1784, James Tytler, a Scottish eccentric (and renowned drunk), pilots the first manned balloon flight in England, reaching an altitude of a few hundred feet before landing. Along with his aeronautic skills, Tytler was a surgeon, pharmacist and, perhaps most notably, the second editor of the Encyclopedia Brittannica.
1912, Royal Navy aviator Wilfred Parke becomes the first pilot ever to recover from a spin, regaining control of his Avro Type G biplane 50 feet from the ground at Larkhill, England.
1919, the earliest forerunner of British Airways is born when, for 21 pounds, a single passenger boards the first ever commercial flight between Paris and London. It also marks the first regularly operated international flight.
1932, Amelia Earhart becomes the first he first woman to fly non-stop across the United States, landing her Lockheed Vega in Newark 19 hours after taking off from Los Angeles.
Here is a Smithsonian tour of Earhart’s Vega:
1976, the British Airways Concorde registered G-BOAD makes her maiden flight out of Filton, England. Today she is on display at the USS Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York.
