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From the Wright Flyer in 1903 to SpaceShipOne just a century
later, airplane design has tended to advance by leaps and
bounds. This progress has often resulted from government
funding, as with the development of the world's first jet
fighter and the first stealth aircraft. But on many occasions
innovations in the commercial sector have been just as
significant—witness the advent of supersonic jet travel
made possible by Concorde. Here, take a look at one aviation
historian's* list of each decade's most revolutionary plane.
To launch the
slide show, click on
the image at left.—Peter Tyson
*Thanks to Tom Crouch of the National Air and Space Museum in
Washington, D.C., who offered the list of aircraft described
in this feature while humbly acknowledging that others might
differ with his choices.
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