-
-
England’s “father of aeronautics,” built and flew the world’s first successful model glider.
-
Frank A. Whittle, England inventor (jet engine), was born.
-
French aviator Louis Bleriot (1872-1936) made the first crossing of the English Channel from Calais to the grounds of Dover Castle in a powered aircraft, winning a £1,000 prize offered by the London Daily Mail. Piloting his Type XI monoplane at an average of 39 miles per hour, Blériot made the trip of 23.2 miles in just under 36 minutes.
-
Amy Johnson became the first woman to fly from England to Australia.
-
Chuck Yeager, test pilot for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), reached Mach 2.43 in Bell X-1A rocket plane.
-
The Concorde jetliner's 1st test flight took place in Bristol, England.
-
The maiden flight of Concorde 002 was from Filton to Bristol.
-
The Concorde, an Anglo-French airplane, made its first supersonic flight.
-
The supersonic airliner Concorde landed for the 1st time at Heathrow airport.
-
Concorde flew from Washington DC to Paris in 3hr. 33m.
-
Britain and France opened trans-Atlantic Concorde service to Washington. This was the 1st commercial supersonic transport (SST).
-
Regular passenger service between New York and Europe on the supersonic Concorde began on a trial basis.
-
Frank A. Whittle, inventor of the Jet engine, died.
-
British Airways joined Air France in grounding its Concorde supersonic jets in the wake of the July 25th crash near Paris that claimed 113 lives.
-
Air France planned to ground its last 5 Concorde airplanes. The Air France Concorde, the world's fastest and most luxurious passenger jet, flew from New York to Paris for the last time.
-
Air France turned the oldest of its Concordes over to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.
-
British Airways retired the Concorde. 3 Concordes swooped into Heathrow Airport, joining in a spectacular finale to the era of luxury supersonic jet travel.