Aviation Chronology
     March 23, 1903. First Wright brothers airplane patent, based on
 their 1902 glider, is filed in America.
     August 8, 1903. The Langley gasoline engine model plane is suc-
 cessfully launched from a catapult on a houseboat.
     December 8, 1903. Second and last trial of the Langley airplane,
 piloted by Charles M. Manly, is wrecked in launching from a houseboat
 on the Potomac River in Washington, D.C.
     December 17, 1903. At Kitty Hawk, N.C., Orville Wright achieves
 the world's first manned, powered, sustained, and controlled flight
 by a heavier-than-air vehicle. His fourth and longest flight of the
 day is 852 feet in fifty-nine seconds. Three days earlier, Wilbur
 Wright achieved the world's first powered airplane flight--105 feet
 in 3.5 seconds--but crashed soon after takeoff, and his flight is not
 regarded as being either sustained or controlled.
     January 18, 1905. The Wright brothers open negotiations with the
 US government to build an airplane for the Army, but nothing comes of
 this first meeting.
     February 5, 1905. T.S. Baldwin takes part in a ten-mile race be-
 tween his dirigible and an automobile. The dirigible and its pilot
 win by a three-minute margin.
     June 23, 1905. The first flight of the Wright Flyer III is made
 at Huffman Prairie, outside Dayton, Ohio. The Wright brothers' first
 fully controllable aircraft is able to turn and bank and remain aloft
 for up to thirty minutes.
     October 5, 1905. Orville Wright flies 24.2 miles in thirty-eight
 minutes, three seconds at Dayton, Ohio, establishing a world distance
 and duration record.
     May 22, 1906. After turning down two previous submissions, the US
 government issues the Wright brothers the first patent on their
 flying machine.
     November 12, 1906. Brazilian Alberto Santos-Dumont sets the first
 recognized absolute speed record of 25.66 mph in the Santos-Dumont
 Type 14-bis at Bagatelle, France. However, this speed is slower than
 speeds posted by the Wright brothers in the United States.
     August 1, 1907. The Aeronautical Division of the US Army Signal
 Corps, forerunner of US Air Force, is established.
     October 26, 1907. Henri Farman sets the recognized absolute speed
 record of 32.74 mph in a Voisin-Farman biplane at Issy-les-Moulineaux,
 France.
     December 5, 1907. Wilbur Wright appears before the Board of Ord-
 nance and Fortification and offers the US Government an airplane
 capable of carrying two people, for $25,000.
     December 23, 1907. The Army's Chief Signal Officer, Brig. Gen.
 James Allen, issues the first specification for a military airplane.
     January 13, 1908. Henri Farman wins the 50,000-franc Deutsch-
 Archdeacon Prize for the first officially observed one-kilometer
 circular flight in Europe.
     May 14, 1908. The first passenger flight takes place in the
 Wright plane at Kitty Hawk in preparation for delivery of a govern-
 ment airplane. Wilbur Wright pilots the machine, with Charles Furnas,
 an employee, as the first passenger.
     May 19, 1908. Signal Corps Lt. Thomas E. Selfridge becomes the
 first soldier to fly a heavier-than-air machine.
     July 4, 1908. Glenn H. Curtiss wins the Scientific American
 trophy with his June Bug biplane by flying for more than a mile
 over Hammondsport, N.Y. Speed for the trip is thirty-nine mph.
     August 8, 1908. At Camp d'Auvours, France, Wilbur Wright sur-
 passes French flight records for duration, distance, and altitude.
     September 3, 1908. First test flight of an Army flying is
 machine made at Fort Myer, Va., by Orville Wright.
     September 17, 1908. Lt. Thomas E. Selfridge becomes the first
 person killed in a powered aircraft accident when a Wright Flyer
 crashes at Fort Myer, Va. Orville Wright, at the controls, suffers
 serious injuries.
     November 13, 1908. Wilbur Wright, in a Wright biplane at Camp
 d'Auvours, France, and Henri Farman, in a Voisin at Issy, France,
 concurrently set a world altitude record of eighty-two feet.
     April 24, 1909. Wilbur Wright pilots a Wright biplane at
 Centocelle, Italy, from which the first aerial motion picture is
 taken.
     July 25, 1909. Louis Bleriot, of France, becomes the first
 person to fly across the English Channel.
     July 27, 1909. Orville Wright, with Lt. Frank P. Lahm as pas-
 senger, makes the first official test flight of the Army's first
 airplane at Fort Myer, Va.
     July 30, 1909. The second test of the Army Wright plane is
 completed: a ten-mile cross-country flight over a stipulated course
 from Fort Myer, Va., to Alexandria, Va., and back, at a speed of
 42.583 mph, for which the Wrights receive a bonus of $5,000 (ten
 percent of the base price of $25,000 for each mile per hour over
 forty), making the purchase price $30,000. The plane is formally
 accepted on 2 August.
     August 2, 1909. The Army accepts its first airplane, bought from
 the Wright brothers for $25,000, plus a $5,000 bonus because the
 machine exceeds the speed requirement of forty mph.
     August 23, 1909. At the world's first major air meet in Reims,
 France, Glenn Curtiss becomes the first American to claim the
 recognized absolute speed record as he flies at 43.385 mph in his
 Reims Racer biplane.
     August 25, 1909. Land for the first Signal Corps airfield is
 leased at College Park, Md.
     October 23, 1909. Lt. Benjamin D. Foulois takes his first flying
 lesson from Wilbur Wright at College Park, Md.
 End Part-1
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