page_title: List of firsts in aviation
section_title: Pioneer era 1853–1916
hierarchical_section_title: List of firsts in aviation / Heavier than air / Pioneer era 1853–1916
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of a Felixstowe Porte Baby with a Bristol Scout mounted on the upper wing.
context_page_description: This is a list of outright firsts in aviation.
context_section_description: First manned glider flight: In 1853, an unnamed boy rode as passenger in an uncontrolled glider flown by George Cayley.
  First controlled manned glider flight: Otto Lilienthal, in 1891.
  First controlled, sustained flight in a powered airplane: The Wright brothers are widely regarded as the inventors of the first fixed-wing aircraft to achieve sustained, controlled flight, the Wright Flyer. Orville Wright made the first successful flight in this aircraft on December 17, 1903, travelling 37 m (120 ft) at a speed of 10.9 km/h (6.8 mph).
  First circular flight by a powered airplane: Wilbur Wright flew 1,240 m (4,080 ft) in about a minute and a half on September 20, 1904.
  First aircraft to use ailerons for lateral control: Robert Esnault-Pelterie's October 1904 glider used ailerons, although they were only given that name in 1908 by Henry Farman.
  First heavier-than-air flight of more than 25 m (82 ft) in Europe: On October 23, 1906, Alberto Santos-Dumont, flew a distance of 60 m (200 ft) in his 14-bis at the Chateau de Bagatelle, Paris, winning the Archdeacon Prize.
  First flight certified and registered by Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI): On November 12, 1906, in the presence of official observers from the newly founded FAI, Alberto Santos Dumont flew his 14-bis a distance of 220 m (720 ft) at the Chateau de Bagatelle, Paris.
  First airplane passenger: Léon Delagrange, with pilot Henri Farman, on March 29, 1908.
  First use of the modern aircraft flight control system: Originally devised by French aviator Robert Esnault-Pelterie, in April 1908 Louis Blériot's Blériot VIII first took to the air with Esnault-Pelterie's control layout, using a joystick for elevator/aileron control, and a pivoted foot-bar for rudder control.
  First person to die in a crash of a powered airplane: Thomas Etholen Selfridge, a passenger on an aircraft piloted by Orville Wright which crashed at Fort Myer on September 17, 1908. Wright was badly injured, and was hospitalised for seven weeks.
  First return flight between two towns: Louis Blériot flew from Toury to Artenay, and back on October 30, 1908, covering a combined distance of 23 km (14 mi).
  First official pilot's licence issued: Issued by the Aéro Club de France, licence number 1 is issued to Louis Blériot on January 7, 1909.
  First ditching of an airplane in the sea: Hubert Latham, while attempting to complete the first powered flight across the English Channel in an Antoinette IV monoplane on July 19, 1909, instead became the first person to perform a water landing when his aircraft suffered engine failure.
  First airplane flight across the English Channel: Louis Blériot crossed the Channel on July 25, 1909 in a Blériot XI, winning the Daily Mail prize of £1,000.
  First pig to fly on an airplane (or any animal): John Moore-Brabazon, in the Short Biplane No. 2 (not a Voisin as sometimes reported) took a pig named Icarus II aloft on November 4, 1909, as a joke to prove the adage that pigs could fly.
  First flight in complete darkness: Henry Farman, flies a Farman biplane on March 1, 1910 at night without the benefit of moonlight, which had made previous night flights possible.
  First woman to earn a pilot license: Raymonde de Laroche on March 8, 1910.
  First documented and witnessed seaplane flight under power from water's surface: Henri Fabre, piloting the Fabre Hydravion, at Martigues, France, on March 28, 1910.
  First aircraft flight simulator: The aircraft manufacturer Antoinette completed the construction of a simulator to teach pupils to fly their monoplanes on May 7, 1910.
  First Chief of State to fly on an airplane: Ferdinand I of Bulgaria was a passenger in a Farman III biplane flown by Jules de Laminne on July 15, 1910, during a visit in Belgium.
  First air-to-ground and ground-to-air radio communications: Frederick Walker Baldwin and Douglas McCurdy sent a morse radio message "Another chapter in aerial achievement is recorded in the sending of this wireless message from an aeroplane in flight" from a Curtiss biplane while in flight, which was received by a nearby ground station on August 
caption: Felixstowe Porte Baby with Bristol Scout composite before flight
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