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 1 1/2 miles, made the first flight in Europe
exceeding a mile in distance. He improved on this by flying 10 1/2 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 1 3/4 minutes at Hunaudieres, France, on
August 8th, 1908. On September 6th, at Chalons, 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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