 
Need to get your bearings?
Try our Museum Guide.
Want to ask a question? Tell us something?
Arrange a showing of one of our airplanes? Ping:
mailto:[email protected]
Meanwhile:
How about a
little music?
We have a selection of tunes that were
popular during the first days of aviation, performed by Sue Keller, courtesy the
Ragtime Press:
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| In the
century after the first sustained, controlled flights at Kitty Hawk, aircraft technology
progressed at a pace that has been unequalled by any other invention, save the computer.
The Wright brother's best flight on December 17, 1903 covered only 852 feet at a speed of
about 34 mph. Today, aircraft routinely fly across oceans at speeds in excess of 1000 mph.
The space shuttles circles the globe at over 15,000 mph. This series of
timelines list the events the brought us from Kitty Hawk to outer space in
less than a century.
 | The First to Fly, 1904 to 1909 --
The Wright Brothers develop their temperamental Kitty Hawk Flyer into
a practical airplane, then they show the world how to fly. Meanwhile,
airplane builders on both sides of the Atlantic air making tentative
flights of their own. |
| The Pioneers, 1910 to 1914 --
Once shown the way, aeronautical engineers in America and Europe
quickly catch up to the Wrights and surpass them. Races and air meets
improve the speed and endurance of aircraft. The box-kite appearance
of the first primitive pusher aircraft gives way to the streamlined
design of the tractor biplanes and monoplanes. |
| The Great War, 1915 to 1918
-- The First World War elevates the aircraft from a machine for
scouting and observation to a versatile weapon with both defensive and
offensive roles in warfare. The first fighters and bombers evolve
during this conflict. |
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