As we approach the end of the 20th century it seems difficult to imagine that at the beginning of the century Man had yet to master powered flight.  In fact it wasn't until December of 1903 that Orville and Wilbur Wright had perfected their design for an aircraft, and it was on the 17th of that same month that Wilbur Wright became the first man to fly a powered aircraft, albeit for only 120 feet, but it was the turning point in aviation history.  By 1905 the Wright brothers had constructed a plane that would stay in the air for up to half an hour and the only limiting factor on the time the aircraft could stay up was that of fuel.  This later plane was far more advanced than the earlier models in that it could perform many manoeuvres including banking and turning.

The Wright brothers can also claim another aviation first, if not somewhat macabre, the first death due to a aeroplane crash.  Up until 1908 the aeroplane was not taken very seriously, most people thought of it as a gimmick and the aeroplane was a fun attraction at country shows, no one really understood its full potential.  However the US war department saw that they might be able to make use of it as an observation platform flying high over and behind enemy lines in times of conflict.  So the Wright's arranged a demonstration for the government and an army observer went up with Orville to assess the planes usefulness.  Whilst performing this demonstration Orville crashed the plane, and although he himself was relatively unharmed, the observer who was flying with him suffered very serious injuries, which he eventually died from.  (More on Aviation Accidents)

The aeroplane made its mark and was here to stay, in 1909 the Frenchman, Louis Blériot had the foresight to see benefits of a single winged craft and built the first monoplane in that year.  Later the same year he went on to become the first man to fly an aeroplane across the English Channel in this monoplane.  The military began to take notice of the aeroplane and in 1910 the Americans successfully launched and landed a plane on a warship, and in 1911 they performed live bombing runs from an aircraft built by the Wright brothers.  As aircraft were getting stronger, more manoeuvrable and more reliable, their pilots were pushing them to the limits, finding out exactly what the aeroplane was capable of.  By the outbreak of WW1 pilots were flying upside-down, looping the loop, diving and many other aerobatics.

World War One
The coming of WW1 saw even more changes to the aeroplane, governments invested vast amounts of money in the industry to try to gain supremacy of the skies.  Planes were built to perform certain tasks, bombardment, observation, assault, pursuit and many more military uses.  By the end of WW1 the aeroplane had reached, and broken, barrier after barrier, planes were now reaching speeds in excess of 150 mph and flying at altitudes greater than 25,000 feet.  After the war was over many governments sold off their surplus aircraft, thus paving the way for a new breed of aviation pioneers to push the boundaries even further.  Numerous new records were set and broken in the years between the wars, far too many to mention here, however, there are two that are worthy of note.  On June 14th 1919, two British aviators, John William Allcock and Arthur Whitton Brown, set off from St Johns, Newfoundland, 16 hours later they landed in Clifden, Ireland.  This was to be the first non-stop transatlantic crossing by a powered aircraft.  Nearly eight years late on the 20th May 1927 the American Charles Augustus Lindbergh left New York in what was to be the first solo transatlantic flight.  He finally touched down safely in Paris 33.5 hours later, having flown more than 3,600 miles.

Another advancement in the early 1920's that made long distance flight possible was that of the air cooled engine.  They were much more powerful, lighter and smaller than their predecessors (liquid cooled), and were able to fitted inside streamlined casings.  This development led to large quantities of small, light aircraft being built and was a major factor in the boom in pleasure flying.  The Boeing P.26 is typical of the new streamlined planes of the early thirties.  It found use in both military and civilian quarters and became very popular due to its ease of handling, because of this it continued in military service right up until WW2.

For aircraft to be able to fly in, and through, all weather conditions and to be able to fly both day and night, including long distance flights across oceans, a better form of navigation had to be found.  In 1929 these problems were overcome when an American inventor, Elmer Sperry, developed the artificial horizon and the directional gyro.  He also invented the gyrocompass, a compass that is not affected by outside forces of magnetism and the automatic gyro pilot that is a great benefit in the stabilisation of aircraft.

Commercial aviation was also beginning to grow rapidly during this time and this is dealt with on a separate page dedicated to that area of aviation.  However, one commercial aircraft deserves a mention here, the Donald Douglas DC-3.  Not only was it the worlds most popular aircraft at the time, but also it proved very popular with the American military establishment who ordered large quantities of the plane.  The first DC-3 rolled of the production line in 1935 and the final production number exceeded 10,300 aircraft.  It was estimated that in 1939, 90% of the worlds air passenger traffic were transported through the skies in a DC-3