There is so much overlapping in the crowded story of the first years
of successful power-driven flight that at this point it is advisable
to make a concise chronological survey of the chief events of the
period of early development, although much of this is of necessity
recapitulation. The story begins, of course, with Orville Wright’s
first flight of 852 feet at Kitty Hawk on December 19th, 1903. The
next event of note was Wright’s flight of 11.12 miles in 18 minutes
9 seconds at Dayton, Ohio, on September 26th, 1905, this being the
first officially recorded flight. On October 4th of the same year,
Wright flew 20.75 miles in 33 minutes 17 seconds, this being the first
flight of over 20 miles ever made. Then on September 14th, 1906,
Alberto Santos-Dumont made a flight of eight seconds on the second
heavier-than-air machine he had constructed. It was a big box-kite-like
machine; this was the second power-driven aeroplane in Europe to
fly, for although Santos-Dumont’s first machine produced in 1905 was
reckoned an unsuccessful design, it had actually got off the ground for
brief periods. Louis Bleriot came into the ring on April 5th, 1907,
with a first flight of 6 seconds on a Bleriot monoplane, his eighth but
first successful construction.
Henry Farman made his first appearance in the history of aviation
with a flight of 935 feet on a Voisin biplane on October 15th, 1907.
On October 25th, in a flight of 2,530 feet, he made the first recorded
turn in the air, and on March 29th, 1908, carrying Leon Delagrange on
a Voisin biplane, he made the first passenger flight. On April 10th of
this year, Delagrange, in flying 1½ miles, made the first flight in
Europe exceeding a mile in distance. He improved on this by flying 10½
miles at Milan on June 22nd, while on July 8th, at Turin, he took up
Madame Peltier, the first woman to make an aeroplane flight.
Wilbur Wright, coming over to Europe, made his first appearance on the
Continent with a flight of 1¾ minutes at Hunaudieres, France, on August
8th, 1908. On September 6th, at Châlons, he flew for 1 hour 4 minutes
26 seconds with a passenger, this being the first flight in which an
hour in the air was exceeded with a passenger on board.
On September 12th, 1908, Orville Wright, flying at Fort Meyer,
U.S.A., with Lieut. Selfridge as passenger, crashed his machine,
suffering severe injuries, while Selfridge was killed. This was
the first aeroplane fatality. On October 30th, 1908, Farman made
the first cross-country flight, covering the distance of 17 miles
between Bouy and Rheims. The next day, Louis Bleriot, in flying from
Toury to Artenay, made two landings _en route_, this being the first
cross-country flight with landings. On the last day of the year, Wilbur
Wright won the Michelin Cup at Auvours with a flight of 90 miles,
which, lasting 2 hours 20 minutes 23 seconds, exceeded 2 hours in the
air for the first time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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