1908

Master Index

1910

1909 Chronology of Aviation History
Major Aviation Events

1909 Aviation Records

• Speed: 47.82-mph, Louis Blériot, Blériot XII, 28 August, 1909, France

• Distance: 145.53-miles, Henry Farman, HF.1 N° III, 3 November 1909, France

• Altitude: 1,486-feet, Hubert Latham, Antoinette VII, 1 December 1909, France

• Weight: 1,367-lbs, Blériot, Blériot Model XII, France

• Engine Power: 89-hp, De Dion, Bouton, France

• 1909 (Omaha, Nebraska) — Fort Omaha Balloon School becomes the first United States Army school for balloon observers.

• January 7 (Paris, France) — The Aéro-Club de France grants its first 15 pilots' licenses: number 1 is Louis Blériot and number 15 is Wilbur Wright.

• January 23 (Baddeck Bay, Nova Scotia) — John McCurdy flies the Aerial Experiment Association's Silver Dart biplane 40 feet over the frozen Bras d'Or lake at Baddeck Bay, thus becoming the first flight of a heavier-than-air machine in Canada.

  

• February 23 (Baddeck, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada) — John McCurdy makes the first aeroplane flight in Canada in the Silver Dart. He flies 2640 feet at Baddeck, Cape Breton.

• February 24 (Montgomery, Alabama) — The Wright Brothers found a school in the USA to train pilots for exhibition flights.

• March (Germany) — The Zeppelin LZ.3 entered service into the German Army as the Z1.

• April 6 (Bouy, France) — The first machine wholly designed by air pioneer Henry Farman took to the air at Buoy, France for its initial test flight. The HF.1 biplane is the first aircraft to incorporate practical ailerons attached to the trailing edges of the wings.

• May 1 (Fulham, London, England) — The de Havilland N°1 is unveiled by Geoffrey de Havilland, a bus engineer. The aircraft is a single-seat biplane with two pusher propellers.

• May 14 (England) — Samuel Cody makes the first aeroplane flight in the UK longer than 1 mile (1.6 km) in British Army Aeroplane No. 1.

• 5 June (England) — First flight of the Roe I Triplane.

• June 12 (Paris, France) — Louis Blériot flies his Blériot XII monoplane at Issy-les-Moulineaux with two passengers, Santos-Dumont and André Fournier. This marks the first time a pilot has flown with two passengers.

• July (Frankfurt, Germany) — The International Exhibition of Aviation opens in Frankfurt-am-Main (now known as ILA and regularly held in Berlin).

• July 13 (France) — Flying 25.6 miles in his Blériot XI, Louis Blériot wins the Aéro-Club's Prix du Voyage of 4,500 FF.

  

• July 19 (Calais, France) — Hubert Latham makes the first attempt to cross the English Channel. He flies 11 miles from Calais and lands in the water.

• July 23 (Essex, England) — On this date, Alliott Verdon Roe, took his triplane out from its hangar under an arch of a railroad bridge, over to the river Lea at Walthamstow, near London for its initial test flight. The Avroplane took off from Lea marshes on an initial straight-line flight of 899 feet. This triplane aircraft thus made history by being the first airworthy machine designed and piloted by a Briton.

• July 25 (Sangatte, France) — Louis Blériot takes off from Sangatte, France at 4:35 am for his history making flight across the English Channel. Thirty-seven minutes later he lands his Blériot XI monoplane at Dover, Kent, England. Louis Blériot therefore wins the £1,000 Daily Mail prize for the first Channel crossing by airplane in daylight. Blériot also received an additional £3,000 from the French government.

  

• July 25 (Odessa, Russia) — First official aeroplane flight in Russia, made by Van den Schkrouff flying a Voisin biplane at Odessa.

• July 29 (Sweden) — First official aeroplane flight in Sweden, made by French pilot Legagneux flying a Voisin biplane.

• July 30 (Fort Myer, Virginia) — Orville Wright flies with passenger Lt. Benjamin Foulois at an average 42.58 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 (Reims, France) — First International Air Races held in Reims. Glenn Curtiss wins Major Prize.

• August 1 (Washington, DC) — The Wright Military Flyer entered into service of the U.S. Army as Aeroplane No. 1.

• August 2 (Washington, DC) — The United States Army bought its first aeroplane, the Wright Military Flyer from the Wright brothers.

  

• August 22-29 (Reims, France) — World's first international aviation meeting held at Reims, France.

• August 28 (Reims, France) — Hubert Latham, who came in second to Henry Farman in the distance race at Reims with a 96-mile flight, had the crowd gasping when he soared to a new record altitude of 512-feet in his monoplane, the 1909 Lavavasseur Antoinette VII, and carrying off a FF10,000 prize.

  

• September 8 (Aldershot/Farnborough, England) — 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.

• September 16 (Saint-Cyr, France) — Santos-Dumont takes off in his Demoiselle in 300 feet and in 6 seconds, thus beating by 32 feet the record distance for take-off set by Glenn Curtiss.

  

• October (Germany) — Die Deutsche Luftschiffahrt Aktiengessellschaft (DELAG) becomes the world's first airline, founded at Frankfurt-am-Main.

• October 7 (United States) — Glenn Curtiss becomes the first American to hold an FAI airplane certificate.

• October 15/October 23 (Doncaster, England) — Britain's first Aviation Meeting held at Doncaster Racecourse.

• October 22 (France) — Raymonde de Laroche becomes the first woman to officially pilot and solo in an aeroplane.

• October 26 (France/England) — Marie Marvingt becomes the first woman to pilot a balloon across the North Sea and the English Channel from Europe to England.

• October 27 (College Park, Maryland) — Mrs. Ralph H. van Deman flies with Wilbur Wright for four minutes at College Park, MD, thus becoming the US's first woman passenger.

• October 30 (Romania) — First official aeroplane flight in Romania made by Louis Blériot flying a Blériot monoplane.

  

• October 30 (England) — 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 (England) — Alec Ogilvie patents the first airspeed indicator.

• November 4 (England) — 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.

• November 16 (Germany) — Foundation of the first air transport company in the world, DELAG (German Aviation Company).

• December 5 (Australia) — 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.

• December 9 (Sydney, Australia) — First official aeroplane flight in Australia. Colin Defries flew an imported Wright biplane over the Victoria Park Racecourse at Sydney.

1. Gunston, Bill, et al. Chronicle of Aviation. Liberty, Missouri: JL Publishing Inc., 1992. 14-17
2. Parrish, Wayne W. (Publisher). "United States Chronology". 1962 Aerospace Yearbook, Forty-Third Annual Edition. Washington, DC: American Aviation Publications, Inc., 1962, 446-469.
3. Wikipedia, 1909 in aviation
4. Shupek, John (photos and card images), The Skytamer Archive. Skytamer.com, Whittier, CA