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December 17, 1903 |
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The Wright Brothers make history as the first to fly a powered aircraft. With Orville Wright at the controls, the Wright Flyer stays aloft for 12 seconds, covering a distance of 120 feet. Three more flights take place at Kitty Hawk that day, the longest lasting 59 seconds and covering 852 feet. |
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October 23, 1906 |
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Brazilian-born Alberto Santos-Dumont makes the first successful European airplane flight. His plane, the 14bis, flies a distance of about 200 feet in Paris. With many skeptical of the Wright Brothers' flights, Santos-Dumont is hailed at the time as the first to fly. |
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January 13, 1908 |
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In a field near Paris, Henry Farman becomes the first to officially fly a one-kilometer circular course, the world‘s longest distance at the time. Farman’s plane was created by pioneering French aircraft designers Gabriel and Charles Voisin. |
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July 4, 1908 |
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Piloting his plane, the June Bug, Glenn Curtiss wins a silver trophy and national acclaim for becoming the first American to officially fly a distance over one kilometer. Of course, Wilbur Wright had already flown more than 24 miles three years earlier, but his flight over an Ohio farm was not witnessed. |
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August 8, 1908 |
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The Wright Brothers begin a series of flying demonstrations in France which amaze audiences and bring worldwide acclaim. Far superior to European planes which could only stay aloft for only a minute or two, the Wright Flyer in one demonstration circled an airfield 77 times for two and a half hours. |
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September 17, 1908 |
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Army Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge, a member of Alexander Graham Bell's Aerial Experiment Association, becomes the first person ever killed from an airplane crash. Selfridge was a passenger of Orville Wright's when one of the propellers cracked at 150 feet in the air, sending the biplane nose first into the ground. |
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July 25, 1909 |
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After several failed attempts, French aviator Louis Blériot becomes the first to fly across the English Channel. Flying his Blériot XI, he covers the 23-mile distance in 37 minutes. |
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