On November 4, 1909, as a joke to prove that pigs could fly, 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.
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1909:
In the book L'Aviation Militaire ("Military Aviation"), Clément Ader writes ...an aircraft carrier will become indispensable. Such ships will be very differently constructed from anything in existence today. To start with, the deck will have been cleared of any obstacles: it will be a flat area, as wide as possible, not conforming to the lines of the hull, and will resemble a landing strip. The speed of this ship will have to be at least as great as that of cruisers or even greater...Servicing the aircraft will have to be done below this deck...Access to this lower deck will be by means of a lift long enough and wide enough to take an aircraft with its wings folded...Along the sides will be the workshops of the mechanics responsible for refitting the planes and for keeping them always ready for flight.[3] Discussing the landing of aircraft, he writes, The ship will be headed straight into the wind, the stern clear, but a padded bulwark set up forward in case the airplane should run past the stop line.
15 April – The first airport and flying school in Italy opens at Centocelle Airport in Rome. The opening coincides with a visit by Wilbur Wright, who gives a flight demonstration of a Wright airplane.
20 July –Orville Wright sets a new United States airplane endurance record, remaining aloft for 1 hour 20 minutes 25 seconds.[11]
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 in an airplane. He makes the crossing in his Blériot Type XI, flying 21 miles (34km) 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.[14]
While Bleriot warms up his Blériot XI prior to his flight, a farm dog runs into the plane's propeller and is killed. It is the first terrestrial wildlife strike involving an aircraft ever recorded.[18]
According to some sources, an aviator named Van Der Schrouff makes the first airplane flight in the Russian Empire, with a flight over Odessa. Other sources credit the French aviator Georges Legagneux with the first flight in Russia, in September.[7]
Orville Wright flies with passenger Lt. Benjamin Foulois at an average 42.58 miles per hour (68.53km/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.
The Zeppelin LZ 3, a few seconds before landing.
7 August – French aviator Roger Sommer sets a new world airplane endurance record, remaining aloft for 2 hours 27 minutes 15 seconds.[21]
26 August – The Antoinette IV airplane sets a world distance record at Rheims, flying 154.6km (96.1mi) in 2 hours 17 minutes 21 seconds:[16]
27 August –Henri Farman raises the airplane distance record to 180km (110mi).[22]
28 August
At Rheims, Glenn Curtiss wins the first airplane race held for the Gordon Bennett Cup, flying 20km (12.42 miles) in 15 minutes 50.6 seconds at an average speed of 47mph (75.7km/h), finishing 5.6 seconds ahead of Louis Blériot.[21]
Louis Blériot sets a world speed record over a 10km (6.2mi) circuit at a speed of 76.95km/h (47.81mph).[22]
2 September – Scarborough Beach Amusement Park in the Beaches neighborhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada hosts one of the first, if not the first, air shows in North America. The show features one plane, a Curtiss Golden Flyer piloted by Charles Willard, which on the first evening is forced to make an emergency landing in Lake Ontario after only a few seconds in the air.[24][25]
7 September –Eugene Lefebvre is killed in the crash of an aeroplane when his controls jam at Port-Aviation in Juvisy-sur-Orge, France. He is the second person in history to die in a powered-aircraft crash, and the first pilot to die while at the controls of a powered aircraft.
15 September – The French aviator Georges Legagneux makes five short flights from Khodynka Field near Moscow. According to some sources, they are the first aircraft flights in the Russian Empire, while other sources credit an aviator named Van Der Schrouff with the first flight in Russia, in July1909.[7]
26 September – The brothers Alexander and Anatol Renner fly an airship (which they have designed and built themselves) for the first time, making eight flights over the autumn fair at Graz. These are the first airship flights in Austria-Hungary.[29]
2 October – Orville Wright sets a new world altitude record for airplanes, reaching an estimated 500 meters (1,640 feet) over Potsdam, Germany.[30][31]
15–23 October – Britain's first Aviation Meeting held at Doncaster Racecourse.[32]
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. He chooses a pig as a joking refutation of the common phrase "when pigs fly," meaning something that will never happen.
20 November –Cerchez & Co., the first aircraft company, first aerodrome, and first flight school in Romania, is founded at Chitila by Mihail Cerchez.[39]
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.
31 December –Harry Ferguson becomes the first person to fly an aircraft in Ireland, when he takes off in a monoplane he had designed and built himself.
↑ Layman, R.D., Before the Aircraft Carrier: The Development of Aviation Vessels 1849-1922, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1989, ISBN0-87021-210-9, p. 13.
↑ Macintyre, Donald, Aircraft Carrier: The Majestic Weapon, New York: Ballantine Books Inc., 1968, p. 8.
1 2 Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, ISBN0-7607-0592-5, p. 52.
↑ Calder, Nigel, The English Channel, New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1986, ISBN0-14-010131-4, p. 188.
↑ Brotak, Ed, "When Birds Strike," Aviation History, May 2016, p. 49.
↑ Cameron, Dugald; Galbraith, Roderick; Thomson, Douglas (2003). From Pilcher to the planets: aspects of Glasgow and the West of Scotland's early contribution to aviation as seen against the history of flight and a view of the art of engineering. University of Glasgow. ISBN9780852167786.
↑ Francillon, René J., Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1979, ISBN0-87021-313-X, p. 29.
1 2 Daniel, Clifton, ed., Chronicle of the 20th Century, Mount Kisco, New York: Chronicle Publications, 1987, ISBN0-942191-01-3, p. 127.
↑ United States of America Declaration of Intention & Petition for Naturalization #270572 (or #270872), United States of America Certificate of Naturalization #2313991
↑ O'Connor, Derek, "'An Outstanding American Citizen,'" Aviation History, March 2017, p. 52.
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