Through The Mist Darkly

French engineer, Henri Giffard, flies the 1st powered, manned airship. Powered by a steam engine and propeller, the airship flies at about 5-mph and covers 17 miles from Paris to Trappes, France. The craft marks the beginning of the practical airship.

Earle Lewis Ovington carries the first US AirMail in a Bleriot XI  from Garden City to Mineola, New York.  640 letters and 1,280 postcards in a sack were tossed over the side as he flew over Mineola.  The sack burst on impact scattering the mail.

The Learjet 45, built by Bombardier received FAA certification.

Frenchman Andre-Jacques Garnerin makes the 1^st parachute descent in England, jumping from a balloon over London.

Wilbur Wright flies the first complete circle in an airplane.

The first piloted helicopter rises above the ground.  It attains an altitude of 2 feet.  Piloted by Volumard in Douai, France.

The 1^st flight of a delta-wing jet airplane is made with the Convair XF-92A.

The North American X-15 rocket plane makes its 1^st powered flight at Edwards Air Force Base in California.  Carried aloft by a B-52, a single rocket engine generated 57,000 pounds of thrust.

In 1967 on it’s 188th flight, the X-15 piloted by Pete Knight reached a top speed of 4,159 mph, a record that still stands to this day.  Astronaut Neil Armstrong flew the X-15 in 1962.

The Canadian Aviation Corps is authorized by the Minister of Militia and Defence to be formed. This is the beginning of Canada’s military air force.  The Corps consists of 2 pilots and a mechanic. The aircraft, a Burgess-Dunne, never sees military service and the Corps is disbanded a year later.

The CAC was:

Capt. E.L. Janney, Lt. W.F.N. Sharpe and Lt. H.A. Farr. 

The Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite is launched during the Space Shuttle mission STS-48 carrying the Canadian designed Wind Imaging Interferometer (WINDII) which measures wind, temperature and emission rate from the aurora.  The satellite was decommissioned in 2005 but continues to orbit.