Facts, Feats and Records 1934 to 1977
1934
8-9 August: First non-stop flight from Canada to Britain by J.R. Ayling and L.G. Reid, from Wasaga Beach, Ontario to Heston.
20 October: Start of the MacRobertson Air Race from England to Australia.
22 October-4 November: First flight from Australia to the United States.
8 December: Inauguration of the first regular weekly air mail service between England and Australia.
1935
11-12 January: First solo flight by a woman from Honolulu, Hawaii to America.
13 April: Inauguration of the first through passenger service by air from England to Australia.
6 November: First flight of the Hawker Hurricane Britain’s first monoplane fighter with enclosed cockpit, retractable landing gear and armament of eight machine guns.
22 November: First scheduled air mail flight across the Pacific Ocean, San Francisco to Manila, Philippines.
1936
March: First Spitfire flight.
26 June: The Focke-Wulf Fw 61 twin rotor helicopter, the first entirely successful powered rotary-wing aircraft in the world, made its first flight.
1937
12 April: Frank Whittle in Britain successfully ran the world’s first aircraft gas turbine engine.
Hindenburg
6 May: The German airship Hindenburg destroyed by fire in America.
1938
26 June: The first through flying boat service from England to Australia was operated by Short C Class boats of Imperial Airways.
Mercury part of Short-Mayo
20-21 July: First commercial aeroplane flight across the North Atlantic, flown by the Mercury upper component of the Short -Mayo composite.
1939
28 June: Inauguration of Pan American’s weekly New York to Southampton service flown with Boeing Model 314 flying boats.
5 August: Imperial Airways began an experimental Southampton to Montreal and New York mail service with Short C Class flying boats, which were refuelled in flight.
27 August: The German Heinkel He 178, the world’s first aircraft to fly solely on the power of a gas turbine engine, made its first flight.
2 September: Beginning of World War II.
The E28/29
1941
5 April: First flight of the Heinkel He 280, the world’s first aircraft designed specifically as a turbojet powered fighter.
15 May: The first British aircraft powered by a turbojet, the Gloster Whittle
E 28/39, flew for the first time at Cranwell, Lincolnshire.
20 May: The Luftwaffe’s largest airborne assault was launched against the island of Crete.
2 October: The German Messerschmitt Me 163, the world’s first rocket powered combat aircraft was flown at a speed of 1,004 km/hr (624 mph) during early tests.
1942
7-9 May: The Battle of the Coral Sea, the first naval battle in history which was fought entirely by carrier-based aircraft.
3 October: First successful launching of a German V-2 (A-4) ballistic rocket.
1943
9 September: The Italian battleship Roma was hit and sunk by a German Ruhrstahl/Kramer X-1 radio guided armour piercing bomb.
1944
12 July: Britain’s first jet fighter, the Gloster Meteor Mk.1, began to enter service with the Royal Air Force.
The Messerschmitt Me 262
3 October: Germany’s first jet fighter, the Messerschmitt Me 262 began to enter operational service.
1945
14 March: First operational use of the British Grand Slam bomb, weighing 9,980 kg (22,000 lb)
Bell X-1 under B-29
6 August: First military use of an atomic bomb, when a nuclear device was exploded over the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
3 December: A de-Havilland Vampire I, used for deck landing trials aboard HMS Ocean, was the first jet fighter to operate from the deck of an aircraft carrier.
1946
24 July: First manned experimental use of an ejection seat: the “guinea pig”, Bernard Lynch, ejected at 515 km/hr (320 mph)
1947
14 October: The Bell XS-1 rocket powered research aircraft became the first aircraft in the world to exceed the speed of sound, piloted by Charles Yeager, USAF.
1948
26 June: Beginning of the Berlin Airlift.
1950
25 June: Beginning of the Korean War.
29 July: A Vickers Viscount made the world’s first scheduled passenger service to be flown by a turboprop- powered airliner.
1951
21 February: A British English Electric Canberra bomber achieved the first non-stop unrefuelled crossing of the North Atlantic by a jet powered aircraft.
1952
2 May: the world’s first regular passenger service flown by a turbojet powered airliner, the de-Havilland Comet 1.
1953
18 May: American airwoman Jacqueline Cochrane, flying a North American F-86 Sabre, became the first woman in the world to fly at supersonic speed.
1954
15 July: First flight of America’s first turbojet powered commercial aircraft, the Boeing 707.
1956
21 May: The world’s first airborne hydrogen bomb was dropped on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.
1957
4 October: First man-made satellite, Sputnik 1, launched into Earth orbit by Russia.
19 December: First transatlantic passenger service flown by a turboprop-powered airliner.
1958
4 October: First transatlantic passenger service flown by a turbojet-powered airliner, the de-Havilland Comet 4.
1961
12 April: Russian spacecraft Vostok 1 launched into Earth orbit carrying Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first man to travel in space.
1963
16 June: Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova launched into Earth orbit in Vostok 6, became the first woman to travel in space.
1966
3 February: Russia’s Luna 9 spacecraft soft landed on the Moon’s surface and transmitted the first pictures of the lunar scene.
20 June: British airwoman Sheila Scott landed at Heathrow after setting a new women’s record of 33 days 3 mins for a round-the-world flight.
1967
October: North American X-15A-2 rocket powered research aircraft was flown at a speed of 7,279 km/hr (4,534 mph) by W.J. Knight.
North American X-15
1968
31 December: Russia’s Tupolev Tu-144 prototype made its first flight, the first supersonic commercial transport aircraft to fly.
1969
9 February: First flight of the world’s first wide body turbojet-powered airliner, the Boeing Model 747.
2 March: The 001 prototype of the Anglo-French Concorde supersonic transport aircraft made its first flight at Toulouse, France.
The Hawker Kestrel
1 April: The Hawker Siddeley Harrier, the world’s first V/STOL close support aircraft, first entered squadron service.
21 July: Neil Armstrong, US astronaut, became the first man to step on the Moon’s surface.
The Lunar Rover
1970
12 September: Launch of Russia’s unmanned spacecraft Luna 16, which landed on the Moon, collected soil samples, took off from the Moon under remote control and was recovered successfully on 24 September.
1971
31 July: A Boeing Lunar Roving Vehicle was driven on the Moon’s surface for the first time.
1974
14 August: First flight of a Panavia MRCA (now Tornado) multi-role combat aircraft prototype.
23 December: First flight of a Rockwell International B-1 strategic bomber prototype.
1976
21 January: Concorde SST introduces into international commercial airline service simultaneously by Air France and British Airways.
20 July: Touchdown on Mars of the first Viking Lander.
1977
7-25 February: Russia’s two manned Soyuz 24 docked with Salyut 5 spacelab during a flight lasting 424 hr 48 min.
Vostok Launcher at Le Bourget
By courtesy of : The International Encylopedia of Aviation, General Editor David Mondey, Crown Publishers New York 1977
smhusain1's Blog 
The title has to be reread properly by you
The text in the post was not invented by me but taken from a book whose reference is given. Your reply should relate to the subject.
Thank you did not take note but did have in mind
That a reference had been made via some
Aviation historian
Pieces of aviation history
Put together by yourself
Which article are you referring to and you need not remark if it doesn’t suit you.
The Berlin airlift proves how mean and stupid some politicians could be. Stalin, everyone knew about his terror policies, the millions starving to death in USSR, won’t have survived the Wehrmacht attack without the US technology (Aircraft engines,…) and supplies: fuels, food,…But Russia was not a commercial and manufacturing competitor, as Germany was, or this is what F Engels warned in his 1845 book about condition of British workers….
I read somewhere that the Berlin airlift could have been avoided as the Soviets had kept some access open. What is strange with reference to your input is that Gen. Patton was for a collusion of the United States and Germany against the Soviet Union by referring to the Germans as the wrong enemy. He was relieved at that time in the spring of 1945. In fact Churchill had also given some such indication at this time and of course followed up post war.
Excellent goods from you, man. I have understand your stuff previous to
and you are just extremely magnificent. I actually like what you’ve acquired here,
certainly like what you’re saying and the way in which you say it.
You make it entertaining and you still care for to keep it wise.
I can not wait to read far more from you. This is really a tremendous website.