List of firsts in aviation

This is a list of firsts in aviation.

For a comprehensive list of women's records, see Women in aviation.

The first flight (including gliding) by a person is unknown.

A number have been suggested: None of these historical accounts are adequately supported by corroborating evidence nor have any been widely accepted.

The first confirmed human flight was accomplished by Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier in a tethered Montgolfier balloon in 1783.

Period drawing of Montgolfier hot air balloon that made the first confirmed flight by man in 1783
1920 Stained glass window of the monk Eilmer of Malmesbury holding his wings (early 11th century )
Zeppelin LZ 1 , first rigid airship to fly, 1900
The Breitling Orbiter 3 in which the first non-stop balloon circumnavigation was achieved in 1999
Otto Lilienthal in mid-flight, c. 1895
The Wright brothers ' Wright Flyer making the first controlled, sustained flight of a powered airplane in 1903. Orville piloting while Wilbur observes
Louis Blériot crossing the English Channel , 1909
Eugene Burton Ely making the first shipboard takeoff from the USS Birmingham in 1910
Armour Company poster showing Calbraith Perry Rodgers 's Vin Fiz Flyer transcontinental flight route, 1911
First four-engine aircraft to fly, the Sikorsky Bolshoi Baltiskiy , after two of the engines had been moved out on the wings, 1910
Pyotr Nesterov with the Nieuport IV.G he looped in 1913
Edwin Dunning landing a Sopwith Pup on HMS Furious in 1917
Kurt Wintgens ' Fokker M.5K/MG used on July 1, 1915
Felixstowe Porte Baby with Bristol Scout composite before flight, 1916
Alcock and Brown beginning their non-stop transatlantic flight in their Vickers Vimy , 1919
Fairey III .D that completed the first crossing of the South Atlantic in 1922
USAAS Douglas World Cruisers on their world circumnavigation flight in 1924
Charles Lindbergh and his monoplane the Spirit of St. Louis that made the non-stop flight from New York to Paris on May 21, 1927
Amelia Earhart with the Lockheed Vega 5B she crossed the Atlantic in May 1932
Tupolev ANT-25 RD which completed the first polar crossing in 1937
Heinkel He 178 , the first turbojet -powered aircraft to fly
First turboprop to fly, the Gloster Meteor F.I powered by two Rolls-Royce Trent turboprops in 1945
Bell X-1 , first aircraft confirmed to have exceeded Mach 1 , flown by Chuck Yeager on October 14, 1947
Tupolev Tu-155 , the first aircraft to fly solely on hydrogen
The Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer that Steve Fossett piloted solo around the world non-stop in 2005