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Wright Brothers
Orville and Wilbur Wright make first powered, sustained, and controlled flight in a heavier-than-air flying machine. -
Robert H. Goddard
Robert H. Goddard makes first free flight of a liquid-fueled rocket. -
Frank Whittle
Frank Whittle, British inventor, invents the jet engine. -
Boeing 247
A modern airliner, Boeing 247, flies for the first time. It's a twin-engine 10-passenger monoplane that is the first modern commercial airliner. With variable-pitch propellers, it has an economical cruising speed and excellent takeoff. Retractable landing gear reduces drag during flight. -
Innovation from world war
A world war again spurs innovation. The British develop airplane-detecting radar just in time for the Battle of Britain. At the same time the Germans develop radiowave navigation techniques. The both sides develop airborne radar, useful for attacking aircraft at night. German engineers produce the first practical jet fighter, the twin-engine ME 262, which flies at 540 miles per hour, and the Boeing Company modifies its B-17 into the high-altitude Flying Fortress. Later it makes the 141-foot-wing -
Rule of aircraft design
Richard Whitcomb, an engineer at Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, discovers and experimentally verifies an aircraft design concept known as the area rule. A revolutionary method of designing aircraft to reduce drag and increase speed without additional power, the area rule is incorporated into the development of almost every American supersonic aircraft. He later invents winglets, which increase the lift-to-drag ratio of transport airplanes and other vehicles. -
Mass production
The prototype Learjet 23 makes its first flight on October 7. Powered by two GE CJ610 turbojet engines, it is 43 feet long, with a wingspan of 35.5 feet, and can carry seven passengers (including two pilots) in a fully pressurized cabin. It becomes the first small jet aircraft to enter mass production, with more than 100 sold by the end of 1965. -
Winglets
The Model 28 prototype employed the first winglets ever used on a jet and a production aircraft, either civilian or military. -
First aircraft produced through computer-aided design and engineering
Boeing debuts the twin-engine 777, the biggest two-engine jet ever to fly and the first aircraft produced through computer-aided design and engineering. Only a nose mockup was actually built before the vehicle was assembled—and the assembly was only 0.03 mm out of alignment when a wing was attached. -
Airbus A380
The Airbus A380 is a double-deck, wide-body, four-engine jet airliner manufactured by the European aircraft company Airbus. It is the world's largest passenger airliner.
