1908 in aviation

Template:Short description Template:Yearbox Template:Portal This is a list of aviation-related events from 1908:

Events

• The United States Army announces plans to buy flying machines.
• Fiat begins to manufacture aero engines.<ref>Chant, Chris, The WorldTemplate:'s Great Bombers, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 2000, Template:ISBN, p. 48.</ref>
• The French aircraft designer and manufacturer Édouard Nieuport begins the construction of his first aircraft, a small monoplane powered by a Template:Convert Darracq engine.<ref>Opdycke, Leonard E., French Aeroplanes Before The Great War, Atglen, Pennsylvania: Achiffer, 1999, Template:ISBN, p. 189.</ref>

January–March

• 8 January – Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin announces plans to build an airship capable of carrying 100 passengers.<ref name="Daniel, Clifton 1987, p. 108">Daniel, Clifton, ed., Chronicle of the 20th Century, Mount Kisco, New York: Chronicle Publications, 1987, Template:ISBN, p. 108.</ref>
• 13 January – Henri Farman wins the $10,000 Deutsch-Archdeacon Prize for making the worldTemplate:'s first circular flight of at least Template:Convert in a Voisin 1907 biplane. In a flight of 1 minute 28 seconds at Issy-les-Moulineaux, France, he flies well over a kilometer at an altitude of Template:Convert.<ref name="Daniel, Clifton 1987, p. 108"/>
• March – Michelin announces the Michelin Cup, a prize to be awarded for the longest distance covered by an airplane in a single flight during the calendar year, beginning with 1908. Initially, the prize is be presented annually for a period of eight years.
• 17 March – AEA Red Wing is destroyed in a crash on its second flight.
• 21 March – Henri Farman makes the first flight carrying a passenger in a biplane.<ref>Daniel, Clifton, ed., Chronicle of the 20th Century, Mount Kisco, New York: Chronicle Publications, 1987, Template:ISBN, p. 110.</ref>

April–June

• 14 May – 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 4.12 km in 4 minutes 2-2/5ths seconds.<ref name=USCoFCKH>U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission: 1908 Kitty Hawk, N.C. Template:Webarchive</ref>
• 22 May – The Wright brothers register their airplane with the United States Patent Office.<ref>Daniel, Clifton, ed., Chronicle of the 20th Century, Mount Kisco, New York: Chronicle Publications, 1987, Template:ISBN, p. 111.</ref>
• 31 May – Henry Farman is reported<ref name=Peltier>Early Aviators - Thérèse Peltier</ref> to have flown with a Mlle. P. Van Pottelsberghe de la Potterie, daughter of the mayor of Desteldonk in Ghent, Belgium. She is the first woman passenger in an aeroplane.<ref>The newspaper "Flandre Sportive" 1 June 1908 as referred to in " Een Eeuw Luchtvaart boven Gent" (Flying Pencil) by Piet Dhanens, pp 36-37, 2008</ref>
• June – Alliott Verdon Roe performs taxiing and towed flight trials with his first powered aeroplane at Brooklands, Surrey.
• 28 June – Jacob Ellehammer makes the first piloted, powered aeroplane flight in Germany.

July–September

• The Royal NavyTemplate:'s Director of Naval Ordnance, Captain Reginald Bacon, recommends that the Royal Navy acquire an airship to compete with the Kaiserliche MarineTemplate:'s Zeppelins.
• 4 July – Glenn H. Curtiss is awarded the Scientific American trophy for being the first person in the United States to make a public flight of over Template:Convert in the AEA June Bug.<ref>Angelucci, Enzo, The American Fighter: The Definitive Guide to American Fighter Aircraft From 1917 to the Present, New York: Orion Books, 1987, p. 107.</ref> The award is for a flight at Hammondsport in which he flies Template:Convert in 1 minute and 42 seconds.
• 8 July – 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.<ref name=Delagrange>Early Aviators - Leon Delagrange</ref> See also #May and #October.
• 8 August – Wilbur Wright makes his first flights at the Hunaudières 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 was 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.
• 9 August – In the Ferber IX, French aviator Georges Legagneux makes a flight at Issy-les-Moulineaux, France, that wins him the Aero Club de France's third and final Template:Convert prize.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> He will be retrospectively disqualified in September for making the flight too early in the morning.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
• 20 August – Robert Gastambide becomes the first passenger carried by a monoplane when he is taken up on the Antoinette II.<ref name="Donald, David 1997, p. 52">Donald, David, ed., The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997, Template:ISBN, p. 52.</ref>
• 21 August
  • Wilbur Wright moves to Camp d'Auvours, Template:Convert east of Le Mans, where all his flights for the remainder of the year will be based.<ref name=USCoFCCD>U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission: 1908 Camp d'Auvours, Le Mans, France Template:Webarchive</ref>
  • The Antoinette II flies the first circle by a monoplane.<ref name="Donald, David 1997, p. 52"/>
• 3 September – Seeking a contract to build the United States ArmyTemplate:'s first airplane, Orville Wright begins flight trials before Army observers at Fort Myer, Virginia, in a new Wright Model A flyer. The flight lasts 1 minute 11 seconds.<ref name="Boys 1989, p. 374">Crouch, Tom, The BishopTemplate:'s Boys: A Life of Wilbur and Orville Wright, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1989, p. 374.</ref>
• 6 September – Léon Delagrange sets distance and endurance records with a flight of Template:Convert lasting 29 minutes 53.8 seconds at Issy-les-Moulineaux, France.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
• 9 September – At Fort Myer, Orville Wright sets three world records: a flight endurance record of 57 minutes 13 seconds on his first flight, a new flight endurance record of 1 hour 2 minutes and 15 seconds on his second flight (the worldTemplate:'s first airplane flight of over one hour), and an endurance record for a flight with a passenger (Army Lieutenant Frank P. Lahm) of 6 minutes 24 seconds on his third flight.<ref name="Boys 1989, p. 374"/>
• 10 September – At Fort Myer, Orville Wright sets a world flight endurance record of 1 hour 5 minutes and 52 seconds.<ref name="Boys 1989, p. 374"/>
• 11 September – At Fort Myer, Orville Wright sets a world flight endurance record of 1 hour 10 minutes and 24 seconds.<ref>Crouch, Tom, The BishopTemplate:'s Boys: A Life of Wilbur and Orville Wright, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1989, p. 374-375.</ref>
• 12 September – At Fort Myer, Orville Wright sets a world record for flight endurance with a passenger (Army Major George O. Squier) of 9 minutes Template:Frac seconds.<ref>Crouch, Tom, The BishopTemplate:'s Boys: A Life of Wilbur and Orville Wright, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1989, p. 375.</ref>
• 17 September – U.S. Army Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge becomes the first person killed in a powered aircraft crash and the first military aviation casualty when the Wright Model A, piloted by Orville Wright during U.S. Army tests, suffers a broken propeller and crashes from an altitude of Template:Convert at Fort Myer. Wright is severely injured.<ref name=USCoFCKH/><ref>Daniel, Clifton, ed., Chronicle of the 20th Century, Mount Kisco, New York: Chronicle Publications, 1987, Template:ISBN, p. 116.</ref>
• Thérèse Peltier makes a flight of Template:Convert at a height of approximately Template:Convert at the Military Square in Turin, Italy. Photos of Peltier with the aeroplane are published on 27 September.<ref name=Peltier/> Unofficially, it is the first flight by a female aviator.
• 28 September – At Camp d'Avours, France, Wilbur Wright sets a world airplane endurance record in a flight of 1 hour 32 minutes, covering Template:Convert, winning a $1,000 prize from the Aero Club of France for the longest flight in history over an enclosed ground.<ref name="Daniel, Clifton 1987, p. 117">Daniel, Clifton, ed., Chronicle of the 20th Century, Mount Kisco, New York: Chronicle Publications, 1987, Template:ISBN, p. 117.</ref>

October–December

• 3 October – George P. Dicken of the New York Herald becomes the first newspaper reporter to fly in an airplane when he rides as a passenger with Wilbur Wright at Camp dTemplate:'Auvours.<ref>Crouch, Tom, The BishopTemplate:'s Boys: A Life of Wilbur and Orville Wright, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1989, p. 381.</ref> The flight sets a world record for the longest with a passenger, lasting 55 minutes 37 seconds.<ref name="Daniel, Clifton 1987, p. 117"/>
• 5 October – The Zeppelin LZ IV is destroyed by fire at Echterdingen, Germany.
• 6 October – At Camp dTemplate:'Avours, Wilbur Wright sets another world record for a flight with a passenger, remaining aloft for 1 hour 4 minutes 26 seconds. He wins a $100,000 prize from a French syndicate for making two record-setting flights with a passenger within the same week.<ref name="Daniel, Clifton 1987, p. 117"/>
• 7 October – Wilbur Wright flies with Edith Ogilby Berg, aka Mrs. Hart O. Berg,<ref name=Berg>Monash University - Aviation Biographies</ref> as passenger at Camp dTemplate:'Auvours.<ref name=USCoFCCD/> This is the first fully controlled flight with a woman passenger.<ref name=Delagrange/><ref name=Berg/>
• 16 October – Samuel Cody makes his first aeroplane flight in the UK in British Army Aeroplane No. 1.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• 18 October – Wilbur Wright climbs to Template:Convert above Camp d'Auvours.<ref name=USCoFCCD/>
• 30 October – Henry Farman makes the first cross-country flight in a power-driven aeroplane, flying from Bouy to Reims Template:Convert in 20 minutes.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• November – Horace, Eustace and Oswald Short found Short Brothers, the first aircraft manufacturing company in England, in Battersea, London.
• 18 December
  • Wilbur Wright at Camp d'Auvours(fr), Template:Convert east of Le Mans, France, flies Template:Convert in 1 hour 54 minutes 2/5 second, rising to an altitude of Template:Convert – a new world record.<ref name=USCoFCCD/>
  • American aeronaut and aerial photographer Melvin Vaniman flies a steel-tube-frame triplane he designed and built himself a distance of Template:Convert above the parade ground at Issy-les-Moulineaux, France.<ref>Kenney, Kimberly, "A Thousand Miles By Airship", Aviation History, July 2012, p. 53.</ref>
• 24 December – The first Paris Aeronautical Salon opens the Grand Palais.<ref>The Paris Aeronautical SalonFlight 2 January 1909</ref>
• 31 December – Wilbur Wright sets a new nonstop distance record for an airplane, flying Template:Convert on a triangular course in 2 hours 18 minutes 33.2 seconds at Camp d'Auvours in Le Mans, France. He wins the 1908 Michelin Cup, a prize of FF20,000 from Michelin, for the longest nonstop distance in a single flight in 1908.<ref name=USCoFCCD/><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

First flights

January–June

• 12 March - AEA Red Wing, flying from the surface of Keuka Lake near Hammondsport, New York. Flight distance is Template:Convert 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.<ref name="Washington Post">"Selfridge Aerodrome Sails Steadily for 319 Feet. At 25 to 30 miles an Hour." The Washington Post, 13 May 1908.</ref>
• 18 May - AEA White Wing
• 8 June - Roe I Biplane
• 21 June - AEA June Bug
• By 30 June - Blériot VIII, undated flight of some Template:Convert at Issy-les-Moulineaux, France<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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July–December

• 5 September - Goupy No.1, the world's first triplane
• 19 October - Antoinette IV
• 6 December - AEA Silver Dart