1911 in aviation

January
January 18 - Eugene Ely lands on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania anchored in San Francisco Bay, marking the first time an aircraft landed on a ship.

February
February 5 - the first undisputed aeroplane flight in New Zealand is made by Vivian Walsh at Auckland in the Howard Wright biplane Manurewa.

ebruary 18 - the first airmail is carried by an aeroplane. Henri Pequet carries mail across the Jumna River, from Allahabad to Naini Junction, India.

March
the Spanish Air Force is created as the Aeronáutica militar Española, with four aircraft.
March 23 - Louis Breguet carries 11 passengers a distance of 5 km (3.1 miles)

April
April 1 - The first flying unit of the British Military, the Air Battalion Royal Engineers formed.

April 12 - Pierre Prier makes the first non-stop flight from London to Paris

May
May 8 - US Naval Aviation Service created and the Navy's first airplane, a Curtiss Model D, is ordered.

May 31 - Andre Beaumont beats Roland Garros in the Paris to Rome air race, completing the 1,465 km (910 mile) course in 28 hours, 5 minutes.

July
July 4 - First ever commercial cargo was flown by Horatio Barber in his Valkyrie B tail-first monoplane. The General Electric company paid £100 to have a box of Osram electric lamps flown from Shoreham to Hove in England.[1]

August
August 29 - Hilda Hewlett becomes the first British woman to receive a pilot's licence.

August - Harriet Quimby and Matilde Moisant become the first licensed female pilots in the United States.

September
September 9 - the first British airmail flight is made. Gustav Hamel flies from Hendon to Windsor.

September 15 - Édouard de Nié Port, one of the pre-eminent aeroplane designers and racing pilots of the era, and co-founder with his brother Charles of the French aircraft manufacturer Nieuport, is killed in a flying accident.

September 23 - the first US airmail flight is made. Earle Ovington flies 9.7 km (6 miles) from Nassau Boulevard, New York to Mineola, Long Island

October
October 19 - Eugene Ely dies in an aircrash.

October 22 - First aircraft to be used in war, an Italian Army Blériot XI, flies from Tripoli to Azizia to spy on Turkish positions.

October 24 - Orville Wright soars in a glider 9 minutes and 45 seconds over dunes near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

October 31 - John Montgomery is fatally injured in a crash of his Evergreen glider near San Jose, California.

November
November 1 - 2nd Lieutenant Giulio Gavotti of the Italian Air Flotilla drops several small bombs on Turkish troops during the Italo-Turkish War. This was the first time bombs had been dropped from an aeroplane in war.

November 5 - Calbraith Rodgers completes the first coast-to-coast airplane flight across the USA in the Vin Fiz Flyer - taking 49 days, with several crashes en-route.

First flights

April
1 April - Avro Type D

May
May 17 - Blackburn Mercury