The First-Ever Plane Flight in Greece

February 8, 1912

The first plane flight in Greece took place when Emmanouil Argyropoulos piloted an aircraft over his native country. Argyropoulos, who had been born in 1889, was originally a civil engineer. He set aside that career, however, after developing a strong interest in human flight. Argyropoulos pursued this newfound interest by going to Paris, France, to study aeronautics.

After obtaining his pilot license in January 1912, Argyropoulos returned to Greece with a French-built Nieuport IV.G monoplane. His used that aircraft for his maiden flight in Greece. Argyropoulos began the flight in the Rouf neighborhood of Athens. He ended up soaring above Greece’s capital city (popularly called the Cradle of Western Civilization) for 16 minutes. This first-of-a-kind trip included flying over the Parthenon and the other ancient buildings on the high-altitude outcrop known as the Acropolis of Athens.

About an hour after completing the flight, Argyropoulos took to the skies again in his plane. This time around, he flew over Athens with Greek Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos as his passenger.   

For more information on Emmanouil Argyropoulos, please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmanouil_Argyropoulos