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List of aviation pioneers

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

List of aviation pioneers
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Aviation pioneers are people directly and indirectly responsible for the creation and advancement of human flight capability, including people who worked to achieve manned flight before the invention of aircraft, as well as others who achieved significant "firsts" in aviation after heavier-than-air flight became routine. Pioneers of aviation have contributed to the development of aeronautics in one or more ways: through science and theory, theoretical or applied design, by constructing models or experimental prototypes, the mass production of aircraft for commercial and government request, achievements in flight, and providing financial resources and publicity to expand the field of aviation.

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The Wright brothers' first powered, controlled, and sustained flight (12 seconds covering 37 meters), captured on film on December 17, 1903
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Table key

Pioneer type

  • Science: Contributions to aerodynamic theory, aviation principles, discoveries advancing aircraft development, etc.
  • Design: Original or derivative ideas or drawings for conceptual/experimental/practical methods of air travel
  • Construction: Building prototypes/experimental/practical aircraft
  • Manufacture: Building aircraft to fill commercial or government requests
  • Aviator: International firsts, major records, major awards received
  • Support: Significant industrial endorsements, philanthropic, founding of relevant organizations, etc.
  • (†) : A dagger following the pioneer's name indicates they died in or as a result of an aircraft accident. When available, the aircraft type/model and the place of the accident are included in the text.

Sorting

The table is organized by pioneer name in alphabetical order. Columns for Name, Date of birth/Date of death, Country and Achievement can be sorted in either ascending or descending order. If two pioneers are paired together, sorting by DOB or Country uses the information for the first of the pair. The Achievement column will sort according to the date of the pioneer's earliest significant contribution to aviation.

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Inclusion criteria

The list is of outright records, irrespective of race, nationality or gender, and in which at least one of the following criteria is met:

  • Scientific contribution to theory and principles (whether correct or not) that were used as contemporary resources, building blocks, or influenced period thought, significant scientific or theoretical achievements with model aircraft;
  • Designing any aircraft (pre-1910), or a distinct/innovative new design;
  • Constructing a prototype aircraft (pre-1910);
  • Manufacturing aircraft (including some direct or supervisory control over design) for commercial and/or military contracts (intended to represent founders of the aviation industry);
  • Flying (Aviator) solo in an aircraft and receiving a relevant flying certificate (pre-1910); or any significant national (e.g., a flight representing a country's first) or international achievement, or flight award (initial record holders or demolishing existing records, but not simply breaking established records);
  • Supporting aviation (e.g., positive publicity; personal, corporate and/or philanthropic sponsorship, education).
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Table

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† indicates died in an air accident

More information Name, Date of birth Date of death ...
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See also

Notes

  1. [N 1]
    Ader was regarded by many to be the French "father of aviation".[5]
  2. [N 2]
    Wilbur Wright flew around the Statue of Liberty (29 September 1909) .
  3. [N 3]
    Bell's initial kite-like designs were built by McCurdy and Baldwin and could only sustain flight by being towed into the air.[22]
  4. [N 4]
    Taught Fiorello La Guardia how to fly in exchange for driving lessons.[24]
  5. [N 5]
    Crossing the Pyrenees from Pau to Madrid.[27]
  6. [N 6]
    airmail flight from Basel to Liestal.
  7. [N 7]
    Crossing the Alps from Bern to Sion.[28]
  8. [N 8]
    Geoffrey’s publication in 1138, almost 2,000 years after the alleged flight, is the first historical mention of Bladud.[32]
  9. [N 9]
    This claim is disputed since the test pilot was a seasoned cyclist and it has been claimed that only someone with extreme conditioning and/or endurance could fly the Pedaliante.[42]
  10. [N 10]
    From Santiago, Chile to Mendoza, Argentina, reaching an altitude of 8,100 m (26,575 ft).[48]
  11. [N 11]
    From Buenos Aires to Rio Grande do Sul.
  12. [N 12]
    See reference for disqualification details.[49]
  13. [N 13]
    From Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro in 79 days (with only 62 hours of flying time) using three different planes (two were lost at sea), and relying solely on astronomical navigation.[52]
  14. [N 14]
    Wilbur Wright, in 1909, commented on Cayley: “About 100 years ago an Englishman, Sir George Cayley, carried the science of flying to a point which it had never reached before and which it scarcely reached again during the last century”.[53]
  15. [N 15]
    Gliding from the Galata Tower, across the Bosphorus, landing at Doğancılar Square.[56]
  16. [N 16]
    Quote from Coanda: “A poet is a man who sees abstract worlds and tries to bring them in the concrete world. In this regard I believe that any inventor, engineer or scientist, regardless of the aria of his concerns, is also a poet.”[61]
  17. [N 17]
    From Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro in 79 days (with only 62 hours of flying time) using three different planes (two were lost at sea), and relying solely on astronomical navigation.[68]
  18. [N 18]
    In January of 1912, Dunne demonstrated improved flight stability by taking a full page of notes on paper during a 6 minute solo flight with two turns.[86]
  19. [N 19]
    Modifications for take-off required outfitting the ship with “an 83-foot-long ramp, sloping 5 degrees over the bow. The ramp’s forward edge was 37 feet above the water”.[87]
  20. [N 20]
    “The landing platform, constructed of pine planks, was 130 feet long by 32 feet wide. Ten feet of it hung at an angle -- with a drop of four feet -- over the stern of the ship. The arresting gear comprised 21 ropes -- each with 50-pound sandbags attached to either end -- laid across the runway. Each rope was suspended 8 inches above the deck. Three hooks had been affixed to the underside of the aircraft to catch on the ropes when the landing was made”.[89]
  21. [N 21]
    Born in France to a British family, Farman took French nationality in 1937.[93]
  22. [N 22]
    “Awarded to the inventor of a flying machine who shall first accomplish a flight of one kilometer in a closed circuit without touching the ground…”.[94]
  23. [N 23]
    The design was an adaptation of the device recovered by the Germans from the downed airplane of Roland Garros.[98]
  24. [N 24]
    The death of Knute Rockne in the 1931 crash of a Transcontinental & Western Air Fokker F.10 was highly publicized and shook the public’s confidence in Fokker aircraft.[100]
  25. [N 25]
    Designed and manufactured aircraft (e.g., H-1 Racer (1935), Hughes H-4 Hercules or Spruce Goose), the AIM-4 Falcon air-to-air missile.
  26. [N 26]
    “German historians do not claim that he made proper flights, but only that he was the first in Germany to leave the ground in a powered aeroplane under its own power”.[95]
  27. [N 27]
    A 60-mile circuit around Manhattan Island which he completed in just under 53 minutes.[131]
  28. [N 28]
    Despite over 50 years of research on his achievements, no substantiated proof exists regarding the dates of his work.
  29. [N 29]
    It has been suggested that Sarić’s first unobserved flight may have been in late June 1910.[172]
  30. [N 30]
    While flying as a passenger with Orville Wright, Selfridge was the first to die in an aircraft accident.[173]
  31. [N 31]
    With intermediate stops at Hawaii and Fiji) covering roughly 11,566 km (7,187 mi).
  32. [N 32]
    Spelterini began aerial photography in approximately 1893 and began taking a camera on his flights. Some highlights include Egypt (1904) and South Africa (1911).[citation needed]
  33. [N 33]
    Took a Swiss professor to high altitude to conduct blood-related experiments (1902).[181]
  34. [N 34]
    AKA – Teleshova, Teleshev, Nicolas de Telescheff.[citation needed]
  35. [N 35]
    The Voisin 1907 biplane was flown by Henry Farman to win the Deutsch-Archdeacon Prize (13 January 1908).[191]
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References

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