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There are conflicting views as to what was the first flying machine.

Claims to first piloted flight by date

Pre-19th century

• Anonymous, Chang'an, China, according to fifth-century records the first human in the air, using feathery wings — 19
• Zhuge Liang, China, traditionally credited with invention of the Kongming lantern, which was the first hot air balloon, though not suitable for human transportation. — 2-3rd century.
• Yuan Huangtou, Ye, China, first manned kite glide to take off from a tower — 559
• Abbas Ibn Firnas (aka Armen Firman), al-Andalus, first parachute flight — 852
• Abbas Ibn Firnas, (aka Armen Firman), al-Andalus, first hang glider with artificial wings and flight controls — 875
• Eilmer of Malmesbury, England, a monk who flew a glider from an Abbey in the early 11th century
• Hezarfen Ahmet Celebi, Istanbul, Turkey, first successful glider flight with artificial wings — 1630-1632
• Lagari Hasan Çelebi, Turkey, first manned rocket aircraft — 1633
• Pilâtre de Rozier, Paris, France, first trip by a human in a free-flying balloon (the Montgolfière). 9 km covered in 25 minutes. October 15, 1783

19th century

• Hans Andreas Navrestad, Norway — 1825 allegedly flew manned glider
• John Stringfellow, England — 1848 first heavier than air powered flight (unmanned)
• George Cayley, England —

  First Western human glide 1853. Cayley also made the first scientific studies into the aerodynamic forces which would affect a flying machine, and produced early designs incorporating a fuselage, wings, stabilizing tail and control surfaces. He is considered the "Father" of modern aviation, and all later aircraft depended on his research.

• Jean-Marie Le Bris, France, flight in 1856

  Jean-Marie Le Bris was the first to fly higher than his point of departure, by having his glider pulled by a horse on a beach, against the wind.

• Jan Wnek, Poland — controlled flights 1866 - 1869.

  Jan Wnek controlled his glider by twisting the wing's trailing edge via strings attached to stirrups at his feet. Church records only -- Karkow Museum unwilling to allow verification.

• Goodman Household, South Africa, 1871

  A young Zulu, Goodman built and flew his own glider over one hundred meters. The story is that he crashed breaking both glider and a leg. The event took place in the Kwazulu Natal Midlands near Curry's Post in 1871 and is recorded variously in legend and local literature.

• Félix du Temple de la Croix, France, 1874.

  

  First take-off ever of a manned and powered aircraft, from a downsloped ramp, resulting in a brief hop a few feet above the ground.

• John Joseph Montgomery, United States of America 1883

  First controlled glider flight in the United States from a hillside near Otay, California.

• Alexander Feodorovich Mozhaiski, Russian Empire — 1884

  First powered hop by a manned multi-engine (steam) fixed-wing aircraft, 60-100 feet (20-30 meters), from a downsloped ramp.

• Clement Ader, France — October 9 1890

  He reportedly made the first manned, powered, heavier-than-air flight of a significant distance (50 meters) but insignificant altitude from level ground in his bat-winged monoplane, the Éole. The event was not publicized until many years later, as it had been a military secret. According to other reports, the French military said he also flew 300 metres in 1897 in a different machine, the Avion III. The events were poorly documented, the aeroplane not well controlled, all flights ended in crashes, and there was no further development. The Wrights later blamed Ader's failures for their difficulty in convincing the French military that they had succeeded.

• Otto Lilienthal, Germany — 1891

  The German "Glider King" was a pioneer of human aviation—the first person to make controlled untethered glides repeatedly and the first to be photographed flying a heavier than air machine. He made about 2,000 glides until his death August 10, 1896 from injuries in a glider crash the day before.

• Hiram Stevens Maxim, United Kingdom — 1894

  The American inventor of the machine gun built a very large flying machine that ran on a track and was propelled by powerful twin steam engines. Machine lifted from the track and was restrained by a safety mechanism; it fell back and crashed.

• Samuel Pierpont Langley, United States — May 6 1896

  First sustained flight by a heavier-than-air powered, unmanned aircraft: the Number 5 model, driven by a miniature steam engine, flew half a mile in 90 seconds over the Potomac River near Washington, D.C. In November the Number 6 flew more than 5 thousand feet. Langley's full-size manned powered Aerodrome failed twice in October and December 1903.

• Octave Chanute, United States — Summer 1896

  Designer of first rectangular wing strut-braced biplane (originally tri-plane) hang glider, a configuration that strongly influenced the Wright brothers. Flown successfully at the Indiana shore of Lake Michigan, U.S. by his proteges, including Augustus Herring, for distances exceeding 100 feet.

• Carl Rickard Nyberg, Sweden — 1897

  Managed a few short jumps in his Flugan, a steam powered, manned aircraft

• Percy Pilcher, United Kingdom —

  Pioneer British glider builder and pilot; protege of Lilienthal; killed in 1899 crash shortly before intended public test of powered machine.

• Augustus Moore Herring, United States — 1899

  Attached a compressed air motor to a biplane hang glider and flew about 70 feet.

(The force of the "motor" was only 3 kg. Did not influence the glider flight in any significant way)

• Gustave Whitehead, United States — 1899

  Steam engine powered, 500-1000m flight, ended in a crash, plane damaged. Affidavit: Louis Darvarich, The fireman Martin Devane, who was called to the scene of the accident reported: "...I believe I arrived immediately after it crashed into a brick building, a newly constructed apartment house on the O'Neal Estate. I recall that someone was hurt and taken to the hospital. I am able to identify the inventor Gustave Whitehead from a picture shown to me".

20th century

• Dr Wilhelm Kress, Austria — 1901

  Tested tandem monoplane seaplane, similar to Samuel Langley, which made brief airborne hops but could not sustain itself.

• Gustave Whitehead, United States — August 14, 1901

  First publicized account of a flight by an aeroplane heavier than air propelled by its own motor. Reports were published in the New York Herald, and the Bridgeport (CT) Herald. The event was reportedly witnessed by several people, one of them a reporter, Dick Howell, for the Bridgeport Herald. Whitehead's helpers, neighbors, children and youngsters who were present signed affidavits about 30 years later about what they saw. Reports said he started on the wheels from a flat surface, flew 800 meters at 15 meter height, and landed softly on the wheels.

• Lyman Gilmore, United States — May 15, 1902

  Gilmore reportedly became the first person to fly a powered aircraft (a steam-powered glider). Several people saw him accomplish this.

• Orville & Wilbur Wright, United States — October 1902

  Completed development of the three-axis control system with the incorporation of a movable rudder connected to the wing warping control on their 1902 Glider. They subsequently made several fully controlled heavier than air gliding flights, including one of 622.5 ft (189.7 m) in 26 seconds. The 1902 glider was the basis for their patented control system still used on modern fixed-wing aircraft.

• Richard Pearse, New Zealand — March 31, 1903

  Reportedly first heavier-than-air powered flight in New Zealand. Several people witnessed Pearse make powered flights including one on this date of over 100 feet in a high-wing tricycle undercarriage monoplane powered by a 15hp air-cooled horizontally-opposed engine. Flight ended with a crash into a hedgerow.

• Karl Jatho, Germany — August 18, 1903

  On August 18, 1903 he flew with his self-made motored gliding aircraft. He had four witnesses for his flight. The plane was equipped with a single-cylinder 10 horsepower (7.5 kW) Buchet engine driving a two-bladed pusher propeller and made hops of up to 200 ft (60 m), flying up to 10 ft (3 m) high.

• Orville & Wilbur Wright, United States — December 17 1903

  Wright brothers Orville (1871-1948) and Wilbur (1867-1912) made four powered flights near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in the U.S. on December 17, 1903. The first three flights did not exceed 200 feet or 15 seconds. The fourth, by Wilbur, traveled 852 feet (260m) in 59 seconds. All their flights that day ended in bumpy and unintended "landings" and the plane undulated up and down and veered sideways. The longest flight ended in a nosedive crash which damaged the plane. This flight has for a long time been put forward as the first controlled, powered, sustained heavier than air flight, in history books, media channels (especially US-American media channels), and institutions like Smithsonian and FAI have supported this. For reference, study the "Wilbur Wright, United States — October 5, 1905" entry below and History by contract.

• John Joseph Montgomery and Daniel Maloney, United States 1905

  First high altitude flights with Maloney as pilot of a Montgomery tandem-wing glider design. The glider was launched by balloon to heights up to 4,000 feet with Maloney controlling the aircraft through a series of prescribed maneuvers to a predetermined landing location in front of a large public gathering at Santa Clara, California.

• Wilbur Wright, United States — October 5, 1905

  When rebuilding the Flyer III after a severe crash on 14 July 1905, the Wrights made radical changes to the design. They almost doubled the size of the elevator and rudder and moved them about twice the distance from the wings. They added two fixed vertical vanes (called "blinkers") between the elevators, and gave the wings a very slight dihedral. They disconnected the rudder of the rebuilt Flyer III from the wing-warping control, and as in all future aircraft, placed it on a separate control handle. When testing of Flyer III resumed in September the results were almost immediate. The bucking and veering that had hampered Flyers I & II were gone. The minor crashes the Wrights had experienced disappeared. The flights with the redesigned Flyer III started lasting over 20 minutes. Thus Flyer III became a practicable, as well as dependable aircraft, flying solidly for a consistent duration and bringing its pilot back to the starting point safely and landing without damage to itself. On 5 October 1905, Wilbur flew 24 miles (38.9 km) in 39 minutes 23 seconds

• Traian Vuia, Romania — March 18, 1906

  First european flight by a fully self-propelled, fixed-wing aircraft using a tractor propeller. He flew for 12 meters without the aid of external takeoff mechanisms, such as a catapult, a point emphasized in newspaper reports in France, the U.S., and the UK. This was a proof for the fact that a "heavier than air" machine can take off and sustain a flight with no help from additional external devices. At that time, this fact was heavily contested by the Academy of Science in Paris, who refused to witness the flight, claiming it was trickery.

• Jacob Ellehammer, Denmark — September 12 1906

  Built monoplane, which he tested with a tether on the Danish Lindholm island.

• Alberto Santos-Dumont, Brazil — October 23, 1906

  First officially-verified flight of a fixed-wing, manned, powered aircraft—the "14 Bis" at Bagatelle field, Paris. Aero Club of France certified the distance of 60 meters (197 ft); height was about 2-3 meters (6-10 ft). Winner of the Archdeacon Prize for first official flight of more than 25 meters. Described by some scholars as the first "sportsman of the air". As reported in previous years and months for Ader, Whitehead, Pearse, Jatho and Vuia, the 14-Bis flew and landed without a rail, catapult, or the presence of high winds, propelled by its own (internal combustion) engine.

See also

• Timeline of aviation
• List of early flying machines
• Early flight
• List of years in aviation
• Aviation history
• Accidents and incidents in aviation
• World War I Aviation
• History by contract

Notes

1. （天凤六年）或言能飞，一日千里，可窥匈奴。莽辄试之，取大鸟翮为两翼，头与身皆著毛，通引环纽，飞数百步堕。(Rendering: there is a statement about a flight, made at a swift speed, to spy on the Xiongnu. The contraption was lightly built, with two big wings like those of a bird, and feather over the head and body. The flight ran for a few hundred paces, and fell.) Hanshu 99.
2. （永定三年）使元黄头与诸囚自金凤台各乘纸鸱以飞，黄头独能至紫陌乃堕，仍付御史中丞毕义云饿杀之。(Rendering: , Gao Yang conducted an experiment by having Yuan Huangtou and a few prisoners launch themselves from a tower in Ye, capital of the Northern Qi. Yuan Huangtou was the only one who survived from this flight, as he glided over the city-wall and fell at Zimo safely, but he was later executed.) Zizhi Tongjian 167 and Beishi 19.
3. Lynn Townsend White, Jr. (Spring, 1961). "Eilmer of Malmesbury, an Eleventh Century Aviator: A Case Study of Technological Innovation, Its Context and Tradition", Technology and Culture 2 (2), p. 97-111 .
4. First Flights, Saudi Aramco World, January-February 1964, p. 8-9.
5. Arslan Terzioglu (2007). "The First Attempts of Flight, Automatic Machines, Submarines and Rocket Technology in Turkish History", The Turks (ed. H. C. Guzel), p. 804-810.

References

• Aerospaceweb - Who was the first to fly?
• Aerospaceweb - Why do Brazilians consider Alberto Santos-Dumont the first man to fly if he didn't fly until 1906 and the Wright brothers did so in 1903?
• Listing and descriptions of pre-wright flying machines
• Prehistory of Flight
• Octave Chanute, Progress in Flying Machines, 1891 - 1894
• "The Maxim Flyer". Retrieved 2007-06-26.

• Aviation history
• Discovery and invention controversies