1909 in aviation

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1909:

Events

February

23 February - John McCurdy makes the first aeroplane flight in Canada in the Silver Dart. He flies 2,640 feet (805 m) at Baddeck, Cape Breton.

May

2 May - John Moore-Brabazon becomes the first resident British citizen to make a recognised powered heavier-than-air flight in the UK, flying from The Aero Club's ground at Leysdown on the Isle of Sheppey in his Voisin biplane Bird of Passage.
7 May - The Royal Navy awards a contract to build its first rigid airship to Vickers.
14 May - Samuel Cody makes the first aeroplane flight in the UK longer than 1 mile (1.6 km) in British Army Aeroplane No. 1.

July

The International Exhibition of Aviation opens in Frankfurt-am-Main (now known as ILA and regularly held in Berlin).
19 July - Hubert Latham makes the first attempt to cross the English Channel. He flies 11 miles (18 km) from Calais and lands in the water.
25 July - Louis Blériot claims a £1,000 prize from the British Daily Mail newspaper for being the first pilot to cross the English Channel. He makes the crossing in his Blériot Type XI from Les Barraques (near Calais) to Northfall Meadow (near Dover Castle) in 37 minutes. Blériot also receives an additional £3,000 from the French government.
30 July - Orville Wright flies with passenger Lt. Benjamin Foulois at an average 42.58 miles per hour (68.53 km/h) mph over a measured round-trip course, successfully completing flight tests in the Wright Military Flyer for the U.S. Army at Fort Myer, Virginia. The Army buys the airplane for $30,000.

August

First International Air Races held in Reims. Glenn Curtiss wins Major Prize.

September

7 September - Eugene Lefebvre becomes the first pilot killed in the crash of an aeroplane when his controls jam at Juvisy France.
8 September - Samuel Cody flies from Aldershot to Farnborough and back (46 miles in 1 hour and 3 minutes). The first recorded cross-country flight in the United Kingdom.
29 September - Wilbur Wright begins flights as part of New York City's Hudson-Fulton Celebration.

October

Die Deutsche Luftschiffahrt Aktiengessellschaft (DELAG) becomes the world's first airline, founded at Frankfurt-am-Main.
15 - 23 October - Britain's first Aviation Meeting held at Doncaster Racecourse.
22 October - Raymonde de Laroche becomes the first woman to officially pilot and solo in an aeroplane.(See also September 1908).
26 October - Marie Marvingt becomes the first woman to pilot a balloon across the North Sea and the English Channel from Europe to England.
30 October - John Moore-Brabazon in a Short Brothers aircraft flies the first circular mile in the UK and wins £1,000 from the Daily Mail newspaper.

November

3 November - Alec Ogilvie patents the first airspeed indicator.
4 November - John Moore-Brabazon makes the first live cargo flight by airplane when he puts a small pig in a waste-paper basket tied to a wing-strut of his airplane.
16 November - Foundation of the first air transport company in the world, DELAG (German Aviation Company).

December

5 December - George Taylor becomes the first person to fly a heavier-than-air craft in Australia, in a glider he designed. On the same day Florence Taylor becomes the first woman in Australia to fly a heavier-than-air craft, in the glider designed by her husband.

Undated

Fort Omaha Balloon School becomes the first United States Army school for balloon observers.
The Austro-Hungarian Navy sends officers abroad for flight training.

First flights

June

5 June - Roe I Triplanes

Entered service

March

Zeppelin LZ 3 into the German Army as the Z 1.

August

1 August - Wright Military Flyer into the US Army as Aeroplane No. 1

1909 in Aviation Pictures

More aircraft.

Source: WikiPedia