1908 in aviation

Events

Month unknown
The United States Army announces plans to buy flying machines.

January
January 13 - Henry Farman wins the Deutsch-Archdeacon Prize for making a circular flight of 1 kilometre (0.62 mi). The flight lasts 1 minute and 28 seconds.

March
March 17 - AEA Red Wing is destroyed in a crash on its second flight.

March 29 - Léon Delagrange makes the first recorded flight with a passenger, the well-known flier Henry Farman, at Paris, France. The flight distance is 454 feet (138 m).

May
May 14 - Charles Furnas becomes the first passenger in an aeroplane in the United States, piloted by Wilbur Wright. They fly for a distance of approximately 600m in 28-3/5ths seconds in the Wright 1905 Flyer, modified with seats for pilot and passenger. Shortly after, Orville Wright flies Furnas for 4.12km in 4 minutes 2-2/5ths seconds.[1]
May 30 - The first picture of an aircraft in flight is published in Collier's Weekly. The photograph, taken by James H. Hare, was of one of the Wright Brothers' flights on May 13 or 14.
Henry Farman is reported to have flown with a Mlle P. Van Pottelsberghe in Ghent, Belgium in late May. If correct she would be the first woman passenger in an aeroplane.

June
June 8 - Alliot Verdon Roe flies his first aircraft at Brooklands, Surrey.

June 28 - Jacob Ellehammer makes the first piloted, powered aeroplane flight in Germany.

July
July 4 - Glenn H. Curtiss is awarded the Scientific American trophy for a public flight of over 1 km at Hammondsport. Curtiss flies 1,550 m (5,090 ft) in 1 minute and 42 seconds.

July 8 - Thérèse Peltier officially becomes the first woman to fly in an aeroplane. She is a passenger on a flight made by Léon Delagrange at Turin. However, this flight may not have been fully controlled. See also May and October.

August
August 8 - Wilbur Wright makes his first flights at the Hunaudieres racetrack at Le Mans, France. The Wright Flyer used for this and later flights had been shipped to Le Havre by Orville the previous year. It had been seriously damaged by custom officials when it arrived in France and uncrated. Wilbur spent the whole summer of 1908 rebuilding the machine and getting it into flying condition. Wilbur's flights in this machine will have a profound effect on European aviation during the following months.

August 21 - Wilbur Wright moves to Camp d'Auvours, 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) east of Le Mans, where all his flights for the remainder of the year will be based.

September
September 9 - Orville Wright flies 1 hour 3 minutes and 15 seconds.

September 17 - Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge becomes the first person killed in a powered airplane and the first military aviation casualty when Orville Wright crashes his two-passenger plane during military tests at Fort Myer in Virginia. Orville Wright is severely injured.
Thérèse Peltier makes a flight of 200 metres at a height of approximately 2.5 meters at the Military Square in Turin, Italy. Photos of Peltier with the aeroplane are published on 27 September. This is the first unofficial flight by a female aviator.

October
October 5 - Zeppelin-airship LZ IV destroyed by fire at Echterdingen.

October 7 - Wilbur Wright flies with Mrs. Hart O. Berg as passenger at Camp d'Auvours. This is the first fully controlled flight with a woman passenger.

October 14 - Henry Farman makes the first cross-country flight in a power-driven aeroplane, from Bouy to Reims 27 kilometres (17 mi) in 20 minutes.

October 16 - Samuel Cody makes the first generally recognised aeroplane flight in the UK in his British Army Aeroplane No. 1.

October 18 - Wilbur Wright climbs to 115 metres (380 ft) above Camp d'Auvours.

November
Horace, Eustace and Oswald Short found Short Brothers, the first aircraft manufacturing company in England, in Battersea, London.

December
December 18 - Wilbur Wright at Camp d'Auvours, 11 kilometres east of Le Mans. flies 99.8 kilometres (62.0 mi) in 1 hour 54 minutes 2/5 sec. rising to 110 m (360 ft) - a new world record.

December 31 - Wilbur Wright wins a prize of FF 20,000 from Michelin for the longest flight of the year (a world record) - 123.2 kilometres (76.6 mi) in 2 hours 18 minutes and 33 1/5 seconds from Camp d'Auvours.

First flights

March
March 12 - AEA Red Wing, flying from the surface of Keuka Lake near Hammondsport, New York. Flight distance is 97.2 metres (319 ft) but ends with the aircraft collapsing to the ground, leaving the pilot slightly bruised. This is the first public demonstration of a powered aircraft flight in the United States.

May
May 18 - AEA White Wing

June
June 8 - Roe I Biplane

June 28 - AEA June Bug

September
September 5 - Goupy No.1, the world's first triplane

October
October 19 - Antoinette IV

December
December 6 - AEA Silver Dart