World
Aviation in 1908
13 January
Henry Farman wins the Deutch-Archdeacon Prize of 50,000 francs
for the first officially observed circular flight of one
kilometre in Europe.
10 February
The
United States Army signs a contract with the Wright brothers for
the construction of a Wright Model A biplane.
14 May
Charles W. Furnas of Dayton in Ohio, becomes the first aircraft
passenger. One of the Wright brothers' mechanics, Wilbur Wright
took him on a flight of 1,968 feet which lasted 29 seconds at
Kill Devil Hills in Kittyhawk, North Carolina.
10 June
The Aeronautical Society of New York, the first flying club,
opens with facilities at Morris Park Racetrack.
8 July
A Frenchwoman Madame Thérèse Peltier becomes the first woman to
fly as a passenger in an aeroplane when she is taken up by Léon
Delagrange in a Voisin biplane.
8
August
One of the Wright brothers, Wilbur Wright, makes his first
European flight at Le Mans in France in the new two-seat Model A.
3 September
The United States Army begins flight trials of the Wright
brothers' Wright Model A begin at Fort Myer.
17 September
Lieutenant Thomas Etholen Selfridge of the United States Army
Signal Corps, becomes the first person to be killed in a powered
aeroplane when the Wright biplane in which he is a passenger
crashes at Fort Myer. The pilot, Orville Wright, is badly
injured.
21 September
Wilbur
Wright makes first significant long distance flight by covering
66 kilometres (41 miles)
31 December
One of the Wright brothers, Wilbur Wright, wins the Michelin
prize with a flight of 124 kilometres (77 miles) at Camp
d'Auvours in France. The flight lasts 2 hours 20 minutes 23
seconds.
Also this year...
The first Gnome rotary aero-engine is produced. |