1909 in aviation

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

[edit] Events

February 23 - John McCurdy makes the first aeroplane flight in Canada in the Silver Dart. He flew 2640 feet at Baddeck, Cape Breton.

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

The International Exhibition of Aviation opens in Frankfurt-am-Main (now known as ILA and regularly held in Berlin).
July 19 - Hubert Latham makes the first attempt to cross the English Channel. He flies 11 miles from Calais and lands in the water.
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.

September 8 - 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.

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 3 - Alec Ogilvie patents the first airspeed 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).