Heros of the Sky

Hot Springs Greater Learning Foundation

Famous Firsts of Flight

1903: The Wright brothers fly in the Wright Flyer, the first powered airplane.

1908: C.W. Furnas flies with both Wilbur and Orville Wright to become the world’s first airborne passenger.

1908: Thomas Selfridge dies in a plane crash with Orville Wright in Virginia. He becomes first airplane fatality.

1909: Louis Blériot becomes the first person to fly across the English Channel.

1911: Cal Rodgers flies across the United States in the Vin Fiz.

1912: Harriet Quimby becomes the first woman to fly solo across the English Channel.

1919: John Alcock and Arthur Whitten-Brown complete the first nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

1923: Oakley Kelly and John Macready complete the first nonstop flight across the United States.

1927: Charles Lindbergh flies the Spirit of St. Louis nonstop from New York to Paris to make the first solo transatlantic flight.

1930: The first air stewardesses are used in commercial flight.

1932: Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.

1933: Wiley Post flies solo around the world in seven days, eighteen hours, and forty-nine minutes.

1947: Chuck Yeager pilots the first aircraft to break the sound barrier.

1957: Jacqueline Cochran becomes the first female pilot to fly faster than the speed of sound.

1986: Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager fly the Voyager around the world nonstop and without refueling.

1994: Fred Lasby becomes the oldest person to fly around the world at age 82.

2000: Chris Wall and Dan Dominguez become the youngest pilots to fly around the world (both were age 21).