1810-1819

Master Index

1830-1839

1820-1829 Chronology of Aviation History
Major Aviation Events

• No data

• No data

• No data

• 25 May 1824 (England) — Englishman Thomas Harris jumps to his death from a balloon. Thomas Harris was a pioneering English balloonist who was killed in an accident. There is little information about his early career, but he invented the gas discharge valve, a device to release all the gas in a gas balloon to prevent the balloon from dragging after landing. He was an inventive London scientist and held the military rank of Lieutenant. He exhibited a hydrogen balloon at the Royal Tennis Court in Great Windmill Street, Haymarket, in the spring of 1824. While not a professional aeronaut, he may have planned to become one. Harris died while flying the balloon Royal George from Vauxhall, London, on 25 May 1824. An account of his death is given by L. T. C. Rolt, who states that it is likely that as gas gradually escaped from the balloon, the cord connecting the gas discharge valve to the gondola tightened, releasing the gas. In the resulting crash Harris was killed, and his traveling companion, an eighteen-year-old girl named Sophia Stocks “from the Haymarket”, was badly injured. ^[1,2]

• 1824 (Odporyszow, Austria-Hungary) — Jan Wnek performed several public lighting flights from the Odporyszow village church tower. (Austria/Hungary border) ²

• No data

• No data

• No data

• No data

• No data

Works Cited

1. Wikipedia, Timeline of Aviation — 19th Century
2. Wikipedia, Thomas Harris (aviator)