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Planes, not yet! Hot air balloon
Joseph-Michel Montgolfier and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier were paper manufacturers from Annonay, in Ardèche, France best known as inventors of the Montgolfière-style hot air balloon, globe aérostatique.They did their very first test flight, lighting with wool and hay, and the lifting force was so great, that they lost control of their craft. -
Planes, not yet! Hot air balloon Part 3
François Laurent le Vieux d'Arlandes was a French marquis, soldier and a pioneer of hot air ballooning. He and Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier made the first manned free balloon flight on 21 November 1783, in a Montgolfier balloon -
Planes, not yet! Hot air balloon Part 2
Louis-Sébastien Lenormand was a French chemist, physicist, inventor and the world's first pioneer in modern sport parachuting.He is considered as the first man to make a witnessed descent with a parachute. He jumped from the tower of the Montpellier observatory in front of a crowd using a 14-foot parachute with a rigid wooden frame. His intended use for the parachute was to help entrapped occupants of a burning building to escape unharmed. -
Planes, not yet! Hot air balloon Part 4
Jean-Pierre [François] Blanchard was a French inventor, best known as a pioneer in balloon flight.Following the invention of the modern parachute in 1783 by Sébastien Lenormand in France, in 1785 Jean-Pierre Blanchard demonstrated it as a means of jumping safely from a hot air balloon -
Planes, not yet! Hot air balloon Part 5
André-Jacques Garnerin was a French balloonist and the inventor of the frameless parachute. He was appointed Official Aeronaut of France. -
First flight
The Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, were two American aviators, engineers, inventors, and aviation pioneers who are generally credited with inventing, building, and flying the world's first successful airplane.On December 17, 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright made four brief flights at Kitty Hawk with their first powered aircraft. The Wrights used this stopwatch to time the Kitty Hawk flights. -
Bessie Coleman
Bessie Coleman was an American civil aviator. She was the first woman of African-American descent, and the first of Native American descent, to hold a pilot license. She achieved her international pilot license in 1921. -
Air Alaska
Noel Wien was an American pioneer aviator. He was the founder of Wien Air Alaska, Alaska's first airline. Wien saw an opportunity to fly in Alaska and migrated there, later bringing his three brothers up from Minnesota. In 1924, with his pilot license No. 39 signed by Fédération Aéronautique Internationale Official and Orville Wright in hand, Wien brought his Hisso Standard biplane to Alaska and began servicing the gold-rich territory. -
Charles Lindbergh
Charles Augustus Lindbergh, nicknamed Slim, Lucky Lindy, and The Lone Eagle, was an American aviator, military officer, author, inventor, explorer, and environmental activist. In 1927 he became the first man to successfully fly an airplane across the Atlantic Ocean. He called his airplane the Spirit of St. Louis, and his courageous feat helped make Missouri a leader in the developing world of aviation. -
Charles Kingsford Smith
Sir Charles Edward Kingsford Smith MC, AFC, often called by his nickname Smithy, was an early Australian aviator. In 1928, he earned global fame when he made the first trans-Pacific flight from the United States to Australia. -
J. R. D. Tata
Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy "J. R. D." Tata was a French-born Indian aviator, entrepreneur, chairman of Tata Group and the shareholder of Tata Sons.Tata became the first licensed pilot in India, in 1929 -
Female Pilot, Amelia Earhart
Amelia Mary Earhart was an American aviation pioneer and author. Earhart was the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She received the U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross for this accomplishment. -
World War II, Jimmy Doolittle
James Harold Doolittle was an American aviation pioneer and a Reserve officer in the United States Army Air Corps, Doolittle was recalled to active duty during World War II. He is most famous for leading a daring bombing raid over Tokyo in 1942, the first American attack on the Japanese mainland. -
Chuck Yeager
Charles Elwood "Chuck" Yeager is a former United States Air Force general officer and record-setting test pilot. In 1947, he became the first pilot confirmed to have exceeded the speed of sound in level flight. -
Dieter Dengler
Dieter Dengler was a German-born United States Navy aviator during the Vietnam War and later a private aircraft test pilot and commercial airline pilot.
