American Aviation Timeline
Early Stages
1485-1500: Leonardo da Vinci designs flying tools in what would become the basis of aviation.
1843: George Cayley's publishes his design for a biplane.
Game Changer
1903: Orville and Wilbur Wright make first powered, controlled flight in a flying machine. The Wright brothers’
achievement would change the development of aviation and kick start the 20th century.
1926: Robert H. Goddard makes first free flight of a liquid-fueled rocket, transforming modern flight propulsion.
1927: Charles A. Lindbergh makes the first solo trans-Atlantic flight.
1932: Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic.
1933: The first modern plane, the Boeing 247, takes flight for the first time.
1947: Charles E. Yeager flights the Bell X-1, breaking the speed of sound in a flight.
Space Era
1958: NASA is established. The goal of reaching the moon is established by President John F. Kennedy a few years
later.
1962: John H. Glenn, Jr. becomes the first American to orbit the earth.
1969: Apollo 11 reaches the moon. American astronauts Neil A. Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin are the first to touch
down.
1978: Guion "Guy" Bluford becomes the first African-American to fly into space.
1981: NASA launches the Columbia shuttle, the first reusable spaceship.
1983: Sally Ride becomes the first American woman to fly in space.
1993: Ellen Ochoa becomes the first Hispanic woman to fly in space.
1998: The International Space Station is launched. Learn how to watch the station at night from your home.
Beyond the Moon
2010: SpaceX becomes the first private company to launch, orbit and recover a spacecraft.
2012: The Space Shuttle Discovery is retired. Watch the last flight.
2015: NASA’s New Horizons flies by Pluto and continues on.
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