1909 in aviation

On November 4, 1909, as a joke to prove that pigs could fly, 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.

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

Events

• The French aircraft designer and manufacturer Édouard Nieuport makes some brief straight-line flights in his first aircraft, a small monoplane powered by a Template:Convert Darracq engine.<ref name=Opdycke>Opdycke, Leonard E., French Aeroplanes Before The Great War, Atglen, Pennsylvania: Achiffer, 1999, Template:ISBN, p. 189.</ref>
• Fort Omaha Balloon School becomes the first United States Army school for balloon observers.
• The Austro-Hungarian Navy sends officers abroad for flight training.<ref>Layman, R.D., Before the Aircraft Carrier: The Development of Aviation Vessels 1849-1922, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1989, Template:ISBN, p. 13.</ref>
• In the book L'Aviation Militaire ("Military Aviation"), Clément Ader writes ...an aircraft carrier will become indispensable. Such ships will be very differently constructed from anything in existence today. To start with, the deck will have been cleared of any obstacles: it will be a flat area, as wide as possible, not conforming to the lines of the hull, and will resemble a landing strip. The speed of this ship will have to be at least as great as that of cruisers or even greater...Servicing the aircraft will have to be done below this deck...Access to this lower deck will be by means of a lift long enough and wide enough to take an aircraft with its wings folded...Along the sides will be the workshops of the mechanics responsible for refitting the planes and for keeping them always ready for flight.<ref name="Donald Macintyre 1968, p. 8">Macintyre, Donald, Aircraft Carrier: The Majestic Weapon, New York: Ballantine Books Inc., 1968, p. 8.</ref> Discussing the landing of aircraft, he writes, The ship will be headed straight into the wind, the stern clear, but a padded bulwark set up forward in case the airplane should run past the stop line.

January–March

• 7 January – The Aéro-Club de France issues its first eight aviator certificates. Léon Delagrange is among the recipients.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
• 23 February – John McCurdy makes the first aeroplane flight in Canada in the AEA Silver Dart. He flies Template:Convert from the ice of Bras d'Or Lake at Baddeck on Cape Breton Island.
• 3 March – American aviators Glenn Curtiss, Augustus Moore Herring and Cortlandt Field Bishop announce plans to manufacture airplanes commercially in the United States.<ref>Daniel, Clifton, ed., Chronicle of the 20th Century, Mount Kisco, New York: Chronicle Publications, 1987, Template:ISBN, p. 122.</ref> They found the Herring-Curtiss Company.

April–June

• 15 April – The first airport and flying school in Italy opens at Centocelle Airport in Rome. The opening coincides with a visit by Wilbur Wright, who gives a flight demonstration of a Wright airplane.
• 16 April – Wilbur Wright takes former Italian prime minister Sidney Sonnino on a flight at Centocelle Airport, making Sonnino one of the earliest statesmen and the first former head of government to fly in an aeroplane.<ref name=nyt170409>Wright Flies In Italy; Takes Up Italian Army Officer in His Aeroplane and Later Signor Sonnino, The New York Times, April 17, 1909</ref>
• 23 April – French aviator Georges Legagneux flies over Vienna in a Voisin Farman I biplane. It is the first fixed-wing aircraft flight in Austria.<ref name="Serrano">Template:Cite book</ref>
• 2 May – John Moore-Brabazon the first resident British citizen to make a recognised powered heavier-than-air flight in the United Kingdom, flying from The Aero Club's ground at Leysdown on the Isle of Sheppey in his Voisin biplane Bird of Passage.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
• 7 May – The British Royal Navy awards a contract to build its first rigid airship to Vickers.
• 14 May – Samuel Cody makes an aeroplane flight in the United Kingdom longer than Template:Convert in British Army Aeroplane No. 1.
• 26 May – The Zeppelin LZ 5 sets an endurance record by completing a Template:Convert nonstop trip in 37 hours 39 minutes.<ref>Robinson, Douglas H., Giants in the Sky, Henley-on-Thames: Foulis, 1973. Template:ISBN</ref>
• 30 May – Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin pilots a Zeppelin on a 22-hour flight that covers 400 miles (644 km).<ref>Daniel, Clifton, ed., Chronicle of the 20th Century, Mount Kisco, New York: Chronicle Publications, 1987, Template:ISBN, p. 124.</ref>
• 2 June – The United States Army orders its Signal Corps, which includes the ArmyTemplate:'s Aeronautic Corps as one of its divisions, to prepare plans for the air defense of the United States East Coast.<ref name="WPCleanerAuto1">Daniel, Clifton, ed., Chronicle of the 20th Century, Mount Kisco, New York: Chronicle Publications, 1987, Template:ISBN, p. 125.</ref>
• 5 June – Alliott Verdon Roe begins flights in the first fixed-wing aircraft of all-British manufacture, the Roe I Triplane, from Walthamstow Marshes.
• 27 June – 17-year-old Eric Gordon England flies French-born painter José Weiss's tailless glider Olive from a launch ramp above Amberley, West Sussex, England in the first recorded soaring flight. It is the origin of sport gliding.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

July–September

• The International Exhibition of Aviation opens in Frankfurt-am-Main (now known as ILA and regularly held in Berlin).
• 3 July – Louis Blériot achieves a flight of over 26 miles (42 km) in just over 47 minutes.<ref name="WPCleanerAuto2">Daniel, Clifton, ed., Chronicle of the 20th Century, Mount Kisco, New York: Chronicle Publications, 1987, Template:ISBN, p. 126.</ref>
• 12 July – Flying the Blériot XII, Louis Blériot makes the worldTemplate:'s first airplane flight with two passengers, one of whom is Alberto Santos-Dumont.<ref>"Three Men in an Aeroplane." Flight,'19 June 1909.</ref>
• 19 July – Hubert Latham makes the first attempt to cross the English Channel. He flies Template:Convert from Calais in an Antoinette IV monoplane before suffering engine failure and making history's first landing of an aircraft in the sea about halfway across.<ref name="WPCleanerAuto3">Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, Template:ISBN, p. 52.</ref> He becomes the first aviator to be rescued from the English Channel when French Navy destroyer Harpon picks him up.<ref>Calder, Nigel, The English Channel, New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1986, Template:ISBN, p. 188.</ref>
• 20 July – Orville Wright sets a new United States airplane endurance record, remaining aloft for 1 hour 20 minutes 25 seconds.<ref name="WPCleanerAuto1" />
• 25 July
  • Louis Blériot claims a £1,000 prize from the British Daily Mail newspaper for being the first pilot to cross the English Channel in an airplane. He makes the crossing in his Blériot Type XI, flying 21 miles (34 km) from Les Barraques near Calais to Northfall Meadow near Dover Castle in 37 minutes. Blériot also receives an additional £3,000 from the French government.<ref name="WPCleanerAuto2" />
  • While Bleriot warms up his Blériot XI prior to his flight, a farm dog runs into the plane's propeller and is killed. It is the first terrestrial wildlife strike involving an aircraft ever recorded.<ref>Brotak, Ed, "When Birds Strike," Aviation History, May 2016, p. 49.</ref>
  • According to some sources, an aviator named Van Der Schrouff makes the first airplane flight in the Russian Empire, with a flight over Odessa. Other sources credit the French aviator Georges Legagneux with the first flight in Russia, in September.<ref name="Serrano"/>
• 28 July – Harold Barnwell makes the first powered flight in Scotland, an 80-yard (75 m) hop at 4 m altitude in a canard biplane built with his brother Frank at Stirling, before crashing.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• 29 July – French aviator Georges Legagneux flies over Stockholm, the first airplane flight in Sweden.<ref name="Serrano"/>
• 30 July
  • The Imperial Japanese Army, the Imperial Japanese Navy, and Tokyo Imperial University form the Provisional Military Balloon Research Society to investigate flying machines for Japanese use.<ref>Francillon, René J., Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1979, Template:ISBN, p. 29.</ref>
  • Orville Wright flies with passenger Lt. Benjamin Foulois at an average Template:Convert mph over a measured round-trip course, successfully completing flight tests in the Wright Military Flyer for the U.S. Army at Fort Myer, Virginia. The Army buys the airplane for $30,000.

The Zeppelin LZ 3, a few seconds before landing.

• 7 August – French aviator Roger Sommer sets a new world airplane endurance record, remaining aloft for 2 hours 27 minutes 15 seconds.<ref name="WPCleanerAuto4">Daniel, Clifton, ed., Chronicle of the 20th Century, Mount Kisco, New York: Chronicle Publications, 1987, Template:ISBN, p. 127.</ref>
• 22–29 August – The Grande Semaine d'Aviation (the Rheims Aero meet) is held at Bétheny, near Rheims:
• 26 August – The Antoinette IV airplane sets a world distance record at Rheims, flying Template:Convert in 2 hours 17 minutes 21 seconds:<ref name="WPCleanerAuto3" />
• 27 August – Henri Farman raises the airplane distance record to Template:Convert.<ref name="WPCleanerAuto5">Tabulated Performances, &c at the Rheims MeetingFlight4 September 1909</ref>
• 28 August
  • At Rheims, Glenn Curtiss wins the first airplane race held for the Gordon Bennett Cup, flying 20 km (12.42 miles) in 15 minutes 50.6 seconds at an average speed of 47 mph (75.7 km/h), finishing 5.6 seconds ahead of Louis Blériot.<ref name="WPCleanerAuto4" />
  • Louis Blériot sets a world speed record over a Template:Convert circuit at a speed of Template:Convert.<ref name="WPCleanerAuto5" />
• 29 August – 100,000 people gather at Tempelhof Field to witness the arrival at Berlin, Germany, of the Zeppelin LZ 3, with Hugo Eckener in command and Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin aboard. More than two million more people watch from rooftops.<ref>Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN, p. 33.</ref>
• 2 September – Scarborough Beach Amusement Park in the Beaches neighborhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada hosts one of the first, if not the first, air shows in North America. The show features one plane, a Curtiss Golden Flyer piloted by Charles Willard, which on the first evening is forced to make an emergency landing in Lake Ontario after only a few seconds in the air.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• 7 September – Eugene Lefebvre is killed in the crash of an aeroplane when his controls jam at Port-Aviation (often called "Juvisy Airfield") at Viry-Châtillon, France. He is the second person in history to die in a powered-aircraft crash, and the first pilot to die while at the controls of a powered aircraft.
• 8 September – 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.
• 15 September – The French aviator Georges Legagneux makes five short flights from Khodynka Field near Moscow. According to some sources, they are the first aircraft flights in the Russian Empire, while other sources credit an aviator named Van Der Schrouff with the first flight in Russia, in July 1909.<ref name="Serrano"/>
• 22 September – Ferdinand Ferber is killed in taxying accident at Boulogne.<ref>Gibbs-Smith, C.H. Aviation: An Historical Survey London: NMSI, 2003 Template:ISBN</ref>
• 24 September – Wilbur Wright express his desire that foreign aircraft be prohibited from entering the United States.<ref name="WPCleanerAuto6">Daniel, Clifton, ed., Chronicle of the 20th Century, Mount Kisco, New York: Chronicle Publications, 1987, Template:ISBN, p. 128.</ref>
• 25 September
  • The French governmentTemplate:'s third airship, the semi-rigid La République, collapses in flight after a broken propeller blade pierces her envelope and crashes near the Château of Avrilly, France, killing her entire crew of four.<ref>Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN, p. 32.</ref>
  • The first National Aeronautic Show opens at Madison Square Garden in New York City.<ref name="WPCleanerAuto6" />
• 26 September – The brothers Alexander and Anatol Renner fly an airship (which they have designed and built themselves) for the first time, making eight flights over the autumn fair at Graz. These are the first airship flights in Austria-Hungary.<ref>Phythyon, John R., Jr., Great War at Sea: Zeppelins, Virginia Beach, Virginia: Avalanche Press, Inc., 2007, p. 43.</ref>
• 29 September – Wilbur Wright begins flights as part of New York City's Hudson-Fulton Celebration.

October–December

The then Prince Albert of Belgium congratulates baron Pierre de Caters at the Antwerp Aviation Week
(23 October- 2 November)

• 2 October – Orville Wright sets a new world altitude record for airplanes, reaching an estimated 500 meters (1,640 feet) over Potsdam, Germany.<ref>Daniel, Clifton, ed., Chronicle of the 20th Century, Mount Kisco, New York: Chronicle Publications, 1987, Template:ISBN, p. 129.</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• 15–23 October – Britain's first Aviation Meeting held at Doncaster Racecourse.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• 22 October – Baroness Raymonde de Laroche flies in a fixed-wing aircraft. (See also September 1908).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• 26 October – Marie Marvingt pilots a balloon across the North Sea and the English Channel from Europe to England.
• 30 October – John Moore-Brabazon flies a circular mile in the Short Biplane No. 2 in the UK and wins £1,000 from the Daily Mail newspaper.
• The Austro-Hungarian ArmyTemplate:'s first airship, Militärluftschiff I (or M.I), makes its first flight. Among its passengers on the flight is Ferdinand Porsche.<ref>Phythyon, John R., Jr., Great War at Sea: Zeppelins, Virginia Beach, Virginia: Avalanche Press, Inc., 2007, p. 44.</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• 3 November
  • Alec Ogilvie patents the first airspeed indicator.
  • Henry Farman makes a flight of Template:Convert lasting 4 hours 6 minutes 25 seconds at Châlons-en-Champagne, France. It will win him the 1909 International Michelin Cup for the longest nonstop distance flown during 1909.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
• 4 November – 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. He chooses a pig as a joking refutation of the common phrase "when pigs fly," meaning something that will never happen.
• 16 November – The first air transport company (or airline) in the world, the German Airship Travel Corporation (known by its German language acronym DELAG), is founded at Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, flying Zeppelins.<ref>Whitehouse, Arch, The Zeppelin Fighters, New York: Ace Books, 1966, no ISBN, pp. 28-29.</ref>
• 20 November – Cerchez & Co., the first aircraft company, first aerodrome, and first flight school in Romania, is founded at Chitila by Mihail Cerchez.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• 5 December – George Taylor becomes the first person to fly a heavier-than-air craft in Australia, in a glider he designed. On the same day Florence Taylor becomes the first woman in Australia to fly a heavier-than-air craft, in the glider designed by her husband.
• 8 December – With Enea Bossi, Sr., at the controls, the first Italian-designed and -built airplane to fly takes to the air for the first time. Bossi, Giuseppe Bellanco, and Paolo Invernizzi had designed it.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>United States of America Declaration of Intention & Petition for Naturalization #270572 (or #270872), United States of America Certificate of Naturalization #2313991</ref><ref>O'Connor, Derek, "'An Outstanding American Citizen,'" Aviation History, March 2017, p. 52.</ref>
• 31 December – Harry Ferguson becomes the first person to fly an aircraft in Ireland, when he takes off in a monoplane he had designed and built himself.

First flights

• Nieuport 1909 monoplane,Édouard Nieuport's first aircraft<ref name=Opdycke/>

January

• 23 January – Blériot XI

May

• 21 May – Blériot XII
• 24 May – Blackburn First Monoplane

June

• 5 June – Roe I Triplane
• 28 June – Breguet Type I

August

• 17 August – Grade monoplane<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

December

• De Havilland Biplane No. 1 (crashes)

Entered service

March

• Zeppelin LZ 3 into the German Army as the Z 1.

August

• 1 August – Wright Military Flyer into the US Army as Aeroplane No. 1