1908 in aviation

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1908:

Events

January

13 January - Henry Farman wins the Deutsch-Archdeacon Prize for making a circular flight of 1 kilometre (0.62 mi). The flight lasts 1 minute and 28 seconds.

March

17 March - AEA Red Wing is destroyed in a crash on its second flight.

29 March - Léon Delagrange makes the first recorded flight with a passenger, fellow early aviator Henry Farman, at Paris, France. The flight distance is 454 feet (138 m).

May

14 May - Charles Furnas becomes the first passenger in an aeroplane in the United States, piloted by Wilbur Wright. They fly for a distance of approximately 600m in 28-3/5ths seconds in the Wright 1905 Flyer, modified with seats for pilot and passenger. Shortly after, Orville Wright flies Furnas for 4.12 km in 4 minutes 2-2/5ths seconds.
Henry Farman is reported to have flown with a Mlle P. Van Pottelsberghe in Ghent, Belgium in late May. If correct she would be the first woman passenger in an aeroplane.

June

June - Alliott Verdon Roe performs taxiing and towed flight trials with his first powered aeroplane at Brooklands, Surrey.
28 June - Jacob Ellehammer makes the first piloted, powered aeroplane flight in Germany.

July

The Royal Navy's Director of Naval Ordnance, Captain Reginald Bacon, recommends that the Royal Navy acquire an airship to compete with the Imperial German Navy's Zeppelins.
4 July - Glenn H. Curtiss is awarded the Scientific American trophy for a public flight of over 1 km at Hammondsport. Curtiss flies 1,550 m (5,090 ft) in 1 minute and 42 seconds.
8 July - Thérx¨se Peltier officially becomes the first woman to fly in an aeroplane. She is a passenger on a flight made by Léon Delagrange at Turin. However, this flight may not have been fully controlled. See also May and October.

August

8 August - Wilbur Wright makes his first flights at the Hunaudix¨res racetrack at Le Mans, France. The Wright Flyer used for this and later flights had been shipped to Le Havre by Orville the previous year. It had been seriously damaged by custom officials when it arrived in France and uncrated. Wilbur spent the whole summer of 1908 rebuilding the machine and getting it into flying condition. Wilbur's flights in this machine will have a profound effect on European aviation during the following months.
21 August - Wilbur Wright moves to Camp d'Auvours, 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) east of Le Mans, where all his flights for the remainder of the year will be based.

September

3 September - Seeking a contract to build the United States Army's first airplane, Orville Wright begins flight trials before Army observers at Fort Myer, Virginia, in a new Wright Model A flyer. The flight lasts 1 minute 11 seconds.
9 September - At Fort Myer, Orville Wright sets three world records: a flight endurance record of 57 minutes 13 seconds on his first flight, a new flight endurance record of 1 hour 2 minutes and 15 seconds on his second flight, and an endurance record for a flight with a passenger (Army Lieutenant Frank P. Lahm) of 6 minutes 24 seconds on his third flight.
10 September - At Fort Myer, Orville Wright sets a world flight endurance record of 1 hour 5 minutes and 52 seconds.
11 September - At Fort Myer, Orville Wright sets a world flight endurance record of 1 hour 10 minutes and 24 seconds.
12 September - At Fort Myer, Orville Wright sets a world record for flight endurance with a passenger (Army Major George O. Squier) of 9 minutes 6â…“ seconds.
17 September - Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge becomes the first person killed in a powered airplane and the first military aviation casualty when a Wright Model A Orville Wright is piloting during U.S. Army tests crashes at Fort Myer. Wright is severely injured.
Thérx¨se Peltier makes a flight of 200 metres (656 feet) at a height of approximately 2.5 meters (8 feet) at the Military Square in Turin, Italy. Photos of Peltier with the aeroplane are published on 27 September. Unofficially, it is the first flight by a female aviator.

October

3 October - George P. Dicken of the New York Herald becomes the first newspaper reporter to fly in an airplane when he rides as a passenger with Wilbur Wright at Camp d'Auvours.
5 October - Zeppelin-airship LZ IV destroyed by fire at Echterdingen.
7 October - Wilbur Wright flies with Mrs. Hart O. Berg as passenger at Camp d'Auvours. This is the first fully controlled flight with a woman passenger.
14 October - Henry Farman makes the first cross-country flight in a power-driven aeroplane, from Bouy to Reims 27 kilometres (17 mi) in 20 minutes.
16 October - Samuel Cody makes the first generally recognised aeroplane flight in the UK in his British Army Aeroplane No. 1.
18 October - Wilbur Wright climbs to 115 metres (377 ft) above Camp d'Auvours.

November

Horace, Eustace and Oswald Short found Short Brothers, the first aircraft manufacturing company in England, in Battersea, London.

December

18 December - Wilbur Wright at Camp d'Auvours, 11 kilometres east of Le Mans. flies 99.8 kilometres (62.0 mi) in 1 hour 54 minutes 2/5 sec. rising to 110 m (360 ft) - a new world record.
31 December - Wilbur Wright wins a prize of FF 20,000 from Michelin for the longest flight of the year (a world record) - 123.2 kilometres (76.6 mi) in 2 hours 18 minutes and 33 1/5 seconds from Camp d'Auvours.

Undated

The United States Army announces plans to buy flying machines.
Fiat begins to manufacture aero engines.

First flights

March

12 March - AEA Red Wing, flying from the surface of Keuka Lake near Hammondsport, New York. Flight distance is 97.2 metres (319 ft) but ends with the aircraft collapsing to the ground, leaving the pilot slightly bruised. This is the first public demonstration of a powered aircraft flight in the United States.

May

18 May - AEA White Wing

June

8 June - Roe I Biplane
28 June - AEA June Bug

September

5 September - Goupy No.1, the world's first triplane

October

19 October - Antoinette IV

December

6 December - AEA Silver Dart

Entered service

1908 in Aviation Pictures

More aircraft.

Source: WikiPedia