Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
Patent No. 1,000,000 was issued by the US Patent and Trademark Office to Francis H. Holton for the invention of a tubeless vehicle tire. Beyond the celebration of the milestone patent number achieved by Holton, the invention was important for other reasons. It represented the incredible advancement of transportation technology since the first... Continue Reading →
More than 16 months after leaving Abu Dhabi, the experimental solar-powered monoplane Solar Impulse 2 completed its first-of-a-kind circumnavigation of Earth by returning to the capital city of the United Arab Emirates. The innovative aircraft had been one of two built as part of a privately financed aviation project in Switzerland. The Swiss citizens leading this... Continue Reading →
Hélène Dutrieu, whose skills and accomplishments involved several modes of transportation, was born in the municipality of Tournai in Belgium. By the time she was only 15, she had already established herself as a professional track cyclist. One of Dutrieu’s biggest achievements in this role took place in 1893 when she set a new women’s... Continue Reading →
A new airline, Windward Islands Airway (Winair), began operations in Sint Maarten in the northeast Caribbean. At the time, Sint Maarten – constituting most of the southern portion of the island of Saint Martin – was one of five Dutch island territories in the region that were collectively known as the Netherlands Antilles; Sint Maarten’s... Continue Reading →
In Southeast Asia, the newly established Wearnes Air Services (WAS) began operations. This marked the first regular commercial air service between the island of Singapore and the Malay Peninsula, with a de Havilland DH.89 Dragon Rapide biplane known as “Governor Raffles” making the inaugural flight from Singapore (at the time part of the British territories... Continue Reading →
Henry Berliner, a Washington D.C. native, son of an inventor, and a technical genius in his own right demonstrated a prototype helicopter to the U.S. Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics in College Park, Maryland. Berliner was the sixth son of Emile Berliner, and after a brief stint as an aerial photographer with the Army Air Service,... Continue Reading →
Air Mauritius, the national airline of Mauritius, was officially established. It made its debut just nine months before Mauritius, an island nation in the Indian Ocean that is about 1,200 miles (1,900 km) off Africa’s southeast coast, ceased to exist as a British colony and instead became an independent state within the British Commonwealth. Air... Continue Reading →
Air India, which is now India’s national airline, achieved a major milestone with its first international flight. The plane used for this flight was a Lockheed Constellation L-749A aircraft named Malabar Princess. The plane, which was piloted by Captain K.R. Guzdar, flew out of Bombay (now known as Mumbai) for its pioneering 5,000-mile journey to... Continue Reading →
In Brazil, the first flight of a new two-seat trainer aircraft took place. The low-wing monoplane, which became known as the A-122 Uirapuru, could accommodate both the pilot and instructor side-by-side. The A-122 Uirapuru was built by Aerotec, a design and manufacturing company that had been founded in the city of San Jose do Campos... Continue Reading →
Indian Air Force (IAF) pilots Rahul Monga and Anil Kumar began a round-the-world flight in a Flight Design CTSW plane to set a new record for the fastest circumnavigation in a microlight aircraft. (A microlight aircraft is a lightweight, fixed-wing flying machine with seating for no more than two people.) In undertaking their flight, Monga... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 