A Brief History
On May 20, 1927, Charles Lindbergh took off on his non-stop, solo trans-Atlantic flight, a flight into aviation history. Five years later, in 1932, Amelia Earhart took off on her flight as the first female pilot to fly non-stop solo across the Atlantic.
Digging Deeper
Numerous great aviation milestones have been achieved, including around the world flights, solar powered flights, altitude and speed records, and other great feats of aviation skill and technology. We wonder what the next great aviation milestones are going to be, or even should be, and we nominate a few of those here:
Practical “Clean” aircraft, such as electric or hydrogen powered.
Supersonic airliners without the sonic boom or high cost.
Economical seating without incredible discomfort.
Vertical take-off and landing airliners.
Crash survivable airliners.
And submarine launched warplanes.
What aviation milestones would you like to see?
Question for students (and subscribers): What is the greatest aviation milestone so far? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Greenwood, John (editor). Milestones of Aviation: Milestones of Aviation Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum. Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, 1989.
Van Der Linden, Robert. Milestones of Flight: The Epic of Aviation with the National Air and Space Museum. Zenith Press, 2016.
The featured image in this article, a ten-cent US Air Mail stamp honoring Capt. Charles Lindbergh and the Spirit of St Louis; issued June 11, 1927, is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work prepared by an officer or employee of the United States Government as part of that person’s official duties under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the US Code.
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