The Pacific Clipper (Boeing 314) arrives at LaGuardia.
On January 6, 1942, the Pacific Clipper landed at Pan American’s LaGuardia Field seaplane base in New York City, completing the
first commercial plane flight to circumnavigate the world.
After nine days and four minutes in the sky, the experimental
aircraft Voyager landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California, completing the first nonstop flight around the globe on one load
of fuel.
Piloted by Americans Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, Voyager was
made mostly of plastic and stiffened paper and carried more than
three times its weight in fuel when it took off from Edwards Air
Force Base on December 14. By the time it returned, after flying
25,012 miles around the planet, it had just five gallons of fuel left
in its remaining operational fuel tank.
The crew: Dick Rutan and friend Jeanna Yeager.
(no relation to aviator Chuck Yeager)
The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in
Washington DC.
Near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville and Wilbur Wright made
the first successful flight in history of a self-propelled, heavier-
than-air aircraft on December 17, 1903.
Orville piloted the gasoline-powered, propeller-driven biplane,
which stayed aloft for 12 seconds and covered 120 feet on its
inaugural flight.
The John W. Berry, Sr. Wright Brothers National Museum
in Dayton. Ohio.
American explorer Richard Byrd and three companions made the
first flight over the South Pole, flying from their base on the Ross
Ice Shelf to the pole and back in 18 hours and 41 minutes.
Richard Evelyn Byrd Jr.
(October 25, 1888 – March 11, 1957)
On July 27, 1949, the world’s first jet-propelled airliner, the British
De Havilland Comet, made its maiden test-flight in England. The
jet engine would ultimately revolutionize the airline industry,
shrinking air travel time in half by enabling planes to climb faster
and fly higher.
The Comet was the creation of English aircraft designer and
aviation pioneer Sir Geoffrey de Havilland (1882-1965).
De Havilland started out designing motorcycles and buses, but
after seeing Wilbur Wright demonstrate an airplane in 1908, he
decided to build one of his own.
Sir Geoffrey de Havilland (1882-1965)
