Maiden Flight - Notable First Flights

Notable First Flights

An incomplete list of first flights of notable aircraft types, organized by date, follows.

  • June, 1875 – Thomas Moy's Aerial Steamer, London, England (no pilot and attache)
  • October 9, 1890 – Clément Ader From Gretz-Armainvilliers, Ouest of Paris, France
  • August 14, 1901 – Gustave Whitehead From Leutershausen, Bavaria
  • May 15, 1902 – Lyman Gilmore From Grass Valley, California
  • March 31, 1903 – Richard Pearse From Waitohi Flat, Temuka, South Island, New Zealand
  • December 17, 1903 – Wright brothers Wright Flyer.
  • March 18, 1906 – Traian Vuia, a Romanian engineer, flew in Montesson near Paris.
  • October 23, 1906 – Alberto Santos Dumont 14-bis flight.
  • July 4, 1908 - Glenn Curtiss flew the first pre-announced public flight of a heavier-than-air flying machine. He flew 5,080 feet, to win the Scientific American Trophy and its $2,500 purse. Curtiss later received U.S. Pilot's license #1 from the Aero Club of America.
  • July 28, 1935 – Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress.
  • December 17, 1935 – Douglas DC-3.
  • December 29, 1939 – Consolidated B-24.
  • November 2, 1947 – Hughes H-4 Hercules. The only flight of this oversized flying boat.
  • July 27, 1949 – de Havilland Comet. First jet airliner.
  • August 23, 1954 – Lockheed C-130 Hercules. Military transport.
  • May 27, 1955 – Sud Aviation Caravelle, first jet airliner with engines mounted in the tail.
  • April 25, 1962 – Lockheed A-12 Blackbird. Supersonic spyplane.
  • June 29, 1962 -Vickers VC10. First airliner with 4 engines mounted in the tail.
  • April 9, 1967 – Boeing 737. Medium-range airliner.
  • October 4, 1968 – Tupolev 154. Soviet/Russian airliner, still in operation.
  • December 31, 1968 – Tupolev Tu-144. Soviet supersonic airliner.
  • February 9, 1969 – Boeing 747. First widebody airliner.
  • March 2, 1969 – Anglo-French Concorde. Supersonic airliner.
  • September 19, 1969 – Mil Mi-24 Russian/Soviet-made helicopter used by many countries to this day.
  • February 22, 1987 – Airbus A320 airliner, the first civil aircraft to have an all-digital fly-by-wire system.
  • December 21, 1988 – Antonov An-225 Mriya. The jet with the longest fuselage and wingspan and overall heaviest aircraft.
  • June 12, 1994 – Boeing 777. Long-range airliner with the most powerful jet engines ever made.
  • April 27, 2005 – Airbus A380. Doubledecker jetairliner, currently largest capacity in the world.
  • December 15, 2006 – F-35 Lightning II – fifth-generation, stealth multirole fighter.
  • December 11, 2009 – Airbus A400M Airbus first propeller plane.
  • December 15, 2009 – Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the first major widebody airliner to use non-metal composite materials for most of its construction.
  • January 29, 2010 – Sukhoi PAK FA, first Russian fifth generation fighter aircraft.
  • February 8, 2010 – 747-8 first flight of freighter version of the stretched version of the Boeing 747.
  • January 11, 2011 – Chengdu J-20, first flight of Chinese 5th generation fighter aircraft.
  • March 20, 2011– 747-8, first flight of the intercontinental version of the stretched version of the Boeing 747.

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