Labels:text | screenshot | font | black and white | number | document OCR: 1903 Orville Wright* makes the first flight in a heavier-than-air machine. 1906 Brazilian Alberto Santos- Dumont* makes the first recorded European flight, in Paris. 1909 Louis Bleriot, * French airplane designer, crosses the English Channel in his 25-hp monoplane. 1909 First regular commercial air service begun in Germany, using Zeppelin airships .* 1913 The world's first transport airplane, the Sikorsky Il'ya Muromets, makes its first flight at St. Petersburg, Russia. 1914 The world's first scheduled airline, the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line, operates a daily service for three months across Tampa Bay, Florida. 1918 First U.S. airmail * service opens. The U.S. Army operates the single route New York-Philadelphia-Washington. 1919 A flying boat built by Glenn Curtiss* makes the first transatlantic crossing. 1919 First nonstop transatlantic flight ( Newfoundland-Ireland) is made by British pilots John Alcock* and Arthur W. Brown. 1919 First scheduled air-passenger service (London-Paris) uses converted World 1921 Gen. Billy Mitchell* air-bombs and sinks a German battleship to demonstrate War I planes. the wartime uses of air power. 1923 First U.S. nonstop transcontinental flight (NewYork-San Diego) takes 27 hours. 1926 Richard E. Byrd* and Floyd Bennett* fly over the North Pole. 1927 Charles A. Lindbergh* solos nonstop across the Atlantic. 1929 James H. Doolittle* pilots the first "blind," instrument-only, flight. 1930 French pilots Dieudonne Costes and Maurice Bellonte fly Paris-New York nonstop in 37 hours. 1932 Amelia Earhart* solos across the Atlantic-the first such flight by a woman. 1933 Wiley Post completes the first round-the-world solo flight. 1933 The flying boat The China Clipper opens the first transpacific passenger route (San Francisco-Hawaii) 1934 New Zealander Jean Batten flies solo from England to Australia. 1935 The future workhorse of civil aviation, the Douglas DC-3, makes its first flight. 1938 Italian Mario Pezzi sets a world altitude record of 17,083 m (56,046 ft) in a Caproni 161. 1939 The Yankee Clipper flying boat inaugurates the first Atlantic passenger service ( New York-Southampton) 1942 The Bell P-59 Airacomet makes the first U.S. jet flight. 1947 Capt. Charles E. Yeager * flies the Bell X- 1 through the sound barrier. 1952 Britain introduces the Comet, the first jet transport, and begins the first jetliner passenger flight (London-Johannesburg). 1953 Jacqueline Cochrane* is the first woman to cross the sound barrier, piloting an F-86 Sabre jet 1954 The prototype of the Boeing 707, the first U.S. jet transport, is test-flown. 1958 Transatlantic jet passenger service begins ( New York to London, New York to Paris). First U.S. jet passenger service ( New York to Miami). 1968 Prototype of the first supersonic airliner, the Soviet Tupolev Tu- 144, makes its first flight. (The Concorde prototype flies for the first time in 1969.) 1970 First wide-body jet, the Boeing 747, enters service. 1976 Concorde, * the French-British supersonic transport, begins passenger service. 1979 Bryan Allen pedals the Gossamer Albatross across the English Channel, breaking the distance record for human- powered flight. 1986 Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager pilot the ultralight Voyager-which carries 3,175 kg (7,000 lbs) of fuel- on a 9-day, nonstop, round-the-world flight. * See separate article.
