkey," the first all-metal monoplane, makes its inaugural flight in Germany.

­January 1916 Kampfgeschwader Nr. 1, the German elite bombing unit, receives Gotha IV bombers.

1916 Flight Timeline

January 1916 The first aero squadron to serve outside the United States, 1st Company, 2nd Aero Squadron, sails from San Francisco to the Philippines.

Januar­y 12, 1916 German fighter aces Oswald Boelcke and Max Immelmann receive the Pour le Mérite (Blue Max) medal.

January 13, 1916 Curtiss Aeroplane & Motor Company Incorporated is formed in Buffalo, New York.

January 21, 1916 The Navy begins experimenting with aircraft radio at Pensacola.

February 9, 1916 Captain A. D. Smith flies a Martin S (Hall Scott engine) to set a world hydroaeroplane record of 8 hours, 42 minutes.

February 12, 1916 The U.S. Post Office seeks bids for carrying the mail by air in Massachusetts and Alaska.

March 16, 1916 The 1st Aero Squadron, commanded by Captain B. D. Foulois, becomes the first U.S. tactical air unit in the field.

March 29, 1916 Lieutenant R. C. Saufley sets an American altitude record of 16,010 feet for hydroaeroplanes at Pensacola.

April 1916 The French use air-to-air rockets for the first time, firing Le Prieur rockets from a Nieuport fighter.

April 7, 1916 Captain B. D. Foulois and Lieutenant Dargue are fired on by Mexican troops at Chihauahua City.

April 20, 1916 American pilots form Escadrille Americaine to fight in France. The name is changed to Lafayette Escadrille in November after German protest (they did not want Americans to come into the war on the side of France).

May 18, 1916 Kiffin Rockwell scores the first victory for Escadrille Americaine.

May 22, 1916 Albert Ball scores his first two victories.

May 28, 1916 The Sopwith Triplane makes its first flight.

Peter M. Bowers Collection
The Sopwith Triplane was perhaps more famous for the planes that imitated it than it was in its own right.

June 9, 1916 Lieutenant R. C. Saufley sets an endu­rance record of 8 hours, 51 minutes, then crashes to his death.

June 18, 1916 German ace Max Immelmann is killed.

June 18, 1916 H. Clyde Balsley of Escadrille Americaine is the first American to be shot down; he survives.

June 23, 1916 Victor Chapman of Escadrille Americaine is the first American killed.

June 29, 1916 The first Boeing aircraft, the Boeing B & W, flies.

August 1916 A prototype D.H.4 flies.

August 6, 1916 René Fonck gains his first victory; he will become the leading French ace of the war.

August 7, 1916 The Wright-Martin Aircraft Company is formed after the first of many mergers in the aviation industry.

September 1916 The French SPAD VII enters service.

September 2, 1916 The first plane-to-plane radio contact is established over North Island, California, when telegraph messages are exchanged between two aircraft two miles apart.

September 2, 1916 The first German Zeppelin is shot down over England.

September 5, 1916 Leefe Robinson is awarded the Victoria Cross for destroying a German dirigible.

September 12, 1916 Sperry Company and P. C. Hewitt demonstrate guided missile equipment.

September 17, 1916 Baron Manfred von Richthofen gains the first of his 80 victories.

September 23, 1916 Eleven Zeppelins raid England.

October 7, 1916 H. E. Honeywell wins the National Balloon Race with a flight from Muskogee, Oklahoma, to Cascade, Iowa--a distance of 866 kilometers.

October 12, 1916 Tony Jannus, the famous test pilot who piloted the first airliner, is killed demonstrating Benoist planes in Russia.

­October 28, 1916 Leading German ace Oswald Boelcke is killed in a midair collision with Erwin Böhme, a member of his own unit.

1916-1917 Flight Timeline

Nov­ember 18, 1916 Seven JN-4s, originating in New York City, complete the first cross-country National Guard flight.

November 20, 1916 Ruth Law sets a world record for female pilots by flying from Chicago to New York in 8 hours, 55 minutes, 35 seconds.

November 21, 1916 The Breguet 14 makes its first flight.

January 5, 1917 The Smithsonian Institution gives Robert Goddard a $5,000 grant for rocket work.

January 16, 1917 Baron Manfred von Richthofen is awarded the Pour le Mérite (Blue Max) medal.

January 19, 1917 The Gallaudet Aircraft Company (a direct ancestor of today's General Dynamics) is formed.

February 11-12, 1917 A German D.F.W. shoots down two enemy bombers in the first successful night fighting between aircraft.

February 13, 1917 The Aircraft Manufacturers Association is formed to permit cross-licensing of patents for the war effort.

March 6, 1917 The first Airco (de Havilland) D.H.4s arrive in France.

March 25, 1917 Billy Bishop gets his first victory (he will go on to become the leading surviving British ace with 72 victories).

April 1917 "Bloody April": 150 RFC aircraft are destroyed, primarily by Albatros D III fighters.

April 5, 1917 The potent Bristol F2B "Brisfit" fighter moves into combat on the western front with the RFC.

April 6, 1917 The United States declares war on Germany. Rated 14th of world air powers, the United States has only 83 pilots and 109 obsolete aeroplanes in service.

April 9, 1917 Dayton-Wright Aircraft Company is formed to manufacture Liberty-powered DH-4 biplanes.

April 12, 1917 The Breguet 14, a famous French bomber, arrives at the front.

May 1917 French squadrons begin to receive the SPAD XIII, a famous fighter.

May 6, 1917 Albert Ball, the top British ace of the time, scores his 44th victory; he is killed the next day.

May 18, 1917 The U.S. Navy experiments with self-sealing fuel tanks, using double-walled tanks with layers of felt, gum rubber, and Ivory-soap paste.

May 20, 1917 The Curtiss-designed "Large America" flying boat is the first airplane to sink a German submarine (U-36).

May 25, 1917 Twenty-one Gothas raid England in the first mass bombing; 95 people are killed.

June 1917 The first of the German "Giant" bombers, a Staaken R VI, is delivered.

June 13, 1917 Fourteen Gothas raid London, killing 162 civilians and injuring 432. The populace demands a home defense system.

Peter M. Bowers Collection
The Gotha G V had two 260-horsepower Mercedes engines and a top speed of 88 miles per hour.

July 1917 Sopwith Camel fighters, the most successful planes based on number of kills (1,294), go into action.

July 21, 1917 Congress ap-proves a gigantic $640 million for S.C. Aviation Service. This amount is eight times more than all U.S. aviation allocations since 1898.

July 26, 1917 The Rich­thofen Flying Circus, a group of elite pilots, forms.

August 2, 1917 Squadron Commander E. H. Dunning lands a Sopwith Pup on the deck of the HMS Furious, becoming the first pilot to land on a moving ship. He is killed five days later trying to repeat this effort.

August 11, 1917 Billy Bishop earns the Victoria Cross for his role in an attack on an enemy airfield.

August 21, 1917 The first two Fokker triplanes arrive at Baron Manfred von Richthofen's base.

August 21, 1917 The first Liberty engine is flown in a L.W.F. Model F plane.

August 30, 1917 German ace Werner Voss flies a Fokker Dr I triplane into combat for the first time, scoring three aerial victories.

­September 1917 A prototype of the Handley Page O/400--the best British bomber of the war--flies for the first time.

1917-1918 Flight Timeline

Septe­mber 11, 1917 French ace Georges Guynemer is shot down and killed.

September 17, 1917 Zeppelin-Staaken R planes, capable of carrying one-ton bombs, raid England.

September 23, 1917 Werner Voss is killed in a heroic, epic dogfight with the British No. 56 Squadron.

October 11, 1917 The RFC forms the 41st Wing, dedicated to strategic bombing.

October 29, 1917 The first American-made DH-4 flies with the #4 Liberty engine.

November 7, 1917 The Russian revolution begins.

November 18, 1917 The U.S. Navy begins combat operations with Tellier flying boats in France.

November 20, 1917 The Battle of Cambrai takes place. Low-level attacks on both sides set a future pattern for air-to-ground warfare.

November 21, 1917 The U.S. Navy demonstrates a radio-controlled flying bomb.

November 27, 1917 Benny Foulois takes over as the Chief of Air Service, American Expeditionary Force (AEF)

December 1917 Katherine Stinson sets an American cross-country duration record with a flight of nine hours and ten minutes, from San Diego to San Francisco.

January 1918 The Fokker D VII wins a fighter competition in Berlin.

January 19, 1918 The U.S. School of Aviation Medicine is founded.

January 23, 1918 The first U.S. Army balloon ascends in France.

February 1918 The first U.S. squadrons form in France.

February 16, 1918 A plant opens at Romorantin, France, to assemble American planes.

February 18, 1918 The 95th Aero Squadron, the first "all-American" unit, arrives in France.

March 21, 1918 A gigantic German offensive begins.

April 1918 Fokker D VIIs, the best fighters of the war, become operational.

April 1, 1918 Britain establishes the Royal Air Force (RAF) out of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS).

April 12, 1918 Zeppelins raid England. It is the last raid of the war to cause casualties.

April 13, 1918 An Argentine pilot, in a Morane-Saulnier Parasol, is the first to cross the Andes Mountains.

April 14, 1918 Lieutenants Douglas Campbell and Alan Winslow score the first U.S. air victories when they shoot down Pfalz and Albatros aircraft over their airdrome.

April 21, 1918 Baron Manfred von Richthofen is shot down and killed.

May 11, 1918 The first American-built DH-4 arrives in France.

May 15, 1918 The Packard LePere fighter flies.

May 15, 1918 The Army establishes airmail service between New York and Washington, D.C.

May 29, 1918 General John Pershing makes nonflyer Mason Patrick the Chief of Air Service, AEF.

June 5, 1918 Hugh Trenchard heads the "Independent Air Force" to attack the German homeland.

June 12, 1918 The first AEF bomber squadron, the 96th Aero Squadron, forms. Members fly French aircraft.

June 19, 1918 Francesco Baracca, the leading Italian ace with 34 victories, is killed.

July 9, 1918 Major James McCudden, one of Britain's top aces, is killed when his aircraft crashes on takeoff.

July 26, 1918 One-eyed pilot Mick Mannock, a British ace with 73 victories, is shot down in flames.

August 1918 Fokker D VII fighters score 565 kills in one month.

Peter M. Bowers Collection
The Fokker D VII was considered by many historians to be the best fighter of World War I.

August 2, 1918 The first combat flight of an American DH-4 is a fiasco.

1918-1920 Flight Timeline

August ­17, 1918 The Martin GMB, the first American-made bomber, makes its first flight.

Peter M. Bowers Collection
The Martin Bomber was the first American-made bomber.

August 21, 1918 The Nieuport 29, one of most important fighters of the 1920s, flies for the first time.

September 12-15, 1918 The Battle of St. Mihiel marks the largest deployment of aircraft in a single operation to date. Billy Mitchell commands 1,480 aircraft (including those in the service of French, British, U.S., and Italian air forces).

September 18, 1918 Major Rudolph Schroeder sets a world altitude record of 28,890 feet at McCook Field.

September 25, 1918 Eddie Rickenbacker earns the Medal of Honor for success in combat.

September 26, 1918 Leading French ace, Captain René Fonck, shoots down six German planes in one day, including four Fokker D VIIs.

September 28, 1918 Renegade Frank Luke is killed after shooting down 3 balloons to bring his total score to 21. As the second-ranking American ace, he receives a posthumous Medal of Honor.

October 2, 1918 The Kettering Bug, an early guided missile, makes its first flight.

October 24, 1918 The Fokker D VIII arrives at the front.

October 27, 1918 Major William Barker engages in an epic dogfight with 15 Fokker D VIIs. He scores three victories before he is shot down and wounded; he is awarded the Victoria Cross.

November 6-7, 1918 Robert Goddard demonstrates rockets before the military.

November 11, 1918 The armistice ends World War I.

December 4-22, 1918 Four JN-4s fly coast-to-coast.

1919 Many military aircraft are modified for civil use as transports, mail planes, and personal craft.

1919 The first Lawson airliner is designed.

February 5, 1919 The first sustained airline service starts with Deutsche Luft-Reederei between Berlin and Weimar, Germany.

March 1919 International air service opens between Vienna and Padua, Italy.

March 22, 1919 The first regular international passenger service begins between Paris and Brussels by Lignes Aeriennes Farman.

May 26, 1919 Robert H. Goddard's report on "A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes" is published by the Smithsonian Institution.

May 31, 1919 A Curtiss NC-4 completes the first transatlantic crossing.

June 14-15, 1919 John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown make the first nonstop transatlantic flight in a Vickers Vimy.

July 2-13, 1919 The British Army R-34 airship makes a transatlantic round-trip flight.

October 24, 1919 Aeromarine opens an airline between Key West, Florida, and Cuba with three flying boats.

December 10, 1919 Ross and Keith Smith fly a Vickers Vimy from England to Australia.

1920 Zeppelin-Staaken's 18-passenger, 4-engine all-metal airliner is ready to test.

January 1920 Raymond Orteig offers a $25,000 prize to the first pilot who can make a nonstop flight from New York to Paris.

February 7, 1920 Joseph Sadi-Lecointe sets a world speed record of 171 miles per hour in a Nieuport 29.

February 27, 1920 Major R. W. Schroeder sets an altitude record of 33,113 feet in a Liberty-powered LePere.

May 1, 1920 The U.S. Navy begins experimental work with all-metal structures.

May 26, 1920 The Boeing G.A.-X twin-engine attack triplane is tested.

­May 31, 1920 Italian pilots Arturo Ferrarin and Guido Masiero fly from Rome to Tokyo in SVA.9 biplanes.

1920-1921 Flight Timeline

June 4, 1920 The U.S. Army Air Service is created with 1,516 officers and 16,00­0 men authorized.

June 8, 1920 Lieutenant John E. Wilson makes a record parachute jump of 19,801 feet.

June 21, 1920 The Navy arranges to have J. V. Martin retractable gear installed on a Vought VE-7 airplane.

July 15-August 24, 1920 Four Air Service aircraft fly from New York to Nome, Alaska, and back.

August 2, 1920 Famous stunt pilot Omer Locklear is killed in a night flight in Los Angeles.

August 15, 1920 Laura Bromwell breaks the world loop-the-loop record for women with 87 consecutive loops.

September 8, 1920 A transcontinental mail route from New York to Chicago to San Francisco via plane/train is completed.

September 18, 1920 Rudolph Schroeder sets a record of 34,508 feet in a LePere.

September 30, 1920 Forty-seven Army Air Service aircraft crews report 832 forest fires.

October 1920 Donald W. Douglas organizes the David-Douglas Company to build the Cloudster.

Peter M. Bowers Collection
This carefully posed photo is truly history in the making, for it shows the building of the very first Douglas aircraft.

November 1, 1920 Regular U.S. international passenger service begins between Key West, Florida, and Havana, Cuba, with Aeromarine-West Indies Airways.

November 1, 1920 The Sperry Messenger is tested.

November 4, 1920 The U.S. Navy continues a series of bombing tests against the obsolete battleship USS Indiana.

November 24, 1920 The prototype Dornier Delphin (Dolphin), antecedent of the famous Wal (Whale), flies.

November 25, 1920 Lieutenant Corliss C. Moseley wins the first Pulitzer Trophy in a Verville VCP-R Racer at 156.5 miles per hour.

December 14, 1920 The first fatal accident in scheduled air service occurs when a Handley Page O/400 crashes at Cricklewood, England.

1921 George de Bothezat, a Russian-born engineer working for the U.S. Air Service, builds a large, complex helicopter that is moderately successful.

1921 The Soviets establish a laboratory for research on solid-propellant rockets.

1921 Soviets begin initial airline service with a demilitarized Il'ya Muromets-type aircraft.

January 10, 1921 A "W" style, 700-horsepower, 18-cylinder engine is tested at McCook Field.

January 26, 1921 The U.S. Post Office reports daily flights over 3,460 miles of routes.

February 18, 1921 C. C. Eversole makes a freestyle parachute escape from a U.S. DH-4.

February 22-23, 1921 Jack Frye and others complete the first coast-to-coast airmail flight in 33 hours, 20 minutes.

February 24, 1921 Lieutenant William D. Coney completes a solo transcontinental flight from Rockwell Field, San Diego, to Jacksonville, Florida, in 22 hours, 27 minutes. On March 25, 1921, he is mortally injured in a crash on the return flight.

February 24, 1921 The Douglas Cloudster, the first in a long line of Douglas aircraft, flies.

March 23, 1921 Lieutenant Arthur Hamilton makes a 23,700-foot parachute drop at Chanute Field, Illinois.

April 14, 1921 KLM introduces the Fokker F III five-passenger airliner. This begins a period of Fokker airline dominance.

May 1921 The McCook Field-designed, Boeing-built G.A.-X flies for the first time. The armored, twin-engine triplane attack bomber, with eight machine guns and a cannon, is a failure.

­June 9, 1921 The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) authorizes the construction of a wind tunnel at Langley Aeronautical Laboratory.

1921-1922 Flight Timeline

July 12-21, 1921 Brigadier General Billy Mitchell's Martin MB-2 bombers sink the battles­hip Ostfriesland in a demonstration attack.

July 29, 1921 Brigadier General Billy Mitchell leads 17 bombers in an exhibition "raid" on New York City.

August 1, 1921 Preliminary tests begin on what will become the Norden bombsight.

August 4, 1921 Lieutenant John Macready, USAS, flies the first crop duster, using a Curtiss JN-4D conversion.

August 11, 1921 Simulated deck landing tests begin in anticipation of the first U.S. aircraft carrier, the USS Langley, becoming operational.

August 24, 1921 An American-owned British dirigible R-38 breaks up in the air; 42 people die.

September 23, 1921 The United States Air Service continues bomb tests, sinking the USS Alabama.

September 28, 1921 John Macready sets a world altitude record of 34,509 feet in a LePere LUSAC-11.

October 15, 1921 Compania Espanola de Trafico Aeroeo, predecessor of Iberia airlines, begins operations.

November 5, 1921 Bert Acosta wins the Pulitzer Trophy race in a Curtiss Racer at 176.7 miles per hour.

November 12, 1921 The first air-to-air refueling: Wesley May steps from the wing of a Lincoln Standard to the wing of a Curtiss Canuck with a five-gallon can of fuel strapped to his back.

Peter M. Bowers Collection
The world's first mid-air refueling.

November 15, 1921 The airship ROMA flies for the first time at Langley Field, Virginia.

December 1, 1921 Helium is used for the first time in an airship, the nonrigid Navy C-7.

December 29, 1921 A world endurance record of 26 hours, 18 minutes, 35 seconds is set in a Junkers-Larson BMW (Junkers 13).

January 16, 1922 The Navy issues parachutes for use in heavier-than-air craft.

February 7, 1922 The Lawrance J-1 radial engine completes a 50-hour test. This will lead to a revolution in engines.

March 13-June 16, 1922 Portuguese pilots fly from Lisbon to Brazil in Fairey III aircraft.

March 20, 1922 The U.S. Navy commissions its first aircraft carrier, the USS Langley.

March 23, 1922 A NACA report shows that the jet engine would consume four times more fuel than a piston engine at 250 miles per hour but would be more efficient at altitude.

April 1922 Germany and the Soviet Union set up a secret training and manufacturing base in the Soviet Union for Germany's use.

April 7, 1922 The first midair collision between passenger airliners takes place in France when a D.H.18 and a Farman- Goliath collide. All of the crew members are killed, along with seven passengers.

April 25, 1922 Eddie Stinson completes a successful test of the Stout ST-1, the Navy's first all-metal airplane.

May 1922 The Breguet 19 bomber prototype flies; it will become the most widely used military aircraft between the wars.

June 10, 1922 Guglielmo Marconi states that radar could be used in fog or thick weather to identify passing ships.

June 12, 1922 Captain A. W. Stephens (later a famous balloonist) makes a parachute jump from a supercharged Martin MB-2 at 24,206 feet.

June 16, 1922 Henry Berliner demonstrates a helicopter at College Park, Maryland; on July 16, it hovers at 12 feet.

August 12, 1922 Henry Biard pilots a Supermarine Sea Lion to win the Schneider Cup at 145.7 miles per hour.

­September 4, 1922 The Curtiss R-6 is flown for the first time at Curtiss Field, New York.

1922-1923 Flight Timeline

September 4, 1922 Jimmy Doolittle flies a de Havilland DH-4B from Florida to California i­n 21 hours, 19 minutes.

Peter M. Bowers Collection
Jimmy Doolittle made the first coast-to-coast flight in less than 24 hours.

September 14, 1922 The L.W.F. Owl, the largest plane yet built for air service, makes its first flight.

September 20, 1922 Joseph Sadi-Lecointe, in a Nieuport-Delange 29, is the first to set a world air speed record exceeding 200 miles per hour. He averages 212.01 miles per hour.

September 27, 1922 Radar is demonstrated at the Naval Aircraft Radio Lab.

September 27, 1922 The Navy has its first mass torpedo practice against live targets by Torpedo One; 8 hits out of 17 launches.

October 6, 1922 Oakley Kelly and John Macready make a duration flight of 35 hours, 18 minutes, 30 seconds in a Fokker T-2.

October 14, 1922 Curtiss R-6 racers finish first and second in the Pulitzer Trophy race.

October 17, 1922 Lieutenant V. C. Griffin makes the first takeoff from an American aircraft carrier, the USS Langley, in a Vought VE-7.

October 18, 1922 Brigadier General Billy Mitchell sets the world air speed record at 222.97 miles per hour in a Curtiss R-6.

October 20, 1922 Harold R. Harris makes the first emergency parachute jump, leaping from a Loening M-8 after a collision with a Fokker monoplane.

October 23, 1922 The American Propeller Company demonstrates a reversible pitch propeller.

October 26, 1922 Lieutenant Godfrey DeChevalier makes the first landing on the USS Langley in an Aeromarine 39-B.

November 2, 1922 Qantas starts scheduled service.

November 6, 1922 The prototype Dornier J Wal makes its first flight. It will become one of the most important flying boats of the era.

November 11, 1922 Etienne Oehmichen sets a record in his helicopter for straight-line, flying 1,181 feet; on November 17, he flies 1,722 feet.

December 18, 1922 Colonel Thurman Bane flies a de Bothezat helicopter for 1 minute, 42 seconds at McCook Field.

December 27, 1922 Japan commissions its first aircraft carrier, Hosho. It is one of only a few Japanese ships to survive World War II.

January 5, 1923 Cloud seeding is accomplished over McCook Field.

January 9, 1923 Juan de la Cierva makes an officially observed flight in a C-4 autogiro.

February 7, 1923 Lieutenant Russell Meredith wins the Distinguished Flying Cross by flying a doctor to a dying man on Meredith Island, across frozen Lake Michigan.

February 21, 1923 The de Bothezat helicopter achieves sustained flight for 2 minutes and 45 seconds at an altitude of 15 feet.

March 5, 1923 Igor Sikorsky starts his firm, Sikorsky Aero Engineering Corporation, in the United States.

March 5, 1923 An auxiliary jettisonable gas tank is fitted to a Thomas-Morse MB-3A fighter. This extends the aircraft's range to 400 miles.

March 29, 1923 Lieutenant Lester Maitland sets a speed record of 239.92 miles per hour in a Curtiss R-6.

March 29, 1923 Lieutenants Harold R. Harris and Ralph Lockwood set a world speed record for 1,000 kilometers at 127.24 miles per hour in a specially modified DH-4L.

April 17, 1923 Lieutenant Harold R. Harris sets two speed records in a DH-4L: 114.35 miles per hour (1,500 kilometers) and 114.22 miles per hour (2,000 kilometers).

­April 17, 1923 USN Lieutenant Rutledge Irvine sets a world altitude record with a 1,000-kilogram load: 11,609 feet in a Douglas DT over McCook Field.

1923 Flight Timeline

May 2-3, 1923 U.S. Army Lieutenants Oakley Kelly and John Macready make the first nonstop coast-to-coast flight in 26 hours, 50 minutes in the Fokker T-2.

May 14, 1923 A prototype Cu­rtiss PW-8 fighter is received by the USAS, the beginning of a long line of Curtiss biplane fighters.

Peter M. Bowers Collection
The Curtiss PW-8 featured wing surface radiators. Unfortunately, they were a maintenance nightmare and impractical in combat.

May 26, 1923 Lieutenant H. G. Crocker completes a nonstop, transcontinental, south to north flight in a DH-4B, flying from Houston, Texas, to Gordon, Ontario, in 11 hours, 55 minutes.

June 6-7, 1923 The Navy sets 15 records for Class C seaplanes.

June 20, 1923 The all-metal Gallaudet CO-1 flies for the first time.

June 26, 1923 Lieutenants Lowell H. Smith and John P. Richter achieve the world's first complete midair hose refueling.

August 21, 1923 Navigation beacon lights between Chicago and Cheyenne are completed.

August 22, 1923 The giant Barling Bomber makes its first flight.

September 4, 1923 The Navy dirigible USS Shenandoah makes its first flight.

September 5, 1923 Air Service planes sink the decommissioned USS Virginia and New Jersey.

September 28, 1923 Lieutenant David Rittenhouse wins the Schneider Trophy for the United States in a Navy Curtiss CR-3 racer at 181 miles per hour.

October 1-6, 1923 The National Air races take place in St. Louis.

October 6, 1923 The Navy's Lieutenant Alford Williams wins the Pulitzer Trophy in a Curtiss R2C-1 racer at 243.68 miles per hour.

October 10, 1923 The Shenandoah, the first dirigible to use helium, is christened.

Peter M. Bowers Collection
The USS Shenandoah saw the derigible as a sensible means of reconnaissance.

November 1, 1923 Robert Goddard's first small liquid-fuel rocket is tested.

November 4, 1923 USN Lieutenant Alford Williams sets a world speed record of 266.6 miles per hour in a Curtiss R2C-1.

November 6, 1923 USN Lieutenant Alford Williams sets a time-to-climb record: 5,000 feet in one minute in a Curtiss R2C-1.

December 13, 1923 Lawrence Sperry crashes his Messenger in the English Channel. The plane is recovered, but Sperry's body is never found. ­

Golden Age of Flight Timeline

February 21, 1924 The first airmail in Alaska is flown by Carl Eielson in a DH-4H.

April 6, 1924 Four Douglas World Cruisers depart Seattle to attempt the first round-the-world flight.

Flight Pictures

Peter M. Bowers Collection
The Douglas Aircraft Company was boosted into the big time with the successful round-the-world flight of its Douglas World Cruisers in 1924. See more ­flight pictures.

April 16-May 19, 1924 Stanley Goble and Ivor McIntyre circumnavigate Australia in 90 hours.

May 1924 The Fokker C V makes its first flight.

May 19, 1924 Lieutenant John Macready sets a new American altitude record in a LePere LUSAC-11 at 35,239 feet.

June 23, 1924 Lieutenant Russell Maughan completes a "Dawn to Dusk" flight in a Curtiss PW-8. He makes five stops en route and covers 2,670 miles in 21 hours, 48 minutes, and 30 seconds.

June 23, 1924 The first Focke-Wulf, the A 16 four-passenger monoplane, flies.

July 1, 1924 TAT, in cooperation with the Pennsylvania railroad, begins transcontinental travel--air by day, train by night.

August 1924 The Savoia-Marchetti S.55 flies for the first time.

August 24, 1924 The dirigible ZR-3 is completed in Germany for war reparations. Delivery to the United States is scheduled for October.

September 28, 1924 Two Douglas World Cruisers land in Seattle to complete the first flight around the world.

October 15, 1924 The LZ 126, from Friedrichshafen, Germany, arrives in the United States after an 81-hour flight. It becomes the the USS Los Angeles (ZR-3).

December 15, 1924 A Sperry Messenger successfully makes an aerial hookup onto the trapeze of the U.S. Army Airship TC-3.

December 25, 1924 Mrs. Calvin Coolidge christens the USS Los Angeles (ZR-3).

1925 The French Potez 25, a general-purpose biplane, makes its first flight.

January 3, 1925 The Fairey Fox flies for the first time, revolutionizing RAF thinking on engines and aircraft.

January 24-25, 1925 Scientists in 25 aircraft fly above the clouds to view a total eclipse of the sun. The new USS Los Angeles (ZR-3) carries Naval Observatory scientists.

February 2, 1925 President Calvin Coolidge signs the Kelly Bill, authorizing contract air transportation of airmail.

February 22, 1925 The de Havilland D.H.60 Moth flies for the first time.

March 12, 1925 The Fokker F VII flies for the first time.

April 8, 1925 The first night carrier landings are made on the USS Langley.

April 13, 1925 Henry Ford starts an airplane freight line to operate between Detroit and Chicago.

July 7, 1925 The first Boeing 40A flies, establishing Boeing in the airmail business.

August 31-September 10, 1925 Commander John Rogers attempts to fly from San Francisco to Hawaii in a PN-9 patrol plane. Forced down at sea, he travels 450 miles by sail for ten days until he is picked up.

September 3, 1925 The USS Shenandoah is torn apart by a line squall when ordered to fly into a stormy area by official flight orders.

September 4, 1925 The tri-motor Fokker F VIIa/3m flies. It will become important all over the world.

October 12, 1925 Lieutenant Cy Bettis, in an Army Curtiss R3C-1 landplane racer, wins the Pulitzer Trophy race. He sets two unofficial speed records.

October 27, 1925 Lieutenant Jimmy Doolittle sets an official world speed record for seaplanes in a Curtiss R3C-2 at 242.166 miles per hour.

November 24, 1925 The prototype ANT-4 (Tupelov TB-1) bomber flies.

December 17, 1925 Billy Mitchell is found guilty by court martial of discrediting the U.S. Army.

January 6, 1926 Deutsche Lufthansa is formed.

­January 22-February 10, 1926 Commandante Ramón Franco makes the first east-west crossing of the South Atlantic in a Dornier Wal.

1926-1927 Flight Timeline

January 29, 1926 Lieutenant John Macready sets a U.S. altitude record of 38,704 fe­et in an XCO-5A.

February 6, 1926 Pratt & Whitney produces the first Wasp engine.

March 16, 1926 Robert Goddard launches the world's first liquid-fueled rocket, which flies 184 feet to become the "Kitty Hawk" of rocketry.

April 16, 1926 The Department of Agriculture purchases its first crop duster.

May 9, 1926 Richard E. Byrd and Floyd Bennett fly over the North Pole in a Fokker "Josephine Ford."

May 14, 1926 Roald Amundsen and Lincoln Ellsworth fly over the North Pole in the dirigible Norge, landing in Teller, Alaska, after a 70-hour flight from Norway.

May 20, 1926 President Calvin Coolidge signs the Air Commerce Act, regulating civil aeronautics.

May 23, 1926 Western Air Express begins operations between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles.

June 11, 1926 The prototype Ford Tri-Motor flies for the first time.

July 2, 1926 The U.S. Army Air Corps is created.

November 3, 1926 The Boeing F2B-1 single-seat fighter flies, beginning a long line of Navy and Army biplane fighters.

December 21, 1926 Five Loening COA-1 amphibians depart Kelly Field, Texas, on a Pan American Goodwill flight.

1927 The Curtiss XB-2 Condor bomber, ordered in 1926, flies for the first time.

January 15, 1927 Boeing Aircraft begins Boeing Air Transport, predecessor of United Air Lines.

March 9, 1927 The Navy buys its first transport plane, a Ford Tri-Motor, XJR-1.

March 9, 1927 Captain H. C. Gray ascends to 28,910 feet in a free balloon for an American record.

March 14, 1927 Pan American Airways is formed.

April 4, 1927 Colonial Air Lines initiates regular passenger service between Boston and New York.

April 12, 1927 Clarence Chamberlin and Bert Acosta set an American flight duration record of 51 hours, 11 minutes, and 25 seconds.

April 28, 1927 The Ryan NYP Spirit of St. Louis, Charles Lindbergh's airplane, is flown for the first time.

May 2, 1927 The Pan American Goodwill flight of 22,065 miles ends at Bolling Field, Washington, D.C. Two of the ten pilots were killed en route when two COA-1s collided over Buenos Aires.

May 4, 1927 Captain H. C. Gray reaches 42,470 feet in a free balloon.

May 5, 1927 Lieutenant C. C. Champion flies a Wright Apache seaplane to 33,455 feet, setting a new altitude record for seaplanes.

May 8, 1927 Lieutenant Charles Nungesser and Captain Francois Coli dis­appear in an attempted Paris-New York flight.

May 17, 1927 The Bristol Bulldog fighter flies for the first time.

May 20-21, 1927 Charles Lindbergh flies solo nonstop from New York to Paris.

May 25, 1927 Jimmy Doolittle does the first outside loop.

June 4-6, 1927 Clarence Chamberlin and backer Charles A. Levine fly nonstop from New York to Germany in 43 hours, 49 minutes.

June 28-29, 1927 In a Fokker (Atlantic) trimotor named Bird of Paradise, Lieutenants Albert F. Hegenberger and Lester J. Maitland fly from Oakland, California, to Honolulu, Hawaii (2,407 miles), the longest distance ever completed over open sea.

June 29, 1927 Admiral Richard Byrd makes an unsuccessful transoceanic attempt in a Fokker F VIIIa/3m America.

July 5, 1927 Germans form the Society for Space Travel.

­July 25, 1927 Lieutenant C. C. Champion sets a world altitude landplane record of 38,418 feet in a Wright Apache.

1927-1929 Flight Timeline

August 1927 The first Huff-Daland bombers are delivered to the Air Corps.

August 17, 1927 Art Goebel and William Davis win the $25,000 Dole air race.

September 1­, 1927 American Railway Express and major U.S. airlines begin air express operations.

October 12, 1927 Wright Field is dedicated; it becomes the primary research and development site for the Air Corps.

October 14-15, 1927 Dieudonné Costes and Joseph Le Brix make the first nonstop crossing of the South Atlantic in a Breguet 19.

October 28, 1927 Pan Am establishes an international air station at Key West, Florida.

November 16, 1927 The USS Saratoga, an aircraft carrier, is commissioned.

December 14, 1927 The USS Lexington, an aircraft carrier, is commissioned.

Peter M. Bowers Collection
The beautiful USS Lexington was one of the United States' first large aircraft carriers.

1928 The NACA develops a cowling for radial engines.

January 7, 1928 The Polikarpov U-2 (later Po-2) makes its first flight.

February 7-22, 1928 Bert Hinkler flies solo from England to Australia.

February 28, 1928 The Navy contracts with Consolidated for the XPY-1, the first U.S. monoplane flying boat.

March 30, 1928 Flying a Macchi M.52, Major Mario de Bernardi attains a record speed of 318.623 miles per hour over a three-kilometer course.

April 12-14, 1928 The Junkers W 33 Bremen makes the first east-west crossing of the Atlantic.

April 15-21, 1928 Captain George Hubert Wilkins and pilot Carl Ben Eielson fly a Lockheed Vega over a 2,200-mile polar route, Alaska to Norway, in 20 hours, 20 minutes.

May 16, 1928 Transcontinental Air Transport (TAT), the predecessor of TWA, is formed.

May 23, 1928 The tragic flight of Italian airship Italia begins.

May 31-June 9, 1928 Charles Kingsford Smith and Charles Ulm fly from San Francisco to Australia.

June 1928 A prototype Hawker Hart two-seater flies.

June 11, 1928 Fritz Stammer makes the first piloted rocket-powered flight in the Ente (Duck).

June 20, 1928 Braniff Airways is formed.

June 25, 1928 The Boeing 100 prototype for the P-12 and F4B makes its first flight.

July 3-5, 1928 Italians Arturo Ferrarin and Carlo del Prete set a straight-line distance record: 4,466 miles in a Savoia-Marchetti S.64.

September 18, 1928 The Graf Zeppelin, the world's most successful dirigible, is launched.

September 19, 1928 The Packard Diesel, the first diesel engine to power a heavier-than-air craft, flies.

November 14, 1928 The Fairey Long-Range Monoplane flies. It will set many records.

December 19, 1928 The first American autogiro, the Pitcairn, is flown.

December 20, 1928 Captain George Hubert Wilkins and Carl Ben Eielson fly their Lockheed Vega over Antarctica.

January 1929 A Soviet TB-1 aircraft bomber flies from Moscow to New York.

January 1929 The first Link Trainer is sold.

January 1-7, 1929 Major Carl Spaatz, Captain Ira Eaker, First Lieutenant Harry Halverson, Second Lieutenant Elwood Quesada, and Staff Sergeant Roy Hooe conduct an endurance flight in the Fokker C-2A Question Mark, setting a world record of 150 hours, 40 minutes, and 15 seconds.

January 2, 1929 Bobbie Trout sets a female endurance record of 12 hours, 11 minutes in a Golden Eagle monoplane.

­January 30, 1929 Elinor Smith sets a new female endurance record in a Brunner-Winkle Bird, flying 13 hours, 16 minutes.

1929-1930 Flight Timeline

February 1929 Boeing, United Air Lines, Pratt & Whitney, and Standard Steel Propeller merge into United Aircraft and Transport Company.

February ­4-5, 1929 Frank Hawks and Oscar Grubb set a nonstop transcontinental record in a Lockheed Air Express: 18 hours and 22 minutes.

February 12, 1929 Anne Morrow and Charles Lindbergh get engaged.

March 9, 1929 Charles Lindbergh inaugurates airline flight to Mexico City.

March 16-17, 1929 Louise Thaden sets a female endurance record of 22 hours, 3 minutes, 12 seconds.

April 23-24, 1929 Elinor Smith establishes a female endurance record of 26 hours, 21 minutes in a Bellanca.

April 24-26, 1929 RAF pilots fly a Fairey Long-Range Monoplane nonstop from England to India--4,130 miles.

May 8, 1929 Lieutenant Apollo Soucek sets a world altitude record of 39,140 feet in a Wright Apache landplane.

May 28, 1929 Marvel Crosson sets a female altitude record of 24,000 feet.

June 4, 1929 Lieutenant Apollo Soucek sets a world altitude record (38,650 feet) for seaplanes in a float-equipped Wright Apache.

July 2-12, 1929 Loren Mendell and R. B. Reinhart set a new endurance record of 246 hours, 44 minutes in a Wright-powered Buhl biplane.

July 7, 1929 Transcontinental Air Transport (TAT) sets up combined air-rail service, going coast-to-coast in 48 hours.

July 9, 1929 Roger Q. Williams and Lewis Yancey fly nonstop from the United States to Spain (3,400 miles) in a Bellanca.

July 10, 1929 The Spokane Sun God, a Buhl CA-6, completes a nonstop round-trip from Spokane, Washington, to New York in 115 hours, 45 minutes, with aerial fueling.

July 13-30, 1929 Dale Jackson and Forest O'Brien set a refueling duration record of 420 hours, 17 minutes in a Curtiss Robin.

July 25, 1929 The Dornier Do X makes its first flight.

August 1929 The Junkers 33 seaplane makes its first rocket-assisted takeoff.

September 24, 1929 Jimmy Doolittle demonstrates blind flying.

September 27-29, 1929 Dieudonné Costes and Maurice Bellonte fly from Paris to Manchuria, China, for a world distance record of 4,912 miles in Point d'Interrogation.

September 30, 1929 The Opel Sander Rak. 1, a glider powered by rockets, makes a 75-second flight.

November 22, 1929 Amelia Earhart sets a speed record for women: 184.17 miles per hour in a Lockheed Vega.

November 28-29, 1929 Richard Byrd and Bernt Balchen fly over the South Pole.

November 29, 1929 Curtiss completes the first Prestone-cooled pursuit aircraft.

January 25, 1930 American Airways (now American Airlines) is formed.

May 1, 1930 The prototype Polikarpov I-5 single-seater biplane flies.

May 5-24, 1930 Amy Johnson becomes the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia.

May 6, 1930 The Boeing Monomail flies.

May 15, 1930 Ellen Church becomes the first flight attendant for Boeing Air Transport, on a Boeing 80A.

May 18, 1930 The Graf Zeppelin crosses the South Atlantic for the first time.

May 27, 1930 Roscoe Turner sets an east-west record of 18 hours, 43 minutes, 34 seconds in a Vega.

June 4, 1930 Lieutenant Apollo Soucek sets a world altitude record in a Wright Apache landplane at 43,155 feet.

­June 12, 1930 The last RAF biplane bomber, the Handley Page Heyford, flies for the first time.

1930-1931 Flight Timeline

June 20, 1930 Randolph Field, the "West Point of the Air," is dedicated.

July 2­1, 1­930 Forest O'Brien and Dale Jackson set a 64­7-hour, 28-minute endurance recor­d.

July 23, 1930 Pioneer aviator Glenn Curtiss dies.

July 25, 1930 Aircraft designer Chance Vought dies.

July 29, 1930 The British dirigible R-100 flies from England to Canada in 78 hours.

August 5, 1930 Pancho Barnes sets a women's speed record of 196.1 miles per hour in a Travel Air.

August 6, 1­930 Frank Hawks sets an east-west solo record in a Travel Air "Mystery Ship": 14 hours, 50 minutes, 43 seconds.

Peter M. Bowers Collection
The "Mystery Ship" set a speed record for women when it reached 196.1 miles per hour.

August 13, 1930 Frank Hawks sets a west-east solo record: 12 hours, 15 minutes, 3 seconds.

September 1, 1930 Speed Holman wins the first Thompson Trophy in a Laird "Solution" at 201.9 miles per hour.

September 1-3, 1930 Dieudonné Costes and Maurice Bellonte make the first east-west crossing from Paris to New York in 37 hours, 18 minutes.

October 1930 The Polish PZL P-7 fighter appears; the Polish Air Force becomes the first in the world with an all-metal monoplane fighter squadron.

October 5, 1930 The British dirigible R-101 crashes en route from England to India.

October 13, 1930 The prototype Junkers Ju 52, one of the most famous transports in history, flies.

October 19, 1930 Gottlob Espenlaub flies a glider powered by Sander rockets.

November 1930 The Handley Page H.P.42 airliner flies for the first time.

November 9, 1930 Roy Ammel flies a Lockheed Sirius from New York to Canal Zone, 2,700 miles in 24 hours, 35 minutes.

November 24, 1930 Ruth Nichols sets a new east-west female transcontinental record of 16 hours, 59 minutes.

November 25, 1930 The Fairey Hendon, the first British metal monoplane bomber, flies.

December 2, 1930 Ruth Nichols makes a west-east transcontinental flight in 13 hours, 22 minutes.

December 22, 1930 The Tupelov TB-3, a standard Soviet four-engine bomber, flies for the first time. It is the largest airplane in the world at the time.

December 30, 1930 Robert Goddard fires a liquid-fueled rocket to 2,000 feet at 500 miles per hour.

January 4, 1931 William Swan flies over New Jersey in a glider powered by ten small rockets.

January 4-9, 1931 Bobbie Trout and Edna Cooper set a female refueling duration record of 123 hours in a Curtiss Robin.

January 6, 1931 General Italo Balboa leads 12 Savoia-Marchetti S.55 flying boats in a formation flight across the South Atlantic.

January 7, 1931 Beryl Hart and Lieutenant Bill MacClaren are lost in a transatlantic attempt.

February 26-March 1, 1931 Lucien Bossoutrot and Maurice Rossi set a new closed-circuit record of 5,481 miles in a Blériot 110.

February 28, 1931 Imperial Airways begins service from England to Central Africa.

March 3, 1931 The Fairey Gordon makes its first flight.

March 6, 1931 Ruth Nichols sets a female altitude record of 28,743 feet in a Lockheed Vega.

March 25, 1931 The first production model of the Hawker Fury flies.

March 26, 1931 Swissair is formed. The airline will push the pace of European transport lines.

March 31, 1931 Knute Rockne is killed in the crash of a Fokker transport, sealing the fate of wooden transport aircraft in America.

­April 1931 The German counterpart to the DC-3, the Junkers Ju 52/3m, makes its first flight.

1931-1932 Flight Timeline

April 2, 1931 Leroy Grumman's new firm, an offshoot of his relationship with Grover Loening, gets a contract for the immortal Fifi, the FF-1 two-seat, retractable gear, biplane fighter. It's the start of a fighter dynasty.

April 8, 1931 Amelia Earhart establishes the autogiro altitude record of 18,415 feet in her Pitcairn autogiro.

April 13, 1931 Ruth Nichols sets a female speed record of 210.6 miles per hour in a Lockheed Vega.

April 13, 1931 The Boeing XB-901 (later known as the YB-9 "Death Angel") flies for the first time. It will ­ultimately lead to the Boeing B-17.

May 26, 1931 The Consolidated P2Y makes its first flight.

May 27, 1931 Professor Auguste Piccard and Paul Kipfer reach 51,775 feet in a balloon.

May 28, 1931 Lieutenant W. Lees and Fred Brossy fly 84 hours, 33 minutes, unrefueled, in a diesel-powered Bellanca.

May 31, 1931 The first drone plane is flown by radio control from another plane.

June 4, 1931 The Dornier Do X arrives in New York.

June 23-July 1, 1931 Wiley Post and Harold Gatty fly the Lockheed Vega Winnie Mae around the world in 8 days, 15 hours, 51 minutes.

July 1, 1931 United Air Lines is formed from Boeing Air Transport, National Air Transport, Pacific Air Transport, and Varney Air Lines.

July 24-31, 1931 The Graf Zeppelin carries 12 scientists on an Arctic flight.

July 28-30, 1931 Russ Boardman and Johnnie Polando fly their Bellanca from New York to Istanbul, setting a world record of 5,011 miles in 49 hours, 20 minutes.

July 28-August 6, 1931 Amy Johnson flies from England to Tokyo in nine days in a de Havilland Puss Moth.

August 11, 1931 A Polish PZL P-11 prototype flies.

September 3, 1931 Lowell Bayles wins the Thompson Trophy in a Gee Bee Z at 236.23 miles per hour.

September 4, 1931 Jimmy Doolittle sets a transcontinental record of 11 hours, 16 minutes to win the Bendix Race.

September 13, 1931 Flight Lieutenant John Boothman wins permanent possession of the Schneider Trophy for England in an uncontested event.

September 23, 1931 The Akron flies for the first time.

September 29, 1931 Flight Lieutenant George Stainforth flies a Supermarine S.6B at 407.5 miles per hour to establish a new world speed record. It's the first flight of more than 400 miles per hour.

October-December 7, 1931 Bert Hinkler, a famous Australian pilot, flies solo from New York to London in a de Havilland Puss Moth.

October 3-5, 1931 Clyde Pangborn and Hugh Herndon, Jr., make the first nonstop flight from Japan to the United States in a Bellanca for a $25,000 prize. Their total time: 41 hours, 13 minutes.

October 24-25, 1931 Ruth Nichols sets a female distance record of 1,977.6 miles.

October 26, 1931 The de Havilland Tiger Moth flies for the first time.

October 27, 1931 The tiny Curtiss Sparrowhawk fighter hooks up with the Los Angeles in a trial for eventual use with the Akron.

October 27, 1931 The Akron is commissioned.

November 19, 1931 The Sikorsky S-40 amphibian enters service with Pan Am, with Charles Lindbergh making the first flight.

December 1, 1931 Lowell Bayles sets a world landplane speed record of 281.75 miles per hour in a Gee Bee Z.

December 19, 1931 Major General Benjamin Foulois becomes the Chief of Air Corps.

February 14, 1932 Ruth Nichols sets a world altitude record (19,928 feet) for diesel-powered aircraft in a Lockheed Vega. ­

1932-1933 Flight Timeline

March 23-26, 1932 The French continue long-distance record-breaking with a 6,587-mile closed-circuit flight. The aircraft, a Blériot 110 called Joseph Le Brix, is flown by Lucien Bossoutrot and Maurice Rossi.

March 24-28, 1932 Jimmy Mollison flies a Puss Moth from England to Capetown, South A­frica, in 4 days, 17 hours, 30 minutes.

April 19-28, 1932 C. W. A. Scott flies from England to Darwin, Australia, in a Gypsy Moth, in 8 days, 20 hours, and 47 minutes.

May 20-21, 1932 In a Lockheed Vega, Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic.

June 19, 1932 The Dewoitine D.500 makes its first flight.

June 30, 1932 The Los Angeles is decommissioned after more than 4,000 hours in the air.

July 21, 1932 Von Gronau and the crew of his Dornier Wal complete a round-the-world flight in 111 days--the first in a flying boat.

August 13, 1932 The Granville brothers' Gee Bee R-1 Super-Sportster makes its first flight.

Peter M. Bowers Collection
The Granville brothers of Springfield, Massachusetts, had gone from obscurity to fame with the success of their original Gee Bee Model Z.

August 14-21, 1932 Louise Thaden and Frances Marsalis establish a women's world endurance record of eight days, four hours, five minutes in a Curtiss Thrush.

August 18, 1932 Auguste Piccard sets a new balloon altitude record of 53,153 feet.

August 18-19, 1932 Jimmy Mollison makes the first east-west solo flight across the North Atlantic in 31 hours, 20 minutes.

August 25, 1932 Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to make a nonstop transcontinental flight.

August 29, 1932 Jimmy Haizlip wins the Bendix, setting a transcontinental record of 10 hours, 19 minutes in a Wedell-Williams racer.

September 3, 1932 Jimmy Doolittle ends his racing career, winning the Thompson Trophy at 252.6 miles per hour, then setting a world speed record for landplanes of 296.287 miles per hour.

September 5, 1932 Mae Haizlip flies a Wedell-Williams racer to set a women's speed record of 252.5 miles per hour.

September 7, 1932 Thomas Settle and Wilfred Bushnell set a balloon world-distance record of 963.12 miles.

September 16, 1932 Cyril Uwins flies a Vickers Vespa to set a world altitude record of 43,976 feet.

September 25, 1932 Lewis Yancey flies a Pitcairn PCA-2 to set an autogiro altitude record of 21,500 feet.

November 4, 1932 The Beech Model 17 Staggerwing makes its first flight.

November 14-18, 1932 Amy Johnson (now married to Jimmy Mollison) flies solo from England to South Africa, in a Puss Moth in 4 days, 6 hours, 54 minutes, to set a new record.

December 11-18, 1932 Amy Johnson makes a record-setting return journey from South Africa in seven days, seven hours, five minutes.

January 26, 1933 The Institute of Aeronautical Sciences is founded.

February 6-8, 1933 A Fairey Long-Range Monoplane sets a world distance record of 5,309.24 miles.

February 6-9, 1933 Jimmy Mollison flies from England to Brazil. He is the first to achieve solo flights across both the North and South Atlantic and the first to fly solo from England to South America.

February 8, 1933 The Boeing Model 247 transport, a development of the Monomail and the YB-9, makes its first flight.

April 4, 1933 The dirigible Akron crashes into the sea off the New Jersey coast. Seventy-three people die.

April 21, 1933 The Macon makes its first flight.

June 22, 1933 The Tupolev RD (Distance Record) aircraft makes its first flight.

­July 1933 Amelia Earhart breaks her own transcontinental record, making the flight in 17 hours, 17 minutes, 30 seconds.

1933 Flight Timeline

July 1, 1933 Because United Air Lines tied up rights to all Boeing 247 production, TWA asks Douglas aircraft to develop a competitive aircraft. Douglas's response, the DC-1, makes its first flight on this date.

July 1, 1­933 Roscoe Turner sets a westbound transcontinental record of 11 hours, 30 minutes, in a Wedell-Williams racer.

July 1-15, 1933 Italo Balbo brings 23 Savoia-Marchetti S.55 flying boats from Rome to Chicago, via New York. This is the first formation flight across the North Atlantic.

July 9-December 19, 1933 Charles and Anne Lindbergh make a 29,000-mile survey flight in their Lockheed Sirius.

July 15-17, 1933 Steponas Darius and Stasys Girenas fly from New York to Soldin, Germany, but are killed in a crash on arrival.

July 15-22, 1933 Wiley Post flies the Lockheed Vega Winnie Mae around the world solo in 7 days, 18 hours, 49 minutes. He had a new radio compass and new autopilot.

July 22-24, 1933 Jim and Amy Mollison become the first husband-wife team to fly east-west across the Atlantic.

August 5-7, 1933 Flying from New York to Syria, French pilots Maurice Rossi and Paul Codes set a world distance record of 5,657 miles.

September 1933 The famous Portuguese flyer General Francesco de Pinedo is killed in a Bellanca on takeoff from Floyd Bennett Field.

September 1933 Jimmy Wedell wins the Thompson Trophy in a Wedell-Williams Special, then sets a world speed record for landplanes of 305.33 miles per hour.

September 7-8, 1933 Six Consolidated P2Y-1 flying boats set a formation distance record, flying nonstop from Norfolk, Virginia, to Coco Solo, Canal Zone.

September 25, 1933 Roscoe Turner sets a west-east transcontinental record of 10 hours, 4 minutes, 55 seconds.

September 28, 1933 Gustave Lemoine sets a new world altitude record of 44,820 feet in a Potez 50.

October 4-11, 1933 Sir Charles Kingsford Smith flies from England to Australia solo in a Percival Gull in 7 days, 4 hours, 44 minutes.

October 12, 1933 The Macon flies from Lakehurst to Sunnyvale in 70 hours.

­December 31, 1933 A prototype of the Polikarpov I-16 makes its first flight; it will be the first monoplane fighter with retractable landing gear and an enclosed cockpit to go into squadron service.