By Tim Lambert
On 21 November 1783 two men, Jean Francois de Rozier and the Marquis d’Arlandes made the first manned balloon flight.
On 4 June 1784, Elisabeth Thible became the first woman to fly in an untethered balloon.
On 27 August 1784, James Tytler became the first man in Britain to fly in a balloon.
On 7 January 1785, John Jeffries and Jean-Pierre Blanchard made the first flight across the English Channel, in a balloon.
On 19 January 1785, Richard Crosbie became the first man in Ireland to fly in a balloon. (He flew for a short distance across Dublin).
On 9 January 1793, Jean Pierre Blanchard made the first hot air balloon flight in the USA.
On 17 December 1903, the Wright brothers flew a plane for the first time.
On 21 March 1908, Henri Farman became the first recorded passenger in a plane.
On 17 September 1908, Thomas E Selfridge became the first person to die in a plane crash.
On 25 July 1909, Louis Bleriot became the first man to fly across the English Channel.
On 22 October 1909, Elise Deroche became the first woman to fly solo.
On 28 March 1910, Henri Fabre flew the first successful seaplane.
On 28th April 1910, Claude Grahame-White became the first man to fly a plane at night.
On 12 July 1910, Charles Stewart Rolls became the first British pilot killed in a plane crash.
On 11 October 1910, Theodore Roosevelt became the first US president to fly in a plane.
On 13 April 1912, the Royal Flying Corps was formed. It became the RAF in 1918.
On 27 August 1913, Pyotr Nesterov became the first man to fly a plane in a loop.
On 24 December 1914, a German plane dropped a bomb on Dover. It was the first time the Germans bombed Britain. Nobody was killed.
The first wedding on a plane was held on 31 May 1919. The plane flew over Texas.
On 15 June 1919, John Alcock and Arthur Brown became the first men to fly across the Atlantic. They flew from Newfoundland to Ireland.
The world’s first scheduled passenger plane flights began on 25 August 1919 between London and Paris.
On 12 November 1919 four men, Ross and Keith Smith, Wally Shiers, and James Bennett set off on the first flight from England to Australia.
On 21 May 1927, Charles Lindbergh became the first man to fly across the Atlantic solo.
On 22 February 1928, Bert Hinkler became the first man to fly from Britain to Australia solo.
On 9 June 1928, Charles Kingsford-Smith and Charles Ulm became the first men to fly across the Pacific. They took off from California and landed in Brisbane.
On 16 November 1928 two men, Hubert Wilkins and Carl Ben Elson became the first men to fly a plane over Antarctica.
On 7 March 1929, Noel Wien and Calvin Cipe became the first men to fly across the Bering Strait. (They flew from Nome to North Cape).
On 18 February 1930, Nellie Jay became the first flying cow. She flew in a plane from Bismarck, Missouri to St Louis.
On 24 May 1930 Amy Johnson became the first woman to fly from Britain to Australia solo.
On 27 May 1931 two men, Auguste Piccard and Paul Kipfer became the first people to enter the stratosphere. In an aluminium capsule attached to a hydrogen balloon, they rose to 51,770 feet (15,781 metres).
On 21 May 1932, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic solo.
On 24 August 1932, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the USA, coast to coast (she flew from Los Angeles to Newark New Jersey).
On 13 April 1933, Douglas Douglas-Hamilton became the first man to fly over Mount Everest.
On 22 July 1933, Wiley Post became the first man to fly around the world solo.
On 13 April 1935 passenger flights from Britain to Australia began.
On 5 January 1941, the famous woman pilot Amy Johnson was killed in a plane crash.
On October 23, 1945, the first passenger flights across the Atlantic began.
On 14 October 1947, Chuck Yeager became the first man to fly faster than sound.
Howard Hughes’ plane the Spruce Goose flew for the first time on 2 November 1947.
In 1953 Jacqueline Cochran became the first woman to fly faster than sound.
On 10 March 1956, Peter Twiss became the first man to fly faster than 1,000 miles an hour.
On 4 October 1958, the first passenger jet service across the Atlantic began.
On 17 April 1964, Geraldine Mock became the first woman to fly around the world solo.
On 2 December 1969, the Boeing 747 ‘jumbo jet’ made its first passenger flight. It flew from Seattle to New York.
On 12 June 1979, Bryan Allen became the first man to fly across the English Channel in a human-powered aircraft.
On 3 July 1987, Richard Branson and Per Lindstrand became the first men to cross the Atlantic in a hot air balloon.
On 21 February 1995, Steve Fossett became the first man to fly across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon solo.
On 20 March 1999, Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones became the first men to circumnavigate the world non-stop by balloon.
On 2 July 2002 Steve Fossett became the first man to fly around the world in a balloon alone.
On 3 March 2005, Steve Fossett became the first man to fly a plane around the world solo, without refueling.
