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.[2] 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.[7]
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 (34 km) 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.[10]
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.[14]
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.
7 August – French aviator
Roger Sommer sets a new world airplane endurance record, remaining aloft for 2 hours 27 minutes 15 seconds.[17]
26 August – The
Antoinette IV airplane sets a world distance record at Rheims, flying 154.6 km (96.1 mi) in 2 hours 17 minutes 21 seconds:[12]
27 August –
Henri Farman raises the airplane distance record to 180 km (110 mi).[18]
28 August
At Rheims,
Glenn Curtiss wins the first airplane race held for the
Gordon Bennett Cup, flying 20 km (12.42 miles) in 15 minutes 50.6 seconds at an average speed of 47 mph (75.7 km/h), finishing 5.6 seconds ahead of
Louis Blériot.[17]
Louis Blériot sets a world speed record over a 10 km (6.2 mi) circuit at a speed of 76.95 km/h (47.81 mph).[18]
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.[20][21]
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.[25]
2 October – Orville Wright sets a new world altitude record for airplanes, reaching an estimated 500 meters (1,640 feet) over
Potsdam,
Germany.[26][27]
15–23 October – Britain's first Aviation Meeting held at
Doncaster Racecourse.[28]
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.
20 November –
Cerchez & Co., the first aircraft company, the first aerodrome and the first flight school in
Romania is founded at
Chitila by Mihail Cerchez.[33]
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.
^Daniel, Clifton, ed., Chronicle of the 20th Century, Mount Kisco, New York: Chronicle Publications, 1987,
ISBN0-942191-01-3, p. 122.
^Fryer, Jonathan (September 2008). "Where British aviation began". The Journal of Kent History. 67: 18–19.
^Robinson, Douglas H., Giants in the Sky, Henley-on-Thames: Foulis, 1973.
ISBN0 854 29145 8
^Daniel, Clifton, ed., Chronicle of the 20th Century, Mount Kisco, New York: Chronicle Publications, 1987,
ISBN0-942191-01-3, p. 124.
^
abDaniel, Clifton, ed., Chronicle of the 20th Century, Mount Kisco, New York: Chronicle Publications, 1987,
ISBN0-942191-01-3, p. 125.
^
abDonald, 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.
^
abDaniel, 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.