Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
July 9, 1910 Just a couple of days before his 21st birthday, Walter Brookins broke the world’s altitude record for fixed-wing aircraft when he attained a height of 6,175 feet (1,882 meters) while piloting a Wright biplane in the skies above Atlantic City, New Jersey. This early-evening flight also marked the first time that a... Continue Reading →
July 6, 1926 The first test flight of the racing seaplane Macchi M.39 took place in Italy. This seaplane had been designed by engineer Mario Castoldi, and it was built by the aircraft company Aeronautica Macchi (based in the city and comune of Varese in northwestern Italy). The first M.39 to take to the skies... Continue Reading →
June 15, 1928 The first successful aircraft-to-train transfer of mail took place in southwestern Illinois. This pioneering handover from a U.S. Army airship (also known at the time as a dirigible) to an Illinois Central Railroad (IC) train specifically occurred in the vicinity of the city of Belleville. That experiment in mail delivery was a... Continue Reading →
June 14, 1929 Memphis Municipal Airport was officially dedicated in Memphis. The genesis of the facility took place two years earlier, when Memphis Mayor Watkins Overton created an airport planning commission. One of the commission’s key tasks involved selecting Ward Farm, a 200-acre (81-hectare) tract located a little over seven miles (11 kilometers) from downtown Memphis,... Continue Reading →
June 4, 1784 A pioneering ascent of a hot-air balloon took place just outside the city of Lyon in southeastern France. This balloon was named the Gustave in honor of King Gustav III of Sweden. The king was visiting Lyon at that time, and he was among those on hand to watch the aircraft take... Continue Reading →
May 7, 1927 A newly completed airport in the San Francisco area was inaugurated. This facility, which was officially named Mills Field Municipal Airport, had been built on 150 acres (60.7 hectares) of a cow pasture. The property was leased to the city of San Francisco by Ogden L. Mills, a member of a prominent local... Continue Reading →
May 6, 1896 An aviation milestone took place in the vicinity of Quantico, Virginia, when Aerodrome No. 5 made the first successful flights of an unpiloted, tandem-winged, engine-powered, heavier-than-air model of substantial size. (“Aerodrome” is derived from a Greek phrase that roughly means “air runner.”) Samuel Langley, who invented Aerodrome No. 5, launched it twice using... Continue Reading →
April 15, 1941 Aviation pioneer Igor Sikorsky set a new record when he made the first helicopter flight in the United States as well as the entire Western Hemisphere that lasted more than an hour. He flew a Vought-Sikorsky VS-300 helicopter in the skies above his factory in Stratford, Connecticut, and managed to keep that aircraft... Continue Reading →
April 12, 1911 A new aviation milestone was achieved when Pierre Prier undertook a non-stop flight in a monoplane between England and France. He specifically flew from the community of Hendon, which is six miles (9.7 kilometers) from the center of London, to the Paris suburb of Issy-les-Molineaux. Prier, who is shown in the above... Continue Reading →
In 1977, Janna Lambine became the U.S. Coast Guard’s first female pilot. She earned her wings as an aviator after she completed flight training at Naval Air Station (NAS) Whiting Field near Milton, Florida. “It’s nice to be the first,” Lambine said in an interview published the following month in the New Mexico-based Clovis News-Journal. “I’ve never... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 