This is a timeline of aviation history, and a list of more detailed aviation timelines. The texts in the diagram are clickable links to articles.

Timeline

<timeline>

ImageSize = width:500 height:2000 PlotArea = left:50 right:0 bottom:10 top:10 DateFormat = yyyy Period = from:1799 till:2011 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical order:reverse ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:10 start:1880 ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:5 start:1880

PlotData=

 Color:red mark:(line,blue) align:left fontsize:S 
 shift:(15,-3) # shift text to right side of bar
 # there is no automatic collision detection, fontsize:XS 
 # so shift texts up or down manually to avoid overlap shift:(25,-10)
 at:1799 text: physics of flight (Cayley)
 at:1804 text: successful model hangglider flight (Cayley)
 at:1848 text: steam powered model glider
 at:1853 text: towed, controlled, manned, glider flight (Cayley)
 from:1884 till:1886 text: successful glider flights (Montgomery) 
 at:1884 text: 1st fully controllable, lighter than air, free flight
 at:1889 shift:(170) text: A large vehicle lifts itself under power.
 at:1890 text: Ader Éole lifts from ground.
 from:1891 till:1896 text: controlled hangglider flights (Lilienthal)
 at:1900 text: 1st Zeppelin
 from:1901 till:1906 shift:(250) text: 1st airplanes
 at:1903 text: Wright Flyer 1, 260 m, controlled, witnessed, photographed
 at:1905 text: Wright Flyer 3 controlled, safe landings, 38km
 at:1906 text: 14-bis
 at:1908 text: First aircraft manufacturer
 at:1909 text: Santos-Dumont_Demoiselle
 shift:(170) at:1909 text: First crossing of the English channel in a heavier-than-air aircraft
 at:1910 text: World's first jet-propelled aircraft
 from:1914 till:1917 shift:(250) text: World War I
 at:1919 text: 1st Atlantic crossing
 at:1919 shift:(130) text: 1st nonstop Atlantic crossing
 at:1919 shift:(300) text: First airline is founded
 at:1923 shift:(180) text: First non-stop transcontinental flight
 at:1924 text: First aerial circumnavigation
 at:1927 text: 1st solo nonstop Atlantic crossing
 at:1937 text: Hindenburg disaster
 at:1939 text: He 178
 from:1939 till:1945 shift:(250) text: World War II
 from:1940 till:1941 shift:(240) text: The Blitz
 from:1940 till:1941 shift:(130) text: Battle of Britain
 at:1940 text: Battle of Taranto
 at:1944 text: V-2 rocket
 at:1947 text: Sound barrier broken
 at:1952 text: 1st commercial jet airliner
 from:1957 till:1975 shift:(150) text: Space Race
 at:1957 shift:(150) text: Sputnik (1st artificial satellite)
 at:1958 text: Boeing 707
 at:1961 text: 1st manned space mission
 at:1969 shift:(15,0) text: Apollo 11 (moon landing)
 at:1970 shift:(15,-9) text: SR-71 Fastest and highest flying aircraft
 at:1976 text: Concorde makes first commercial flight
 at:1979 text: 1st human-powered crossing of English Channel
at:1981 text: 1st reusable spacecraft
 at:1986 text: 1st nonstop unrefueled global circumnavigation
 at:1988 text: World's heaviest aircraft
 at:2004 shift:(15,0) text: Space Ship One becomes first privately built space vehicle
 at:2005 shift:(15,-6) text: Largest commercial airliner
at:2011 text: [[Space Shuttle| retirement of the space shuttle
 at:2010 shift:(15,-6) text: First 24-hour flight using only solar panels and electric power

</timeline>

By decade

See also

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