• The French aircraft designer and manufacturer
Édouard Nieuport makes some brief straight-line flights in
his first aircraft, a small monoplane powered by a
Darracq engine. •
Fort Omaha Balloon School becomes the first
United States Army school for balloon observers. • The
Austro-Hungarian Navy sends
officers abroad for flight training. • 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.
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.''
January–March • 7 January – The
Aéro-Club de France issues its first eight aviator certificates.
Léon Delagrange is among the recipients. • 23 February –
John McCurdy makes the first aeroplane flight in
Canada in the
AEA Silver Dart. He flies from the ice of
Bras d'Or Lake at
Baddeck on
Cape Breton Island. • 3 March – American aviators
Glenn Curtiss,
Augustus Moore Herring and
Cortlandt Field Bishop announce plans to manufacture airplanes commercially in the
United States. They found the
Herring-Curtiss Company.
April–June • 1 April – After three previous postponements due to construction delays and poor weather, a fourth attempt is made to open the world's first purpose-built airfield,
Port-Aviation (often referred to as "Juvisy Airfield") in
Viry-Chatillon in the
Grand Paris (Greater Paris) region of
France.
Archbishop of Paris Léon-Adolphe Amette blesses the airfield and two airplanes, but a hard rain prevents flying and forces another postponement. • 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. • 16 April – Wilbur Wright takes former
Italian prime minister Sidney Sonnino on a flight at Centocelle Airport, making Sonnino one of the earliest statesmen and the first former
head of government to fly in an aeroplane. • 23 April – French aviator
Georges Legagneux flies over
Vienna in a
Voisin Farman I biplane. It is the first fixed-wing aircraft flight in
Austria. • 2 May –
John Moore-Brabazon the first resident British citizen to make a recognised powered heavier-than-air flight in the
United Kingdom, flying from
The Aero Club's ground at
Leysdown on the
Isle of Sheppey in his
Voisin biplane Bird of Passage. • 7 May – The British
Royal Navy awards a contract to build its first
rigid airship to
Vickers. • 14 May –
Samuel Cody makes an aeroplane flight in the United Kingdom longer than in
British Army Aeroplane No. 1. • 23 May – After four previous postponements due to construction delays and poor weather, the world's first purpose-built airfield,
Port-Aviation (often referred to as "Juvisy Airfield") in
Viry-Chatillon in the
Grand Paris (Greater Paris) region of
France, finally opens. On its first day, it hosts the world's first
air race for heavier-than-air aircraft, requiring participants to complete ten 1.2-kilometre (0.75 mi; 0.65 nmi) laps around two pylons positioned 600 metres (1,969 ft) apart in the fastest time or, if no one completes ten laps, to travel the greatest distance.
Léon Delagrange wins by completing slightly more than five laps at an altitude ranging from 5 metres (16.5 feet) on his first lap to 15 metres (49 ft) on later laps, flying 5.8 kilometres (3.6 mi) in 10 minutes 18 seconds, with an average speed calculated as 33.75 kilometres per hour (20.97 mph). However, this was based on the distance between the two pylons multiplied by the number of laps he flew between them, not the actual distance he flew, which was considerably farther and would have resulted in the calculation of a higher average speed. • 26 May – The
Zeppelin LZ 5 sets an endurance record by completing a nonstop trip in 37 hours 39 minutes. • 30 May – Count
Ferdinand von Zeppelin pilots a
Zeppelin on a 22-hour flight that covers 400 miles (644 km). • 2 June – The
United States Army orders its
Signal Corps, which includes the Armys Aeronautic Corps as one of its divisions, to prepare plans for the
air defense of the
United States East Coast. • 5 June –
Alliott Verdon Roe begins flights in the first fixed-wing aircraft of all-British manufacture, the
Roe I Triplane, from
Walthamstow Marshes. • 27 June – 17-year-old
Eric Gordon England flies French-born painter José Weiss's tailless
glider Olive from a launch ramp above
Amberley, West Sussex, England, in the first recorded soaring flight. It is the origin of sport
gliding. • 26 June – An
Aeronautical Society of New York exhibition takes place at
Morris Park Aerodrome.
July–September • The
International Exhibition of Aviation opens in
Frankfurt-am-Main (now known as ILA and regularly held in Berlin). • 3 July –
Louis Blériot achieves a flight of over 26 miles (42 km) in just over 47 minutes. • 12 July – Flying the
Blériot XII, Louis Blériot makes the worlds first airplane flight with two passengers, one of whom is
Alberto Santos-Dumont. • 19 July –
Hubert Latham makes the first attempt to cross the
English Channel. He flies from
Calais in an
Antoinette IV monoplane before suffering engine failure and making history's first
landing of an aircraft in the sea about halfway across. He becomes the first aviator to be rescued from the English Channel when
French Navy destroyer Harpon picks him up. • 20 July –
Orville Wright sets a new United States airplane endurance record, remaining aloft for 1 hour 20 minutes 25 seconds. • 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. • 29 July – French aviator
Georges Legagneux flies over
Stockholm, the first airplane flight in
Sweden. •
Orville Wright flies with passenger Lt.
Benjamin Foulois at an average 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. • 22–29 August – The
Grande Semaine d'Aviation (the Rheims Aero meet) is held at
Bétheny, near
Rheims: • 26 August – The
Antoinette IV airplane sets a world distance record at Rheims, flying in 2 hours 17 minutes 21 seconds: • 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. • 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. • 7 September –
Eugene Lefebvre is killed in the crash of an aeroplane when his controls jam at
Port-Aviation (often called "Juvisy Airfield") at
Viry-Châtillon,
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. • 8 September –
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. • 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 July 1909. • 24 September – Wilbur Wright express his desire that foreign aircraft be prohibited from entering the United States. • 25 September • The
French governments third
airship, the
semi-rigid La République, collapses in flight after a broken propeller blade pierces her envelope and crashes near the Château of
Avrilly,
France, killing her entire crew of four. • The first
National Aeronautic Show opens at
Madison Square Garden in
New York City. • 29 September –
Wilbur Wright begins flights as part of
New York City's
Hudson-Fulton Celebration.
October–December congratulates baron
Pierre de Caters at the
Antwerp Aviation Week(23 October- 2 November) • 2 October – Orville Wright sets a new world altitude record for airplanes, reaching an estimated 500 meters (1,640 feet) over
Potsdam,
Germany. • 15–23 October – Britain's first Aviation Meeting held at
Doncaster Racecourse. • 22 October – Baroness
Raymonde de Laroche flies in a
fixed-wing aircraft. (See also
September 1908). • 26 October –
Marie Marvingt pilots a balloon across the
North Sea and the
English Channel from
Europe to
England. • 30 October –
John Moore-Brabazon flies a circular mile in the
Short Biplane No. 2 in the UK and wins £1,000 from the
Daily Mail newspaper. • The
Austro-Hungarian Armys first airship,
Militärluftschiff I (or
M.I), makes its first flight. Among its passengers on the flight is
Ferdinand Porsche. • 3 November •
Alec Ogilvie patents the first
airspeed indicator. •
Henry Farman makes a flight of lasting 4 hours 6 minutes 25 seconds at
Châlons-en-Champagne, France. It will win him the 1909
International Michelin Cup for the longest nonstop distance flown during 1909. • 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. • 16 November – The first air transport company (or
airline) in the world, the German Airship Travel Corporation (known by its
German language acronym DELAG), is founded at
Frankfurt-am-Main,
Germany, flying
Zeppelins. • 20 November –
Cerchez & Co., the first aircraft company, first aerodrome, and first flight school in
Romania, is founded at
Chitila by Mihail Cerchez. • 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. • 8 December – With
Enea Bossi, Sr., at the controls, the first Italian-designed and -built airplane to fly takes to the air for the first time. Bossi,
Giuseppe Bellanco, and
Paolo Invernizzi had designed it. • 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. == First flights ==