Timeline
1000 B.C.E.–2000 A.D.
1000 B.C.E.–1650 A.D.
1000 B.C.E.
Kite is invented in China.
c. 852 B.C.E.
English King Bladud is apparently killed attempting to fly.
c. 400 B.C.E.
Archytas of Tarentum is reported to have made a steam-propelled pigeon.
c. 1250 A.D.
Roger Bacon, English cleric, writes about mechanical flight.
1485-1500
Leonardo da Vinci designs flying machines and parachute.
Manoscritti di Leonardo da Vinci Sul Volo degli Uccelli e Varie Altre Materie. Paris: E. Rouveyre, 1893. (22.1)
1660–1783
1670
Francesco de Lana Terzi publishes a design for lighter-than-air ship.
1680
Giovanni Borelli, Italian mathematician, concludes human muscle is inadequate for flight.
1709
Bartolomeu Laurenço de Gusmao designs model glider.
1783
Jean François Pilâtre de Rozier and Marquis d'Arlandes make the first free aerial voyage in a Montgolfier hot-air balloon
1783
Jacques Alexandre César Charles and M.N. Robert fly in a hydrogen balloon..
Expérience du globe aerostatique du MM. Charles et Robert au Jardin des Thuileries le 1er décembre 1783. Paris: Chez Esnauts et Rapilly . . . , 1783. (31)
1785–1843
1785
Jean-Pierre Blanchard and John Jeffries cross the English Channel by balloon.
1785
Jean François de Rozier and Pierre Romain are the first ballooning fatalities.
1797
André Jacques Garnerin makes the first human parachute descent, from a balloon.
1809
George Cayley publishes classic treatise on aviation.
1843
William Henson's design for aerial steam carriage is published.
1843
George Cayley's biplane design is published.
1850–1895
1852
Henri Giffard's steam-powered airship makes first flight.
1867
Wilbur Wright is born.
1870
Alphonse Pénaud experiments with twisted rubber to power model helicopter.
1871
Orville Wright is born.
1889
Otto Lilienthal publishes Der Vogelflug als Grunlage der Fliegekunst.
1891
Otto Lilienthal begins successful gliding experiments.
1895
Otto Lilienthal flies biplane gliders.
James Means. The Problem of Manflight. Boston, Massachusetts: W.B. Clark & Co., 1894. (111)
1896–1915
1896
Octave Chanute begins biplane gliding experiments in Michigan.
1896
Samuel P. Langley produces successful steam-powered models that fly.
1896
Otto Lilienthal crashes while gliding and dies next day.
1901
Alberto Santos-Dumont, Brazilian aviator, circles Eiffel Tower in airship.
1903
Samuel Langley's full-size manned “Aerodrome A” crashes on take-off.
1903
Orville and Wilbur Wright make first powered, sustained, and controlled flight in a heavier-than-air flying machine.
1 of 2
1905–1935
1906
Alberto Santos-Dumont makes first successful powered flight in Europe.
1909
Louis Bleriot, French aviator, makes first airplane crossing of English Channel.
1926
Robert H. Goddard makes first free flight of a liquid-fueled rocket.
1927
Charles A. Lindbergh completes first solo, nonstop trans-Atlantic flight.
1930
Frank Whittle, British inventor, invents the jet engine.
1932
Amelia Earhart is the first woman to fly a solo non-stop trans-Atlantic flight.
1933
A modern airliner, Boeing 247, flies for the first time.
1939
Germany's Heinkel 178 is the first fully jet-propelled aircraft to fly.
1947
Charles E. Yeager pilots Bell X-1—the first aircraft to exceed the speed of sound in level flight.
1936–2000
1957
Soviet Union launches first man-made earth satellite, Sputnik 1.
1961
Soviet cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, is the first man in space.
1962
John H. Glenn, Jr., is the first American to orbit the earth.
1969
U.S. astronauts Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr., are the first to walk on the moon.
1971
First space station, Soviet Salyut 1, is launched into earth's orbit.
1981
U.S. launches the first reusable spacecraft, the Columbia shuttle.
1998
First two modules of the International Space Station are launched and joined together in orbit.
2000
First crew arrives to take up residence in the International Space Station.
1 of 3
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Soviet cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin in 1961
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U.S. astronaut, Neil A. Armstrong [between 1962 and 1969]
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Flight deck of space shuttle Columbia, [between 1981 and 1985].
