December 17th 1903: The WrightBrothers make the first ever (powered, manned, heavier-than-air, controlled) flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Orville is the world's first aeronaut in a short flight lasting just 12 seconds and covering 37 metres. (A century later, this is still further than Concorde will ever fly again.) 1903: North-west Essex is full of prettyvillages, where only birds fly. Several of the pretty villages are suddenlydoomed. 1909: Louis Bleriot becomes the first asylum seeker to sneak into England by flying across the Channel. 1914: The Great War is the first to be fought in the air as well as on the ground. Alas, war is now looking up. 1927: Charles Lindbergh makes the first ever flight across the Atlantic, and discovers jetlag. 1938: AmeliaEarheart disappears mysteriously on her last round-the-world-flight (well, it would be, wouldn't it?). 1944: Global conflict inspires the invention of rocket technology. Some good may come of this, but not yet. 1957: The Boeing 707 enters service. EasyJet reserve first refusal on the ageing aircraft in 40 years time. 1961: Yuri Gagarin becomes the first person to see how pretty the Earth looks from space. 1969: The Boeing 747 makes possible mass passenger transit. Majorca is in big trouble, but doesn't realise yet. 1969: Man lands on Moon. Man takes photos. Man picks up a few rocks. Man drives around a bit. Man buggers off home again. 1976: Concorde makes its first commercial flight. Joan Collins and David Frost arm-wrestle for the front first class seat. 1981: The Space Shuttle Columbia ushers in a new age of less-than-thrilling going-nowhere accident-prone space travel. 1995: Deep Vein Thrombosis is invented in a laboratory by far-sighted lawyers. 2003: Pioneer 10 sends its final message back to the Earth from 7¾ billion miles away, heading for the stars. We've come a long way in 100 years.
100 (clickable) years of flight
