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Timeline of aviation in the 19th century

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Timeline
of aviation
pre-18th century
18th century
19th century
20th century begins
21st century begins

1800s

  • 1803
    • July 18, Etienne Gaspar Robertson and Lhoest climb from Hamburg (Germany) up to 7,280 m in a balloon.
    • October 3-4, Frenchman André-Jaques Garnerin covered a distance of 395 km from Paris to Clausen with his Montgolfière.
  • 1804
    • Sir George Cayley builds a model glider with moveable control surfaces.
    • August/September, experiments by physicists Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac and Jean Baptiste Biot disproved the theory that the earth's pull decreases with height.
    • J. Kaiserer suggested making a Montgolfière manoeuverable with the help of tame eagles.
  • 1807
    • Jakob Degen, a watchmaker from Vienna, experimented with an apparatus with valve-flap, flapping wings
  • 1808
    • Degen tried to combine a Montgolfiere with the flapping wings.
  • 1809
    • Degen propels a hydrogen-filled balloon by flapping large ornithopter-style wings.
    • September, Sir George Cayley published his seminal paper On Aerial Navigation, setting out for the first time the scientific principles of heavier-than-air flight.

1810s

1830s

  • 1836
    • November 7-8, flight of a coal gas balloon by Charles Green covering 722 km from London to Weilburg, with passengers Holland and Mason.
  • 1837
    • Robert Cocking jumps from a balloon piloted by Charles Green at a height of 2,000 m (6,600 ft) to demonstrate a parachute of his own design, and is killed in the attempt.
  • 1838
    • The American John Wise introduces the ripping panel which is still used today. The panel solved the problem of the Montgolfiere dragging along the ground at landing and needing to be stopped with the help of anchors.
  • 1839
    • Charles Green and the astronomer Spencer Rush climb up to 7,900 m in a free balloon.

1840s

  • 1842
    • November, English engineer William Samuel Henson makes the first complete draft of a power driven aeroplane with steam engine drive. The patent follows the works of Cayley. The English House of Commons rejects the motion for the formation of an "Aerial Transport Company" with great laughter
  • 1843
  • 1848
  • 1849
    • July 12 and July 25, balloons (Montgolfières) are used for bombardment for the first time, with Austrians bombing Venice.
    • Sir George Cayley launches a 10-year old boy in a small glider being towed by a team of people running down a hill. This is the first known flight by a person in a heavier-than-air machine.
    • October 7, Frenchman Francisque Arban flies over the Alps in a free balloon (Marseille-Subini near by Turin).

1850s

  • 1852
    • September 24, English engineer Henri Giffard flies 27 km (17 miles) in a steam-powered dirigible, reaching a speed of about 10 km/h.
    • Formation of the first society for promoting aerial navigation (Societe Aeostatique de France).
  • 1853
    • Late June or early July: Sir George Cayley's coachman successfully flies a glider, designed by his employer, a distance of roughly 423 ft (130 m) across Brompton Dale in Yorkshire, becoming the world's first (uncontrolled) adult aeroplane pilot. Unimpressed with this honour, the coachman promptly resigns his employment.
  • 1855
    • Joseph Pline is the first person to use the word "aeroplane" in a paper proposing a gas filled dirigible glider with propellers.
  • 1856
    • December, French Captain Jean Marie Le Bris flies 600 ft in his Artificial Albatross glider.
  • 1857
    • Félix Du Temple flies clockwork and steam-powered model aircraft, the first sustained powered flights by heavier-than-air machines.
    • French brothers du Temple de la Croix apply after successful attempts with models for a patent for a power-driven aeroplane.
  • 1858
    • French airman Nadar takes the first aerial photographs.
  • 1859
    • July 1 and 2, John Wise and three companions complete a Montgolfière flight over a distance of 1,292 km (St. Louis - Henderson, USA).

1860s

  • 1861
  • 1862
  • 1864
    • Outbreak of the War of the Triple Alliance between Paraguay and Brazil. Brazilian forces made much use of balloon reconnaissance over the next six years.
  • 1865
    • Jules Verne describes in his novel The Journey to the Moon the launch of a rocket from Florida, from where many years later U. S. space flights actually start.
    • The Frenchman d'Esterno writes in his book About the flight of birds, "Gliding seems to be characteristic for heavy birds; there are no odds which are stacked against that humans can not do the same at fair wind."
    • French artist and farmer Louise Pierre Mouillard makes a successful attempt to fly. After years of studies about bird flight he publishes his book L'Empire de l'Air in 1881. He thinks that imitation of gliding and soaring flight of birds is possible, but not the imitation of the flapping of wings.
  • 1866
    • Foundation of the Royal Aeronautical Society, the world’s oldest society devoted to all aspects of aeronautics and astronautics.
    • Jan Wnęk, Poland. Public controlled flights (1866 - 1869) from the Odporyszów church tower. Church records only.
  • 1867
    • Henry Giffard installs a huge captive balloon for 20 passengers at the World Exposition in Paris.
  • 1868
    • M.Boulton applies for an English patent for the use of a wing flap.
    • First exhibition of aviation in London's Crystal Palace.

1870s

  • 1870
    • Balloons are used by the French to transport letters and passengers out of besieged Paris during the Franco-Prussian War. Between September and the following January, 66 flights carried 110 passengers and up to three million letters out of Paris.
  • 1871
    • The Englishmen Wenham and Browning do air flow experiments in a wind tunnel.
  • 1872
    • February 2, French navy-engineer Dupuy de Lome achieves 9 to 11 km/h with his muscle powered airship.
    • December 13, Paul Haenlein tests the first airship with a gas engine in Brünn, achieving 19 km/h. The tests were stopped because of a shortage of money.
    • German engineer Paul Haenlein flies a dirigible with an internal combustion engine on a tether in Vienna, the first use of such an engine to power an aircraft.
  • 1874
    • July 5, Belgian Vincent de Groof is killed in an accident as he tries to do a flight using flapping wings.
    • September 20, Du Temple builds a steam-powered monoplane which achieves a short hop after gaining speed by rolling down a ramp. It carries a human passenger whose identity is no longer known.
  • 1875
    • Englishman Thomas Moy tests a tethered power driven aeroplane with steam engine drive and a wing span of 4 m.
    • April 15, the scientific flight of the montgolfiere "Zenith" up to 8,000 m ends in the death of two aeronauts and the deafness of Gaston Tissandier.
  • 1876
    • Frenchmen Penaud and Gauchot apply for a patent for a power-driven aeroplane with a device for drawing in the undercarriage, and wings with upward dihedral and a stick control.
  • 1877
  • 1878
    • Charles F. Ritchel publicly demonstrates of his hand-powered, one-man rigid airship, and eventually sells five of them.
  • 1879
    • The British Army gains its first balloon, the Pioneer.
    • Frenchman Victor Tatin builds a power-driven model aeroplane with airscrews and a compressed air motor, successfully flying off the ground.

1880s

  • 1880
  • 1882
    • Wölfert unsuccessfully tests a balloon powered by a hand-cranked propeller
    • The Berlin-based "German Society for Promoting Aviation" publishes a magazine, the "Zeitschrift für Luftschiffahrt" (Magazine of Aviation).
  • 1883
    • The first electric-powered flight is made by Gaston Tissandier who fits a Siemens AG electric motor to a dirigible. Airships with electric engines (Tissandier brothers, Renard and Krebs).
    • America AJ King invents the fast moving internal combustion engine, which is suitable for aviation because of its good power to weight ratio.
    • John J. Montgomery makes a controlled heavier-than-air flight. His first two gliders did not include flight controls but his third featured aileron prototypes.
The astronomer Jules Janssen took this photo of the French officers' Charles Renard and Arthur Krebs La France dirigible from his Meudon (France) astrophysic observatory in 1885.
  • 1884
    • August 9, the first fully controllable free-flight is made in a French Army dirigible La France by Charles Renard and Arthur Krebs. The electric-powered flight covers 8 km (5 miles) in 23 minutes. It was the first full circle flight with landing on the starting point.
    • Mozhaiski finishes his monoplane (span 14 m, or 46 ft). It makes a short hop after running down a launch ramp.
    • British Army balloons are taken on the expedition to Bechuanaland in South Africa.
    • Englishman Horatio F.Philipps has a patent issued for caved profiles of wings.
  • 1885
    • The Prussian Airship Arm (Preussische Luftschiffer Abteilung) becomes a permanent unit of the army.
    • British Army balloons are taken to Sudan by the expeditionary force headed there.
  • 1886
    • September 12 and 13, Frenchmen Hervé and Alluard achieve a Montgolfiere flight over 24 hours.
  • 1888
    • Wölfert flies a petrol powered dirigible at Seelburg. The engine was built by Gottlieb Daimler.
  • 1889
    • Percival Spencer makes a successful parachute jump from a balloon at Drumcondra, Ireland
    • Percy Pilcher builds a human-carrying glider, the Hawk, and begins development of a light internal combustion engine.
    • Otto Lilienthal publishes in his book Der Vogelflug als Grundlage der Fliegekunst (Bird Flight as the Basis of Aviation) measurements on wings, so called polar diagrams, which are the concept of description of artificial wings even today. The book gives a reference for the advantages of the arched wing.

1890s

  • 1890
  • 1891
    • Samuel Pierpont Langley flies the Aerodrome No. 0, 1 & 2 powered unmanned model aircraft.
    • Otto Lilienthal flies about 25 m in his Derwitzer Glider. He begins a series of glider flights, attempting to develop a practical ornithopter. Although he did not achieve this goal, he became the first person to make repeatable, controlled flights in a series of heavier-than-air devices. First controlled glider flights in excess of 250 m. Performs the first well-documented and photographed flights. Breaks his spine after hundreds, nay thousands of flight. Leaves influential notebooks.
  • 1892
    • August, Clément Ader flew 200 m uncontrolled in the Avion II (also referred to as the Zephyr or Éole II) at a field in Satory.
    • Clément Ader is contracted by the French War Ministry to build an aircraft to be used as a bomber.
    • Otto Lilienthal flies over 90 yards in his Südende-Glider.
    • Austria's army gains a permanent air corps, the Kaiserlich und Königliche Militäräronautische Ansalt ("Imperial and Royal Military Aeronautical Group")
    • Horatio Phillips built a steam-powered aircraft at Harrow which was tethered to the centre of a circular track. It successfully left the ground, even when carrying 32 kg (72 lb) of ballast. (Some sources list 1893)
  • 1893
    • Otto Lilienthal flies about 250 m in his Maihöhe-Rhinow-Glider.
    • Lawrence Hargrave demonstrates a human-carrying glider in Australia at an aeronautical congress in Sydney. It is based on the box kite, an invention of Hargrave's. It becomes an example for several scientific kites and aeroplane constructions.
    • First experiments of the Englishman Philipps with a 50-wing-plane.
  • 1894
    • July 31, Hiram Maxim launches an enormous biplane test rig (wingspan 32 m, 105 ft) propelled by two steam engines. It makes a short captive hop after running down a length of railway track. After that he stopped his experiments, which had already cost him around thirty thousands pounds.
    • October, Samuel Pierpont Langley flies the unmanned Aerodrome No. 4 over the Potomac river a distance of 130 ft.
    • November, Lawrence Hargrave demonstrates stable flight with a tethered box kite.
    • December 4, German meteorologist Berson climbs up with an airship to 9,155 m.
    • Czeslaw Tanski successfully flies powered models in Poland and begins work on full-size gliders.
    • Railway engineer Octave Chanute publishes Progress in Flying Machines, describing the research completed so far into flight. Chanute's book. a summary of many articles published in the "American Engineer and Railroad Journal", is a comprehensive account on the stage of development worldwide on the way to the aeroplane.
    • Otto Lilienthal goes with his Normal soaring apparatus in the first serial production of a glider. With different aeroplane constructions he covers distances up to 250 m.
  • 1895
    • Percy Pilcher makes his first successful flight in a glider named Bat.
  • 1896
    • May 6, Samuel Pierpont Langley flies the unmanned Aerodrome No. 5 from a houseboat on the Potomac river a distance of 3,300 ft.
    • June, Octave Chanute organises a flyer camp at Lake Michigan. Tested was a Lilienthal-glider (reconstruction) and a biplane built by Chanute, which was the basis for the further development of flight technique
    • August 9 Otto Lilienthal crashes during a routine flight in the hills of Stölln and dies next day because of a spinal injury.
    • November, Samuel Pierpont Langley flies the unmanned Aerodrome No. 6 a distance of 4,200 ft.
    • David Schwarz's rigid airship makes its first flight at Tempelhof field, but crashes.
    • Germans August Parseval and Bartsch Sigsfeld invent the kite balloon for observations in strong winds.
  • 1897
    • June 11, Salomon Andrée, N. Strindberg and K. Fraenkel attempt an Arctic expedition to the North Pole by free balloon from Spitzbergen. He and two companions crash within three days but manage to survive for several months in the pack ice. Their remains are discovered in 1930 on White Island. It was possible to develop the located film material.
    • June 12, Friedrich Hermann Wölfert and his mechanic are killed in an accident when their airship powered by petrol caught fire at a demonstration at the Tempelhof field.
    • October 14, Clément Ader makes a 300 m flight in his steam-powered uncontrolled Avion III also referred to as Aquilon or the Éole III. The Army is not impressed and withdraws funding.
    • The first flight in a rigid airship is made by Ernst Jägels, flying an all-aluminium craft designed by David Schwarz and built by Carl Berg. It is damaged beyond repair while landing.
  • 1899
    • April, Gustave Whitehead claimed to have flown his steam powered aircraft a distance of 500 m in Pennsylvania with a passenger.
    • The Wright brothers begin experimenting with wing-warping as a means of controlling an aircraft.
    • Samuel Cody begins experiments with kites big enough to lift a person
    • Percy Pilcher flies various gliders and is close to completing a powered machine when he is tragically killed when his glider crashes at Stanford Hall, England after a tail strut fails. The flight was intended as a display of powered flight, but when the engine was not ready in time, Pilcher used a team of horses to pull the glider into the air.
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