1909 in aviation - Definition and Overview

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

Events

February

• February 23 - John McCurdy makes the first aeroplane flight in Canada in the Silver Dart

May

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

July

• The International Exhibition of Aviation opens in Frankfurt-am-Main (ILA - regularly in Berlin in our times).
• July 25 - 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 received an additional £3,000 from the French government.

August

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

October

• Die Deutsche Luftschiffahrt Aktiengessellschaft (DELAG) becomes the world's first airline, founded at Frankfurt-am-Main.
• October 30 - 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

• November 3 - Alec Ogilvie patents the first air-speed indicator.
• November 4 - 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, foundation of the first air transport company in the world, DELAG (German Aviation Company).

First flights

Entered service

March

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

August

• August 1 - Wright 1908 Flyer into the US Army as Aeroplane No. 1