Timeline of aviation explained

This is a timeline of aviation history, and a list of more detailed aviation timelines. The texts in the diagram are clickable links to articles.

Timeline

ImageSize = width:500 height:2000PlotArea = left:50 right:0 bottom:10 top:10DateFormat = yyyyPeriod = from:1799 till:2011TimeAxis = orientation:vertical order:reverseScaleMajor = unit:year increment:10 start:1880ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:5 start:1880

PlotData= Color:red mark:(line,blue) align:left fontsize:S shift:(15,-3) # shift text to right side of bar

# there is no automatic collision detection, fontsize:XS # so shift texts up or down manually to avoid overlap shift:(25,-10)

at:1799 text: physics of flight (Cayley) at:1804 text: successful model hangglider flight (Cayley) at:1848 text: steam powered model glider at:1853 text: towed, controlled, manned, glider flight (Cayley) from:1884 till:1886 text: successful glider flights (Montgomery) at:1884 text: 1st fully controllable, lighter than air, free flight at:1889 shift:(170) text: A large vehicle lifts itself under power. at:1890 text: Ader Éole lifts from ground. from:1891 till:1896 text: controlled hangglider flights (Lilienthal) at:1900 text: 1st Zeppelin from:1901 till:1906 shift:(250) text: 1st airplanes at:1903 text: Wright Flyer 1, 260 m, controlled, witnessed, photographed at:1905 text: Wright Flyer 3 controlled, safe landings, 38km at:1906 text: 14-bis at:1908 text: First aircraft manufacturer at:1909 text: Santos-Dumont_Demoiselle shift:(170) at:1909 text: First crossing of the English channel in a heavier-than-air aircraft at:1910 text: World's first jet-propelled aircraft from:1914 till:1917 shift:(250) text: World War I at:1919 text: 1st Atlantic crossing at:1919 shift:(130) text: 1st nonstop Atlantic crossing at:1919 shift:(300) text: First airline is founded at:1923 shift:(180) text: First non-stop transcontinental flight at:1924 text: First aerial circumnavigation at:1927 text: 1st solo nonstop Atlantic crossing at:1937 text: Hindenburg disaster at:1939 text: He 178 from:1939 till:1945 shift:(250) text: World War II from:1940 till:1941 shift:(240) text: The Blitz from:1940 till:1941 shift:(130) text: Battle of Britain at:1940 text: Battle of Taranto at:1944 text: V-2 rocket at:1947 text: Sound barrier broken at:1952 text: 1st commercial jet airliner from:1957 till:1975 shift:(150) text: Space Race at:1957 shift:(150) text: Sputnik (1st artificial satellite) at:1958 text: Boeing 707 at:1961 text: 1st manned space mission at:1969 shift:(15,0) text: Apollo 11 (moon landing) at:1970 shift:(15,-9) text: SR-71 Fastest and highest flying aircraft at:1976 text: Concorde makes first commercial flight at:1979 text: 1st human-powered crossing of English Channel at:1981 text: 1st reusable spacecraft at:1986 text: 1st nonstop unrefueled global circumnavigation at:1988 text: World's heaviest aircraft at:2004 shift:(15,0) text: Space Ship One becomes first privately built space vehicle at:2005 shift:(15,-6) text: Largest commercial airliner at:2011 text: retirement of the space shuttle at:2010 shift:(15,-6) text: First 24-hour flight using only solar panels and electric power

By decade

See also