1909 in aviation

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1909:

Table of contents

1 Events 2 First flights 3 Entered service

Events

February

• February 23 - John McCurdy makes the first aeroplane flight in Canada in the Silver Dart

• May 14 - Samuel Cody makes the first aeroplane flight in the UK longer than 1 mile (1.6 km) in the British Army Aeroplane No. 1.

• July 25 - Louis Blériot claims a £1,000 prize from the British Daily Mail newspaper for being the first pilot to cross the English Channel. He makes the crossing in his Blériot Type XI from Les Barraques (near Calais) to Northfall Meadow (near Dover Castle) in 37 minutes. Blériot also received an additional £3,000 from the French government.

• Die Deutsche Luftschiffahrt Aktiengessellschaft (DELAG) becomes the world's first airline, founded at Frankfurt-am-Main.
• October 30 - John Moore-Brabazon in a Short Brothers aircraft flies the first circular mile in the UK and wins £1,000 from the Daily Mail newspaper.

• November 4 - John Moore-Brabazon makes the first live cargo flight by airplane when he puts a small pig in a waste-paper basket tied to a wing-strut of his airplane.

Entered service

March

• Zeppelin LZ 3 into the German Army as the Z 1

• August 1 - Wright 1908 Flyer into the US Army as Aeroplane No. 1