Flight

History of Flight

Balloons

Surname of the brothers who arranged the first successful human flight in a balloon (Paris, 1783)		Montgolfier
First animals to fly in a balloon		Duck
		Rooster
		Sheep
First crossing of the English Channel in a balloon (Blanchard & Jefferies)		1785

Made the first parachute descent, in 1797, from a balloon over Paris

André–Jacques Garnerin

The Wright Brothers

German pioneer, an inspiration to the Wright brothers: died in a glider crash in 1896

Otto Lillenthal

Date of the Wright brothers' first powered flight			17 December 1903
Site of the first flight (on the Atlantic barrier islands known as the Outer Banks): a town of the same name grew up there, and was incorporated in 1953			Kill Devil Hills
Nearest settlement at the time of the first flight			Kitty Hawk
State			North Carolina
Name of the Wright brothers' aircraft			Flyer

Other

First person to cross the English Channel by aeroplane (1909 – took 37 minutes)			Louis Blériot
First woman to fly solo across the English Channel (1911)			Harriet Quimby
Made the first non–stop flight across the Mediterranean (1913); the tennis centre in Paris, which he attended regularly while studying there, and which now hosts the French Open tennis tournament, is named after him			Roland Garros
The first flight on the world's first scheduled airline (according to IATA) took off on New Year's Day 1914	From		St. Petersburg, Florida
	To		Tampa (also Florida)
The first all–metal aircraft (1915)			Junkers J1
First non–stop transatlantic flight – Newfoundland to Ireland, 1919 (winners of the Daily Mail Transatlantic Air Race)			Alcock & Brown
Alcock and Brown flew a			Vickers Vimy
US aviator and polar explorer: claimed to have made the first flight over the North Pole in 1926 (disputed at the time, and almost certainly false); also flew over the South Pole in 1929, and led five overland expeditions in Antarctica			Richard Evelyn Byrd
First woman to fly solo across the Atlantic (1932 – previously the first woman to fly across the Atlantic, but as a passenger with responsibility for keeping the flight log, in 1928); lost over the Pacific, 2 July 1937 – 22 days before her 40th birthday			Amelia Earhart
Dutch aircraft engineer, made warplanes for Germany in WWI; developed an apparatus to allow machine guns to shoot through revolving propeller blades			Anton Fokker
First solo crossing of the Atlantic (1927) – also the first mainland to mainland crossing			Charles Lindbergh
Manufacturer of Lindbergh's plane (based in San Diego, California)			Ryan Aircraft Co.
Name that Lindbergh gave to his plane			Spirit of St. Louis
Lindbergh's take–off and landing points			Roosevelt Field, New York
			Le Bourget, Paris
Made the first flight across the Pacific Ocean, from the USA to Australia (1928)			Charles Kingsford–Smith
The first flight attendant (on a flight from Oakland/San Francisco to Chicago, 15 May 1930)			Ellen Church
First woman to fly to Australia (landed at Port Darwin, 24 May 1930)			Amy Johnson
The first (prototype) Jet aircraft – first flew on 27 August 1939			Heinkel He–178
The first jet–powered fighter aircraft to go into production (but entered service just after the Messerscmitt Me 262); the only Allied jet fighter to achieve combat operations in World War II			Gloster Meteor
The first operational jet–powered fighter aircraft – introduced by Messerschmitt in April 1944, 3 months before the Gloster Meteor (having entered production later)			Me 262 Schwalbe (Swallow)
First pilot to break the sound barrier (1947)			Capt. Charles 'Chuck' Yeager
Experimental plane that he did it in			Bell XI
Name that Yeager gave to his plane (after his wife)			Glamorous Glennis
The aircraft with the largest wingspan, until 2019 (only flew 1000 yards, 2 November 1947)			Hughes H4 Hercules
Nickname			The Spruce Goose
Designer and pilot			Howard Hughes
The first commercial jet airliner (first test flight 27 July 1949)			De Havilland Comet
Boeing 707 – Boeing's first commercial jet airliner – maiden flight			1954 (15 July)
First airliner with rear–mounted engines (1955)			Caravelle
The first human–powered aircraft to complete a figure–of–8 course (1977)			Gossamer Condor
The first human–powered aircraft to cross the English Channel (1979)			Gossamer Albatross
Designer Paul B. MacCready's third aircraft (solar–powered)			Gossamer Penguin
More successful follow–up to the Gossamer Penguin – flew from Paris to RAF Manston (now Kent International Airport) in 1981			Solar Challenger
Completed the first circumnavigation by balloon, in 1999	Swiss		Bertrand Piccard
	UK		Brian Jones
Piccard & Jones's balloon			Breitling Orbiter 3
First person to fly solo around the world nonstop in a balloon (2002); lost in 2007 on a routine flight – possibly reconnoitring a site for a land speed record attempt – over the Great Basin (in south–west USA)			Steve Fossett
Name of the balloon used in the above solo circumnavigation			Spirit of Freedom
Experimental solar–powered aircraft in which Bertrand Piccard (see above) and Swiss engineer and businessman André Borschberg, in 2016, completed the first circumnavigation of the Earth by a piloted fixed–wing aircraft using only solar power			Solar Impulse 2

Airships

German army veteran and airship pioneer, whose name became synonymous with the rigid airship; conceived the idea of having the hydrogen in separate 'cells' within the outer shell; his first ship was launched in 1900; he died in 1917, just as airships were being overtaken by aeroplanes and before their brief 1930s heyday		Graf (Count) Ferdinand von Zeppelin
Launched in 1928; named after the German airship pioneer; flew around the world in 12 days and 11 minutes; dismantled in 1936 after years of successful flights		Graf Zeppelin
The last and largest–ever rigid airship: made 30 flights over 11 months in 1938–9, many of them propaganda publicity flights; scrapped in 1940		Graf Zeppelin II
German airship (registration identifier D–LZ129), launched in March 1936: said to be the largest object ever to fly; entered service as a transatlantic passenger airship, but crashed in May 1937 on landing at Lakehurst naval air station, Manchester Township, New Jersey (near Trenton), costing the lives of 35 of its 97 passengers		Hindenburg
British airship: completed the first non–stop transatlantic round trip, in 1919		R34
Exploded on its final test flight over Hull, in 1921		R38
Prototype airship, the last to be built in Britain: built and based at the Royal Airship Works, Cardington, Bedfordshire; crashed near Paris, in October 1930, on its first commercial flight – en route to Karachi (then in India)		R101
Sister ship of the R101, built by Vickers at Howden, Yorkshire: flew to Montreal and back in August 1930; deflated in December 1930 in its hangar at Cardington, and eventually retired, following the demise of the R101		R100
The first rigid airship built in the USA, and the first in the world to be filled with helium rather than hydrogen; launched in 1922, torn apart by high winds in December 1924		Shenandoah

Concorde

Concorde's first test flight		1969
First test pilot of the British Concorde (died in 2001)		Brian Trubshaw
Concorde's first commercial flight		1976
Destination of British Concorde's first commercial flight		Bahrain
Destination of French Concorde's first commercial flight		Rio de Janeiro
Concorde's record transatlantic flight (Heathrow – JFK) – February 1996		2 hours, 52 minutes, 59 seconds
Concorde's last commercial flight		24 October 2003
Landing wheels on Concorde		10
Engines used on Concorde (originally developed by Bristol for the Avro Vulcan V Bomber; further developed for the ill–fated TSR–2; produced for Concorde by Rolls–Royce)		Olympus

Aircraft

US Bombers

In 1920, the US Air Force decided that a unified designation scheme was needed to identify its aircraft. The most famous manifestation of this was the B series bombers. The following table lists some of the best–known examples.

	Production		Manufacturer		Name
B–17	1936–45		Boeing		Flying Fortress
B–24	1940–45		Consolidated		Liberator
B–29 (flown by the RAF as the Washington)	1944–60		Boeing		Superfortress
B–52	1952 to date		Boeing		Stratofortress

Other

Boeing's "most fuel–efficient airliner" – introduced October 2011		787 Dreamliner
Major British manufacturing company: aircraft division, founded 1912, produced the Tadpole, Armadillo, Argosy, Ape, Scimitar, and airships R29 and R33, and was taken over by Hawker Siddeley in 1935		Armstrong Whitworth
Founded in Manchester in 1910; manufacturer of the Lancaster bomber (introduced in 1942); taken over by Hawker Siddeley in 1936		A. V. Roe (Avro)
Lateral control flaps on a wing		Ailerons
The world's biggest airliner: two decks, wide body, four engines – nicknamed Superjumbo: designed to compete with the Boeing 747 (Jumbo Jet); maiden flight April 2005, first commercial flight October 2007		Airbus A380
Private jet of the US President		Air Force One
Invented in 1920 by Juan de Cierva of Spain		Autogyro
Nickname of the Lockheed SR–71 long–range strategic reconnaisance plane, used by the USAF (and NASA) from 1966 to 1999 (it was also nicknamed the Habu, after a Japanese pit viper, while in service with the USAF in Japan)		Blackbird
Popular name for the flight data recorder or cockpit voice recorder (despite its actually being orange or flame red)		Black Box
Term used for a small or non–rigid airship		Blimp
The best–selling commercial jet airliner in history: introduced in 1968, the 10,000th one was produced in 2018 (cf. Douglas DC–3)		Boeing 737
Manufactured by English Electric, introduced in 1951: the RAF's first jet bomber, and the first to fly across the Atlantic without refuelling		Canberra
RAF's name for the transport aircraft developed from the Douglas DC–3		Dakota
Mosquito, Tiger Moth, Comet: manufactured by		De Havilland
Arguably the best–selling airliner in history – although all but 607 of over 16,000 that were built between 1935 and 1952 were for military transport use		Douglas DC–3
British aircraft manufacturer, based in Hayes, Middlesex and Heaton Chapel, Stockport: produced the Swordfish (biplane torpedo bomber), Firefly (carrier–borne fighter), and Gannet (carrier–borne anti–submarine and strike aircraft) – all in use during or shortly after World War II – as well as the first jet aircraft to exceed 1,000 mph in level flight (see below)		Fairey
British supersonic research aircraft: the first jet aircraft to exceed 1,000 mph in level flight (1954)		Fairey Delta 2
The Fleet Air Arm's "obsolete" biplane torpedo bomber of WWII – nicknamed "the Stringbag" – famously involved in the Battle of Taranto (11–12 November 1940) and the sinking of the Bismarck (25–7 May 1941)		Fairey Swordfish
Nickname of the Thrust Measuring Rig – Rolls–Royce's experimental VTOL aircraft, developed in the 1950s		Flying Bedstead
Three–winged plane most closely associated with Baron von Richthofen		Fokker DR1
Single–seat multi–role combat aircraft, manufactured in the USA by Lockheed Martin: replaced the RAF's BAE Harrier GR9, (retired in 2010), and the Tornado GR4 (retired in 2019); intended to be "Britain's primary strike aircraft for the next three decades"		F–35 Lightning II
Popular, 'pet' name for an auto–pilot		George
Delta–winged interceptor (fighter), deployed by the RAF 1956–68: the last aircraft to bear the name of the first company to produce a jet–powered fighter		Gloster Javelin
Manufacturer of the Halifax, Hampden and Harrow (WWII bombers) and the Hastings – RAF transport plane rushed into service in 1948 for the Berlin airlift, and retired in 1977		Handley Page
Single–engine, jet–powered advanced trainer aircraft, manufactured by BAE Systems, used by the RAF Aerobatic Team (the Red Arrows) since 1979		Hawk
The RAF's "workhorse" in the Battle of Britain, compared with the "thoroughbred" Spitfire (1,326 used, compared to 957 Spitfires). Built 1937–44 (Hawker had merged with J. Siddeley 1935)		Hawker Hurricane
The Marut jet fighter (1967) was the first home–designed war plane of (country)		India
Probably the world's most famous private, luxury aircraft: initially based on a Swiss fighter aircraft that (almost literally) never got off the ground; the company that makes it, founded in 1960 and based in Wichita, Kansas since 1962, was bought in 1990 by the Canadian aerospace company Bombardier		Learjet
Britain's first supersonic fighter: manufactured by English Electric, maiden flight August 1954		Lightning
P–38 Lightning (World War II twin–boon (fuselage) fighter); Constellation (prop–driven airliner, 1943–58); L12011 TriStar (unsuccessful competitor to the Boeing 747, 1968–84); U–2 spy plane ('reconnaissance aircraft'): manufactured by		Lockheed
US supersonic interceptor, entered service in 1958: dubbed 'the Widowmaker' by the press, due to its high accident rate		Lockheed F–104 Starfighter
Helicopter that the US President travels in		Marine One
Rolls Royce engine – the last one designed by Henry Royce – used in the Spitfire, Hurricane, Mosquito, Lancaster and Wellington		Merlin
A company formed in 1939 by Artem Mikoyan and Mikhail Gurevich – and its successor, The Russian Aircraft Corporation – are both commonly known by the three–letter abbreviation		MiG
Classic US fighter plane of World War II, manufactured by North American Aviation and introduced in 1942; name also given to a Ford sports coupe introduced in 1964		P51 Mustang
Engine developed by Rolls–Royce for the Lockheed TriStar, 1969–72, development costs forcing it into bankruptcy and nationalisation		RB211
International prize for the fastest flight by a seaplane, won outright by the RAF following three consecutive victories in 1927, 1929 and 1931; now on display at the Science Museum, London		Schneider Trophy
Based in Rochester and Belfast: manufacturers of the Singapore, Sunderland, Calcutta, Sandringham, Seaford and Shetland flying boats (1934–7, 1938–46, 1928, 1943–74, 1944, 1944), and the Stirling bomber (1939–45)		Short Brothers
Iconic British flying boat of World War II: introduced 1938, withdrawn 1959. Mainly built in Rochester (Kent) and Belfast, but named after a town (now a city) in North–East England		Short Sunderland
The most famous British aeroplane of World War I – introduced 1917, said to have shot down more enemy aircraft than any other		Sopwith Camel
Nickname of the German WWII dive–bomber, Junkers JU87: an abbreviation of Sturzkampfflugzeug (sturz-kampf-flug-tzoig), literally 'dive bomber'		Stuka
Southampton–based manufacturer of the Spitfire (1938–48) – drawing on experience gained in the development of its S.5, S.6 and S.6B racing seaplanes, which won the Schneider Trophy in 1927, 1929 and 1931 respectively		Supermarine
Multi–role strike aircraft, manufactured by European consortium Panavia: entered service with the RAF in 1980, and nicknamed the Tonka; retired in 2019 after service in the Gulf and Bosnia, among other places		Tornado
The first "T–tail rear–engined trijet" airliner (i.e. one with three engines in its tailplane): produced for British European Airways (BEA) by Hawker Siddeley in response to a UK government initiative; entered service in 1962, 2 months after the Boeing 727 (much to its cost)		Trident
The last completely British tactical strike and reconnaissance aircraft – cancelled by the Wilson government in 1965		TSR–2
Manufacturer of the Soviet TU–144 "Concordski"		Tupolev
European multi–role fighter (twin–engine, delta–winged): manufactured by the Eurofighter consortium; entered service in 2003, the RAF took delivery of its 160th and last on 27 September 2019		Typhoon
Manufacturer of the Vimy, Wellington and Valiant bombers; Viscount and VC–10 airliners		Vickers (–Armstongs)
The only British bomber produced throughout WWII (introduced 1938, retired 1953) – nicknamed the Wimpy (after the Popeye character)		Vickers Wellington
British army co–operation and liaison aircraft, in service 1938–46: noted for its excellent downward visibility, good low–speed handling, and short takeoff and landing capabilities – all of which made it ideal for clandestine operations in occupied Europe during WWII; named after a Spartan admiral who defeated the Athenians in 405 BC		Westland Lysander
The Mitsubishi A6M fighter was commonly known as the		Zero

Miscellaneous

Embraer – which vies with Canada's Bombardier to be the world's third largest aircraft manufacturer (after Airbus and Boeing) is based in (country)		Brazil
A wedge (or a pair of wedges) of sturdy material, placed closely against the wheels of a vehicle (especially an aeroplane) to prevent accidental movement		Chock(s)
A small tab projecting from the trailing edge of a wing, to improve aerodynamic performance: named after the American racing driver who invented it in the 1970s (he died in 2018 aged 86)		Gurney flap
The word 'hypersonic' refers to speeds that are at least how many times faster than the speed of sound?		5 times (Mach 5 and over)
Founded in 1939 (in Moscow) as Mikoyan and Gurevich		MiG
Instrument for measuring fluid velocity, named after its French 18th–century inventor: used to measure air speed		Pitot tube
International convention regulating liability for international carriage of persons, luggage or goods, by aircraft for reward: named after the city where it was first signed in 1929; since amended at The Hague in 1955 and Montreal in 1975		Warsaw Convention

© Haydn Thompson 2017–25