Aviation · 1903 → 2026
From the Wright brothers' twelve seconds to Qantas' nineteen-hour flight: the aircraft, the airlines, the routes and the milestones that changed the way we fly — told with our own illustrations.
The whole century, from the Wright brothers to today: aircraft, airlines, routes, treaties and the milestones that changed the way we fly.
At Kitty Hawk, Orville and Wilbur Wright’s Flyer achieves the first controlled, powered flight of a heavier-than-air machine: twelve seconds that opened the century of flight.
Wilbur Wright circles a closed course for thirty-nine minutes and covers nearly forty kilometres; he only came down because he ran out of fuel. That single flight lasted longer than every flight of 1903 and 1904 put together: the aeroplane was ceasing to be a hop and becoming transport.
Brazilian Alberto Santos-Dumont takes off in his 14-bis at the Bagatelle field and makes the first verified public flight in Europe; three weeks later he covers 220 metres and takes the Aéro-Club de France prize. His machine took off on its own wheels, with no catapult or rails, which is why Brazil and France long held him to be the true father of aviation.
Brothers Gabriel and Charles Voisin begin selling series-built aircraft from Billancourt, each one like the last, to customers such as Léon Delagrange and Henri Farman. Until then every airman built his own machine in a workshop: this is where the aviation industry begins.
At Kitty Hawk, mechanic Charles Furnas climbs aboard the Flyer with Wilbur Wright and becomes the first passenger in history; the same day he goes up again with Orville. Months later, at Fort Myer, Orville stays in the air for an hour and two minutes. The aeroplane could now carry someone, and stay up.
Louis Blériot flies from Calais to Dover in thirty-six minutes, with no compass, steering by a ship heading the same way. He won the Daily Mail’s thousand pounds and, along the way, taught Britain that its moat had stopped protecting it.
Near Reims, paid for by the champagne houses, the first international flying week in history is held: half a million spectators, heads of state and every aircraft builder of the moment competing for speed, height and distance. Henri Farman flew 180 kilometres without stopping. There it became clear this was not a fairground curiosity but an industry.
Peruvian Jorge Chávez leaves Brig in a Blériot XI and clears the Simplon above two thousand metres, through turbulence, reaching Domodossola: nobody had crossed the Alps by aeroplane. His machine broke up on landing and he died four days later; his motto, “higher, always higher”, stayed with Peruvian aviation.
Over New York, Canadian John McCurdy taps a telegraph key fitted to his Curtiss biplane and his message reaches an operator waiting on the roof of the Sheepshead Bay grandstand. It is the first link in everything that followed: radio on board, air traffic control and navigation by radio waves.
Calbraith Rodgers flies from New York to Pasadena in a Wright paid for by a grape soft drink: forty-nine days, seventy stops and sixteen crashes. By the time he reached California almost no original part was left. It was the first coast-to-coast air crossing of the United States.
Britain’s Avro flies the Type F, the first aircraft with a fully enclosed cabin, glazed with celluloid. Until then you flew in the open, taking the wind, the rain and the engine oil in your face. All the comfort of modern cabins starts here.
In Saint Petersburg, a young Igor Sikorsky flies the first four-engine aircraft in history, at a time when almost everyone took for granted that such a machine would never even lift off. It had an enclosed cabin, electric light and room to walk about inside in mid-flight: the direct ancestor of the great airliners.
Garros takes off from Fréjus and, after almost eight hours over open sea and two engine faults fixed in flight, lands at Bizerte with less than ten litres of fuel left. The first non-stop crossing of the Mediterranean; the Paris tennis stadium carries his name today.
A Benoist flying boat opens the St. Petersburg–Tampa line in Florida: twenty-three minutes and one passenger. Scheduled commercial aviation is born.
While the whole world is building aircraft of wood and doped fabric braced with wire, Hugo Junkers flies one made entirely of metal. They nicknamed it the “tin donkey” and it looked like folly, but every airliner that followed came out of that idea.
In Seattle, William Boeing and naval engineer Conrad Westervelt found the Pacific Aero Products Co. A year later it would be renamed the Boeing Airplane Company and would end up as half of the duopoly that builds the world’s aircraft.
On Long Island an aircraft flies under the command of Elmer Sperry’s gyroscopes, holding its heading and altitude with no hands on the controls. That experimental rig is the direct origin of the autopilot and the artificial horizon on which any flight at night or in cloud depends today.
Industrialist Pierre-Georges Latécoère sets up a line in Toulouse to carry the mail to Africa and, one day, to South America; on that same Christmas Day a converted military Salmson makes the first flight to Barcelona. Out of that company, later named Aéropostale, would come the legend of its pilots — among them Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the author of The Little Prince.
The Royal Dutch Airlines is founded: the oldest airline in the world still operating under its original name.
SCADTA is founded in Barranquilla and would connect Colombia with Junkers flying boats; today, as Avianca, it is the oldest in the Americas in continuous operation.
Alcock and Brown fly from Newfoundland to Ireland in a Vickers Vimy: sixteen hours over the ocean, the first direct Atlantic crossing in history.
Twenty-seven countries sign in Paris the first great air treaty in history and agree that the sky above each country belongs to that country. The text itself would be superseded by Chicago in 1944, but its central idea — sovereignty of the airspace — is still the foundation of every flight permit in the world.
In the Queensland outback, the oldest airline in the English-speaking world is born — a pioneer of the ultra-long routes that define it today.
Airmail between Cairo and Baghdad begins. Since the desert offers not a single landmark to steer by, a continuous furrow hundreds of kilometres long was ploughed into the ground for pilots to follow from the air. It was the first regular air link to the Middle East: two days of flying instead of weeks at sea.
To prove the aeroplane could beat the train, the US mail crosses the country from San Francisco to New York in thirty-three hours, flying through the night as well. Pilot Jack Knight flew the darkness between Nebraska and Illinois guided only by his compass and by bonfires lit on the ground by farmers and volunteers. That flight convinced Congress not to shut the service down.
Over California, Wesley May climbs from one aircraft to another in flight with a can of petrol strapped to his back and empties it into the second one’s tank. It was a barnstormer’s stunt, but it proved something that looked impossible: an aircraft could take on fuel without touching the ground.
Portuguese airmen Gago Coutinho and Sacadura Cabral link Lisbon with Rio de Janeiro by air. They managed it thanks to a sextant Coutinho invented to measure a star’s altitude without seeing the horizon: for the first time an aircraft found its way over the ocean by the stars. Four years later the Dornier Wal flying boat “Plus Ultra” would repeat the feat in one go, between Spain and Buenos Aires.
Germany and the young Soviet Union jointly create Deruluft and open the line between Königsberg and Moscow, via Kaunas and Smolensk. It was the first regular air link into eastern Europe, and it carried mostly mail and freight.
In the Soviet Union, Aeroflot is born; it would become the largest airline in the world and the symbol of Eastern Bloc aviation.
Four US Army biplanes take off from Seattle and, one hundred and seventy-five days and seventy-four stops later, two of them close the circle: the first aerial circumnavigation in history. The crews were military, but the lesson was for everyone — the whole planet could be linked by air.
Delta starts out dusting crops in the American South; in time it would become one of the largest airlines on the planet.
Deutsche Luft Hansa is founded, the seed of the German flag carrier and one of the most influential companies in Europe.
From the merger of dozens of small mail lines, American Airlines is born — today one of the largest airlines in the world.
Pan Am is incorporated, the airline that would open the Pacific and Atlantic routes and define international aviation for sixty-four years.
Iberia is founded, the Spanish flag carrier and a historic air bridge between Europe and Latin America.
Charles Lindbergh links New York and Paris in thirty-three and a half hours, non-stop and solo, aboard the Spirit of St. Louis.
In Rio Grande do Sul, Varig is born — the first airline in Brazil and, for decades, its flag carrier and a source of national pride.
Línea Aérea Nacional is born in Chile; almost a century later, as LATAM, it is the largest airline group in Latin America.
Signed in Warsaw, the treaty unifies tickets and baggage checks and, above all, sets for the first time how much an airline is liable for if a passenger is injured or killed and if cargo is lost. For seventy years it was the basis of travellers’ claims, until the Montreal Convention took over in 1999.
Earhart becomes the first woman to cross the Atlantic solo, from Newfoundland to Northern Ireland.
From the merger of several companies, Air France is born — the French flag carrier and one of the great airlines of Europe.
Aeronaves de México takes off, today Aeroméxico, the Mexican flag carrier and one of the oldest in Latin America.
The Douglas DC-3 flies for the first time. Reliable and profitable, it finally turns carrying passengers into a business that pays for itself.
See the model in the encyclopediaPan Am’s Martin M-130 flying boat opens transpacific airmail: six days from San Francisco to Manila, island-hopping across the ocean.
The German airship catches fire while mooring in New Jersey. It was the end of the era of the great passenger zeppelins.
Aviator and tycoon Howard Hughes flies around the planet in a Lockheed 14 in ninety-one hours, less than half the time Wiley Post had taken five years earlier. He proved that an ordinary airliner, well navigated, could take on the whole world.
Roosevelt signs the Civil Aeronautics Act and creates the Civil Aeronautics Authority, the first body in the world devoted solely to aviation and with powers of its own: it sets fares, allocates routes among the airlines and investigates accidents in order to issue safety rules. Twenty years later its functions would pass to the FAA.
The Dixie Clipper, a Boeing 314, opens the first scheduled passenger service across the North Atlantic.
TWA introduces the Boeing 307 Stratoliner, the first airliner with a pressurised cabin: instead of flying through bad weather it can fly above it. The journey stops being one long succession of jolts.
Philippine Airlines is founded in Manila and starts out flying to Baguio with a single twin-engine aircraft. It is the oldest airline in Asia still operating under its original name.
The Canadian Pacific railway company buys ten small bush-flying outfits and merges them into a single airline. The railway that had stitched Canada together takes to the air to reach where there are no rails.
To reopen the link between Australia and London that the war had cut, Qantas flew Perth to Ceylon in Catalina flying boats, non-stop and in radio silence: between twenty-eight and thirty-two hours at a stretch. Passengers saw the sun rise twice and received a certificate of the Order of the Double Sunrise. It remains the longest scheduled passenger service in history by duration.
With the war not yet over, some fifty countries sign in Chicago the most important treaty in aviation history: it creates ICAO — the United Nations civil aviation body — unifies technical navigation standards worldwide and defines the “freedoms of the air”, the permissions that let an airline fly to another country. It still governs every international flight.
A group of Panamanian investors founds Compañía Panameña de Aviación with help from Pan Am. It would start flying three years later with three DC-3s and end up making Panama the great connecting point of the Americas.
Fifty-seven airlines from thirty-one countries meet in Havana and found the International Air Transport Association. Out of it would come the codes, the tickets and the rules that let you cross half the world on a single booking.
An American pilot and an Australian one found Cathay Pacific in Hong Kong with a second-hand DC-3 they called Betsy. In time it would become one of the great gateways between Asia and the rest of the world.
Denmark, Norway and Sweden merge their carriers into a single Scandinavian airline. Eight years later it would be the first to carry passengers over the North Pole.
In an Italy just out of the war, Alitalia is born; for more than half a century it would be the Italian flag carrier and the country’s symbol in the air.
Chuck Yeager exceeds the speed of sound aboard the Bell X-1 rocket plane: flight enters the supersonic age.
A Catalina flying boat on the short hop between Macau and Hong Kong is seized in mid-air by four men intent on robbing it. It was the first hijacking of a commercial aircraft in history: nobody even knew what to call it, and from it airport security would eventually be born.
New York opens Idlewild International Airport, designed from scratch for the aircraft that were coming. In 1963 it would be renamed John F. Kennedy and become the great gateway into the United States.
The de Havilland Comet flies for the first time: the world’s first commercial jet, which opened the jet age for passengers.
The Argentine state creates Aerolíneas Argentinas, which would link the country’s vast territory and become one of the great airlines of South America.
Japan Airlines is founded, the first major airline of post-war Japan and a symbol of the country’s revival.
In Tokyo, the Japan Helicopter and Aeroplane Transport company takes off; in 1957 it would take the name All Nippon Airways. In time it would become Japan’s largest airline and the one to put the Dreamliner into service first.
The airlines agree on a far cheaper fare for crossing the Atlantic: tourist class. Flying stops being a luxury for the few and, within a few years, most passengers in the world travel on that ticket.
The Vickers Viscount opens the world’s first scheduled service with turbine engines, between London and Nicosia. It flies higher and faster than piston airliners, and without their vibration: passengers discover a far quieter journey.
Two companies merge to create Air Algérie, which after independence would become Algeria’s flag carrier and one of the major airlines of North Africa.
An SAS DC-6B links Copenhagen with Los Angeles across the Arctic, stopping in Greenland and Canada. The polar route shortens the way between Europe and the American west and opens a whole new geography to aviation.
Australian scientist David Warren proposes a device to record cockpit voices and flight data, so that what happened can be known when there is no one left to ask. From that idea would come the flight recorder carried by every aircraft in the world today.
The Tupolev Tu-104 puts the Soviet Union into the jet age. For a time it was the only jet airliner in scheduled service anywhere in the world.
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The Dutch turboprop takes off and would become one of the best-selling and best-loved regional aircraft in the world, and the emblem of the Fokker name.
See the model in the encyclopediaThe US aviation authority leases an IBM 650 computer and installs it at the Indianapolis control centre to find out whether a machine can ease the controllers’ manual workload. It is the first time computing steps into air traffic control.
The 707 makes jet travel popular and the world smaller: crossing the Atlantic starts to be measured in hours.
See the model in the encyclopediaA BOAC Comet 4 links London and New York in both directions and, three weeks later, Pan Am launches the Boeing 707 between New York and Paris. That same year, for the first time, more people crossed the Atlantic by air than by sea.
After a mid-air collision over the Grand Canyon, the United States replaces the body created in 1938 with the Federal Aviation Agency, which places the whole airspace under radar surveillance. Air traffic control stops depending on pilots seeing one another.
Delta and United introduce the Douglas DC-8 on the same day, the great rival of the 707. With it, the manufacturer that had ruled the propeller era steps fully into the jet age.
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Air France introduces the Sud Aviation Caravelle, the first airliner with its engines mounted at the rear of the fuselage: a far quieter cabin and a silhouette that dozens of aircraft would copy.
Thailand and Scandinavian SAS jointly found Thai Airways International. Out of that partnership would come one of Asia’s major airlines and the rise of Bangkok as the gateway to Southeast Asia.
American Airlines and IBM unveil SABRE, the system that takes reservations off cardboard cards and puts them into a computer: what took three quarters of an hour is settled in seconds. It is the grandfather of every flight search engine.
The terminal Eero Saarinen designed for TWA opens in New York, a concrete roof shaped like outstretched wings. The airport stops being a functional shed and becomes the symbol of the jet age’s optimism.
The 727 takes off, able to operate from short runways with no ground support. It was the best-selling airliner in the world until its own sibling, the 737, overtook it.
See the model in the encyclopediaOnce aircraft began crossing oceans an awkward question appeared: if a crime is committed in mid-flight over the sea, whose police force is in charge? Tokyo answers that the law on board is that of the country where the aircraft is registered, and gives the commander legal authority to restrain a dangerous passenger.
The first Learjet 23 is delivered, a small, fast jet built to take a handful of passengers wherever and whenever they want. It did not improve a market: it created one, the private jet.
The Douglas DC-9 flies, designed for short runways and small airports: it brings the jet to half-hour hops. Its descendants — the MD-80s and the Boeing 717 — would still be flying half a century later.
See the model in the encyclopediaA BEA Trident inbound from Paris lands by itself in London with passengers on board: the first fully automatic landing in commercial aviation. Fog stops being a border.
Britain’s Sheila Scott circles the planet alone at the controls of a Piper Comanche light aircraft: thirty-four days and some fifty thousand kilometres. She was the third woman to fly around the world.
Malaysia and Singapore put a shared airline into the air. When its aircraft were divided in 1972, two Asian greats were born from it: Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Airlines.
Southwest Airlines is born and popularises the low-cost model — a single aircraft type and simple fares — that half the world copies today.
The 737 takes off; over the years it would become the best-selling commercial airliner in all of history.
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The Tupolev Tu-144 flies for the first time, two months before Concorde: the first supersonic passenger aircraft in history, nicknamed the Concordski.
The 747, the first wide-body airliner, democratises long-haul travel with its unmistakable hump. It ruled the skies for almost half a century.
See the model in the encyclopediaConcorde flies for the first time. The only lasting supersonic airliner would cross the Atlantic in under three and a half hours.
The French and the Germans sign Airbus Industrie into being, a European consortium set up to take on the American manufacturers. Almost nobody bet on it; half a century later it would be half of the world duopoly.
The Concorde prototypes fly at twice the speed of sound for the first time. The aircraft that had promised to cross the Atlantic in three and a half hours proves it can deliver.
Faced with the wave of hijackings of the late sixties, countries agree at The Hague that seizing an aircraft is a serious crime and that whoever does it will be prosecuted or extradited without exception, wherever they land. Safe havens are over.
A man calling himself Dan Cooper hijacks a Boeing 727, collects a ransom and parachutes out through the rear airstair. He was never found, but his escape changed aircraft: ever since, a small vane — the “Cooper vane” — keeps that stair from opening in flight.
A year after The Hague, nations sign its twin treaty in Montreal: where that one punished hijacking, this makes planting a bomb on an aircraft or attacking an air navigation facility an international crime, wherever it happens and whoever does it. It was the legal answer to two decades of attacks on aircraft.
The A300 flies, the world’s first wide-body twinjet and the founding aircraft of Airbus: the seed of the great duopoly with Boeing.
See the model in the encyclopediaThe United States bans flying faster than sound over its territory: the sonic boom proved unbearable on the ground. The rule left Concorde without the market that would have made it profitable and sealed the commercial fate of supersonic flight.
From the merger of BOAC and BEA, British Airways is born — the United Kingdom flag carrier, whose origins go back to the world’s first daily international air service, in 1919.
The de Havilland Canada Dash 7 flies, a four-engine turboprop able to take off and land on very short runways and quiet enough to operate from airports inside the city. It opened up the airfields jets could not use.
The Ilyushin Il-86 flies, the Soviet Union’s first wide-body aircraft. It came with an idea of its own: passengers entered through the hold, left their suitcase there and climbed an internal staircase to the cabin, so the aircraft could work at airports with no infrastructure.
Two 747s, from KLM and Pan Am, collide on the runway at Los Rodeos in fog. It changed cockpit safety and communication forever.
The deregulation act opens the American air market to competition: low fares arrive, along with a new era of airlines that would change the industry worldwide.
The McDonnell Douglas MD-80 takes off, a stretched and re-engined DC-9 that would become one of the best-selling and most widespread single-aisle aircraft in the skies of the world.
See the model in the encyclopediaTexas International Airlines launches the first programme that rewards passengers for the miles they fly. The idea of collecting miles and redeeming them for trips would be copied by every airline in the world and would change how people choose who to fly with.
A Pan Am Boeing 747 lands in Beijing: the first commercial flight between the United States and mainland China in thirty-two years. Aviation brings the two powers together again.
The 767 opens the era of the big transoceanic twinjets: more efficient than four-engine aircraft, they opened routes that once demanded three or four engines.
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The Airbus A310 modernises the flight deck — two pilots and screens instead of three crew and dial instruments — setting the course for the aircraft that would follow.
See the model in the encyclopediaAfter the shooting down of flight KAL 007, the United States decides to open its satellite navigation system, GPS, to civil use; today it guides every aircraft, ship and phone on the planet.
Richard Branson launches Virgin Atlantic with a single Boeing 747 between London and New York, challenging the British Airways monopoly with an irreverent style that shook the industry.
A 747 loses control after a faulty repair of the pressure bulkhead. It shaped the engineering of structural safety.
With two leased aircraft, the operation that in four decades would become one of the largest in the world — and the great driver of the A380 — takes off from Dubai.
Ryanair is born and would take low cost to the extreme, becoming the airline with the most international passengers in the world.
The Antonov An-124 Ruslan enters service, developed in the Soviet Union: the largest cargo aircraft in the world at the time, able to carry loads no other aircraft could move.
The A320 brings fly-by-wire controls to commercial aviation: the pilot flies through computers. It changed modern piloting.
See the model in the encyclopediaA bomb destroys a Pan Am 747 over Scotland. It changed security and baggage screening around the world forever.
From the break-up of Chinese state aviation, Air China is born — the country’s flag carrier and today one of the largest in Asia.
On the tropical island of Hainan, the airline that would grow into one of the great carriers of China is born.
The McDonnell Douglas MD-11 flies, heir to the DC-10 and one of the last three-engine airliners. It still crosses the world today as a freighter.
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The A340 takes off, the four-engine aircraft with which Airbus tackles the longest routes on the planet and stands up to Boeing outside Europe.
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China Southern is born and would become the largest airline in China and in all of Asia by passenger numbers.
The European Union’s third package creates the single aviation market: any European airline may fly any route within the Union. It was the spark of the low-cost boom on the continent.
Qatar Airways takes off from Doha and within a few decades would become one of the most awarded premium airlines in the world.
Designed on computer from start to finish, the 777 proves that two engines are enough to cross any ocean.
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With cheap tickets and no frills, easyJet brings to Europe the low-cost model that would change the way the continent flies forever.
A Boeing 747 breaks up in the air shortly after taking off from New York: 230 lives lost. The investigation led to new rules for inerting fuel tanks worldwide.
The biggest merger in the industry leaves two giants face to face — Boeing and Airbus — and switches off the historic DC and MD names.
Five airlines from four continents agree to share codes, lounges and points programmes. For the first time you can fly round the world on a single ticket and a single card.
The Boeing 717 flies — the former MD-95, final heir to the DC-9 — the last airliner designed by McDonnell Douglas before it merged into Boeing.
See the model in the encyclopediaBertrand Piccard and Brian Jones complete the first non-stop balloon flight around the world aboard the Breitling Orbiter 3: almost twenty days in the air.
Seventy years on, Montreal replaces Warsaw: the airline is automatically liable for a passenger’s death or injury, and above a certain figure there is no ceiling unless it can prove it was not at fault. It also requires compensation for lost baggage and delays. It is the basis of today’s claims.
American, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas answer with an alliance of their own. The airline world starts organising itself into blocs that divide up the planet.
An Air France Concorde crashes on take-off from Paris. The commercial supersonic dream would not recover: it was retired in 2003.
Air France, Delta, Aeroméxico and Korean Air close the third bloc. Ever since, almost every international flight in the world belongs to one of the three alliances.
Four hijacked aircraft change aviation and the world. Air security would never be the same again.
A treaty no passenger has heard of, and the reason there are so many new aircraft: it creates an international registry of interests in aircraft, so that if an airline goes under, the bank or the lessor can recover its aircraft wherever it is parked. Lower risk meant a lower cost to finance whole fleets.
Brazil’s Embraer E170 launches the regional jet family that would make Embraer the third-largest airliner manufacturer in the world.
See the model in the encyclopediaThe European Aviation Safety Agency starts work in Cologne: a single body certifies aircraft, maintenance shops and licences for the whole European Union, instead of a different authority in every country. It is Europe’s counterweight to the FAA.
Singapore Airlines links Singapore and New York non-stop with an A340-500: more than 15,000 km and around 18 hours, the longest commercial flight in the world of its time.
The French and the Dutch airline — the oldest in the world — join into a single group while keeping both brands. It is Europe’s first great cross-border airline merger.
The largest passenger aircraft ever built, with two full decks from end to end.
See the model in the encyclopediaAn A320 runs off the wet runway at Congonhas, in São Paulo, and hits a building: 199 lives lost. It forced a deep reform of airport safety in Brazil.
A Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 flies from London to Amsterdam with a biofuel blend in one engine: the first, still experimental, step towards more sustainable aviation.
The Superjet 100 flies, the first Russian passenger aircraft of the post-Soviet era, developed with Western partners to compete in the regional jet market.
The first airliner with a fuselage made mostly of carbon fibre: lighter, more efficient and more comfortable in the cabin.
See the model in the encyclopediaAn A330 goes down in the Atlantic in a storm. The case rewrote pilot training for aerodynamic stalls.
The eruption of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull fills the sky with ash and forces European airspace to close: more than a hundred thousand flights cancelled, the largest shutdown since the Second World War.
After years of delay, the Boeing 787 carries its first passengers with Japan’s ANA: the carbon-fibre aircraft finally takes to commercial skies.
The British and Spanish flag carriers move under a single holding company without giving up their names. Vueling and Aer Lingus would join later.
Lufthansa launches the 747-8 Intercontinental, the final and longest version of the Jumbo: at the time, the longest passenger aircraft in the world and the last chapter of the 747’s reign.
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The Chilean and the Brazilian airline merge into the largest aviation group in Latin America. Two historic flags step aside to make room for a common brand.
Airbus’s composite twinjet for long-haul routes, a direct rival to the 787 and the 777.
See the model in the encyclopediaA Malaysia Airlines 777 disappears with 239 people on board. It remains the greatest mystery of modern aviation.
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa forces the first large-scale use of temperature checks and passenger tracing at departure and arrival airports. Out of those protocols, and of what was learned about disinfecting cabins, came the playbook aviation would have to dust off six years later.
Born as the Bombardier CSeries and later adopted by Airbus, it modernises the hundred-seat segment.
See the model in the encyclopediaIn Montreal, countries agree that international airlines will offset the CO₂ emissions they produce above 2020 levels. It was the first climate agreement covering an entire economic sector worldwide, and the first step on aviation’s road to net zero.
The C919 flies for the first time: the first Chinese-built single-aisle airliner to challenge the 737 and the A320.
See the model in the encyclopediaFour years after MH370 vanished, ICAO begins requiring airliners to report their position at least every fifteen minutes, including over the oceans and the poles, where radar does not reach. The planet’s blind spots shrink to a minimum.
Airbus takes control of Bombardier’s CSeries programme and renames it the A220. A Canadian aircraft takes a European surname and goes on sale through the largest commercial network in the world.
See the model in the encyclopediaOn a research flight, a Qantas 787-9 connects the two cities non-stop for the first time: 19 hours and 16 minutes, almost 16,200 km.
COVID-19 grounds most of the world fleet and sinks air traffic: the deepest crisis in the history of aviation.
Airbus delivers the last A380 superjumbo to Emirates. The era of the largest passenger aircraft closes barely sixteen years after its debut.
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After fifty-four years and more than fifteen hundred aircraft, the last 747 leaves the factory. The reign of the Queen of the Skies ends.
See the model in the encyclopediaA door plug blows out in flight from a 737 MAX 9 — with no casualties — reopening worldwide scrutiny of safety in aircraft manufacturing.
Boom’s XB-1 demonstrator exceeds the speed of sound: the first civil aircraft to do so since Concorde, with the promise of bringing supersonic flight back.
Qantas unveils its Airbus A350-1000ULR: from 2027 it will fly non-stop from Sydney to London, up to twenty-two hours, the longest commercial route ever scheduled.
See the model in the encyclopediaThe US aviation authority proposes retiring the 1973 ban and replacing it with a noise limit: what will be judged is no longer speed, but how much of the boom reaches the ground. The proposal is out for public comment and final rules are expected in 2027; if adopted, commercial supersonic flight could return half a century later.
Who took to the air and when — and the houses that went dark. A century of airlines told through their own logos.
Industrialist Pierre-Georges Latécoère sets up a line in Toulouse to carry the mail to Africa and, one day, to South America; on that same Christmas Day a converted military Salmson makes the first flight to Barcelona. Out of that company, later named Aéropostale, would come the legend of its pilots — among them Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the author of The Little Prince.
The Royal Dutch Airlines is founded: the oldest airline in the world still operating under its original name.
SCADTA is founded in Barranquilla and would connect Colombia with Junkers flying boats; today, as Avianca, it is the oldest in the Americas in continuous operation.
In the Queensland outback, the oldest airline in the English-speaking world is born — a pioneer of the ultra-long routes that define it today.
Compañía Mexicana de Aviación is founded in Mexico, the first airline in Latin America and one of the oldest in the world. It flew for almost ninety years.
Germany and the young Soviet Union jointly create Deruluft and open the line between Königsberg and Moscow, via Kaunas and Smolensk. It was the first regular air link into eastern Europe, and it carried mostly mail and freight.
In the Soviet Union, Aeroflot is born; it would become the largest airline in the world and the symbol of Eastern Bloc aviation.
Belgium founds its national airline, a pioneer of the routes to the Congo and one of the first European carriers to fly to Africa.
Aero O/Y takes off in Helsinki, today Finnair: one of the oldest airlines in the world still operating, and the natural gateway between Europe and northern Asia.
The Czechoslovak airline is founded in Prague, one of the five oldest in the world and for decades the air window of central Europe.
Delta starts out dusting crops in the American South; in time it would become one of the largest airlines on the planet.
A group of German settlers founds in Cochabamba the second-oldest airline in the Americas. In Bolivia, flying was the only way to get past the Andes and the jungle.
Deutsche Luft Hansa is founded, the seed of the German flag carrier and one of the most influential companies in Europe.
From the merger of dozens of small mail lines, American Airlines is born — today one of the largest airlines in the world.
United is born from the union of several mail lines in the western United States, and would become one of the largest airlines on the planet.
The airline that would dominate the US east coast and the New York–Washington shuttle for more than half a century is born.
Northwest is born in Minnesota; it would be the first US airline to cross the Pacific to Japan and to open Asia to the American traveller.
Pan Am is incorporated, the airline that would open the Pacific and Atlantic routes and define international aviation for sixty-four years.
Iberia is founded, the Spanish flag carrier and a historic air bridge between Europe and Latin America.
In Rio Grande do Sul, Varig is born — the first airline in Brazil and, for decades, its flag carrier and a source of national pride.
The Braniff brothers found in Oklahoma the airline that decades later would become famous for aircraft painted in flat colours by Alexander Girard and Calder.
American Elmer Faucett founds the first Peruvian airline and even built his own aircraft in Lima to fly between the coast, the highlands and the jungle.
Línea Aérea Nacional is born in Chile; almost a century later, as LATAM, it is the largest airline group in Latin America.
Poland founds LOT, one of the oldest airlines in the world still operating and a symbol of eastern European aviation.
Flights begin between the Hawaiian islands with what is today the oldest US airline still operating under its original name.
Cubana de Aviación is founded, one of the first airlines in Latin America and, for decades, the air gateway to the Caribbean.
Venezuela buys the local branch of France’s Aéropostale and founds its national airline, one of the oldest on the continent.
Transcontinental & Western Air is born from the forced merger of two mail companies. Under Howard Hughes it would become one of the great names of world aviation and the owner of the most beautiful terminal in New York.
Switzerland founds its flag carrier, which for decades was a byword for punctuality and solvency: they called it “the flying bank”.
TACA is born in El Salvador and would weave a network across all of Central America, the airline of reference for the isthmus for eighty years.
The first airline in Africa and the Middle East, and the seventh in the world to be founded, is created in Cairo.
J. R. D. Tata founds Tata Airlines, carrying the mail from Karachi to Bombay himself. Out of that flight would come Air India, the country’s flag carrier.
From a light aircraft linking northern towns comes Alaska Airlines, which would grow into one of the majors in the United States without ever giving up the territory it is named after.
From the merger of several companies, Air France is born — the French flag carrier and one of the great airlines of Europe.
Turkey founds its state airline with five aircraft. Nine decades later it flies to more countries than any other carrier in the world.
Aeronaves de México takes off, today Aeroméxico, the Mexican flag carrier and one of the oldest in Latin America.
The company that would grow from the American southwest into one of the country’s big four, with Houston as its stronghold, is born.
South Africa founds its flag carrier, which would end up flying round the continent by way of the sea when half of Africa closed its airspace to it.
Reg Ansett founds in Australia the airline that for sixty years would share the country with Qantas.
Ireland founds its airline with a single six-seat biplane between Dublin and Bristol. Its name means “air fleet” in Irish.
Three brothers found Primeras Líneas Uruguayas de Navegación Aérea with a seven-seat aircraft. It would be the country’s flag carrier for seventy-six years.
The Canadian Parliament creates Trans-Canada Air Lines to stitch the country together from coast to coast. Today it is Air Canada.
In a country of few inhabitants, the airline is born that would make Iceland the natural stop between Europe and North America.
As Tasman Empire Airways it begins linking New Zealand with Australia by flying boat. It would be the airline of the most isolated developed country in the world.
Philippine Airlines is founded in Manila and starts out flying to Baguio with a single twin-engine aircraft. It is the oldest airline in Asia still operating under its original name.
The Canadian Pacific railway company buys ten small bush-flying outfits and merges them into a single airline. The railway that had stitched Canada together takes to the air to reach where there are no rails.
A group of Panamanian investors founds Compañía Panameña de Aviación with help from Pan Am. It would start flying three years later with three DC-3s and end up making Panama the great connecting point of the Americas.
Ethiopia founds the airline that would become the largest in Africa and the continent’s great connection to the rest of the world.
Portugal founds its flag carrier, which would link Lisbon with Africa and Brazil and become the air bridge of the Portuguese-speaking world.
Saudi Arabia founds its airline with a DC-3 given to it by President Roosevelt: the first in the Gulf, forty years before Emirates.
The Sociedad Aeronáutica de Medellín starts out flying cargo and mail around Colombia. It would end up an Avianca subsidiary and a much-loved name in the country.
An American pilot and an Australian one found Cathay Pacific in Hong Kong with a second-hand DC-3 they called Betsy. In time it would become one of the great gateways between Asia and the rest of the world.
Denmark, Norway and Sweden merge their carriers into a single Scandinavian airline. Eight years later it would be the first to carry passengers over the North Pole.
In an Italy just out of the war, Alitalia is born; for more than half a century it would be the Italian flag carrier and the country’s symbol in the air.
The young Indonesia founds Garuda, named after the mythological bird, to link by air a country of thousands of islands.
The newly born State of Israel founds its airline, which would become famous for its repatriation flights and for impossible non-stop routes.
The Argentine state creates Aerolíneas Argentinas, which would link the country’s vast territory and become one of the great airlines of South America.
Japan Airlines is founded, the first major airline of post-war Japan and a symbol of the country’s revival.
In Tokyo, the Japan Helicopter and Aeroplane Transport company takes off; in 1957 it would take the name All Nippon Airways. In time it would become Japan’s largest airline and the one to put the Dreamliner into service first.
Two companies merge to create Air Algérie, which after independence would become Algeria’s flag carrier and one of the major airlines of North Africa.
Kuwait puts one of the first airlines of the Persian Gulf into the air, long before the region became the great crossroads of world aviation.
Vietnam founds its airline with a tiny fleet of Soviet aircraft. Half a century later it would fly to four continents with the latest generation of jets.
Two companies merge to create the Moroccan flag carrier, today one of the largest air gateways between Europe and West Africa.
Austria returns to the air twelve years after the war by joining two small companies. Vienna would become again what it had been: a hinge between eastern and western Europe.
Austral becomes Aerolíneas Argentinas’ flying companion inside the country: for six decades the two of them shared the Argentine map.
East Germany founds its state airline, the airborne face of the Eastern Bloc throughout the Cold War.
Thailand and Scandinavian SAS jointly found Thai Airways International. Out of that partnership would come one of Asia’s major airlines and the rise of Bangkok as the gateway to Southeast Asia.
Venezuela creates its international airline at the height of the oil boom. For three decades it was one of the most elegant and recognisable brands in American skies.
The Colombian Air Force creates Satena to fly where no private company will: the jungle, the plains and the Pacific coast. It was not founded to make money but to stitch the country together.
The Ecuadorian Army founds TAME to link the coast, the highlands, the Amazon and the Galápagos. For half a century it was the country’s flag carrier.
Malaysia and Singapore put a shared airline into the air. When its aircraft were divided in 1972, two Asian greats were born from it: Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Airlines.
Southwest Airlines is born and popularises the low-cost model — a single aircraft type and simple fares — that half the world copies today.
Aerolíneas Centrales de Colombia takes off in Medellín; it grew to be the country’s second airline and to compete head-on with Avianca.
The break-up of the airline shared with Singapore leaves Malaysia with its own flag carrier. Singapore Airlines was born of that same split, the same year.
Peru founds its flag carrier and sets out to fly to the Americas and to Europe. Through the eighties it was the country’s emblem in the air.
From the merger of BOAC and BEA, British Airways is born — the United Kingdom flag carrier, whose origins go back to the world’s first daily international air service, in 1919.
Kenya founds its airline when the shared East African company is dissolved. Over the years it would make Nairobi one of the continent’s great hubs.
The airline of the coloured aircraft survives neither deregulation nor its own expansion: in May 1982 it stops flying. It was the first great casualty of the new American free market.
Freddie Laker’s Skytrain had made the Atlantic cheap with walk-on tickets. The major carriers cut their own fares until they drowned it, and the airline went under in February 1982.
Richard Branson launches Virgin Atlantic with a single Boeing 747 between London and New York, challenging the British Airways monopoly with an irreverent style that shook the industry.
With two leased aircraft, the operation that in four decades would become one of the largest in the world — and the great driver of the A380 — takes off from Dubai.
Ryanair is born and would take low cost to the extreme, becoming the airline with the most international passengers in the world.
In Mallorca, the airline is born that would break Iberia’s monopoly in Spain and end up flying across Latin America.
Mexico gets an airline devoted to short turboprop routes — the ones the majors did not want to fly.
From the break-up of Chinese state aviation, Air China is born — the country’s flag carrier and today one of the largest in Asia.
China breaks up its state aviation into regional companies and Shanghai gets its own. Those pieces are today three of the largest airlines in the world.
In the Philippines, the airline is born that would bring low cost to the archipelago and that today carries more passengers within the country than any other.
On the tropical island of Hainan, the airline that would grow into one of the great carriers of China is born.
China Southern is born and would become the largest airline in China and in all of Asia by passenger numbers.
After sixty-four years opening up the routes of the world, Pan Am goes dark in December 1991. No other name had ever stood so completely for international aviation.
After years of labour conflict and fare wars, Eastern stops flying in January 1991 and becomes, along with Pan Am, the symbol of the end of an era.
A year after German reunification, the East German airline closes: its Soviet fleet and its routes had no place in the new Germany.
Qatar Airways takes off from Doha and within a few decades would become one of the most awarded premium airlines in the world.
The company is born in Malaysia and, relaunched in 2001 with two aircraft and enormous debts, would take low cost across all of Southeast Asia.
Norway sees the birth of the airline that two decades later would attempt what nobody had managed: low cost on long-haul routes.
With cheap tickets and no frills, easyJet brings to Europe the low-cost model that would change the way the continent flies forever.
After thirty-seven years, Venezuela’s international airline closes following a failed privatisation. The country lost its flag in the skies of the world.
Peru’s oldest airline stops flying after seventy-one years. Its aircraft sat parked in Lima for years afterwards.
The Peruvian flag carrier closes the same year as Faucett. Peru lost both of its historic airlines at once.
JetBlue takes off from New York on the idea that flying cheap does not require flying uncomfortably: leather on every seat and live television.
A long-distance bus group founds Gol and brings the low-cost model to Brazil, a country where flying had always been for the few.
Seventy-one years after it was born, Howard Hughes’ airline is absorbed by American Airlines. Its New York terminal, Saarinen’s work, still stands as a museum of that age.
The Belgian flag carrier, with seventy-eight years of flying behind it, stops operating in November 2001. It was the largest airline collapse Europe had seen to that point.
Brazil’s third airline stops flying in December 2001, drowned by debt and by the rising price of fuel.
Swissair is grounded for lack of funds in October 2001 and makes its last flight in March 2002. That the most solvent airline in Europe could fall shook the whole continent.
After sixty-seven years, Ansett closes and leaves Qantas practically alone in the Australian market. Thousands of passengers were stranded overnight.
The airline that eleven African countries had founded together to fly under a single flag closes in 2002, after four decades.
Switzerland builds a new airline on the remains of the one that had collapsed. Three years later Lufthansa would buy it, and so the white cross keeps flying.
Sky Airline breaks LAN’s monopoly in Chile and years later turns low cost: flying inside the country stops being for the few.
Abu Dhabi founds its own airline and joins the Gulf race to turn the desert into the world’s great connecting point.
Wizz Air is born in Hungary and would use the enlargement of the European Union to fill the east of the continent with cheap routes.
Colombia’s second airline closes in August 2003 after a failed alliance with Avianca. Its aircraft and its name vanished from the Colombian sky.
Venezuela has a flag carrier again, seven years after VIASA closed.
The airline is born that in less than twenty years would go from not existing to dominating the skies of India, the fastest-growing market in the world.
Mexico gets a low-cost airline that in less than twenty years would become the country’s largest by passengers carried.
Interjet takes off promising wide seats and low fares. It grew to be Mexico’s second airline before it came apart.
Brazil’s first airline, with almost eighty years of history, is declared insolvent and broken up. The brand survived a few more years in other hands, but the Varig everyone knew ended here.
A Colombian airline specialises in linking mid-sized cities directly to each other, without going through Bogotá: routes nobody else flew.
After almost fifty years and several attempts to revive it, Ecuador’s international airline is finally wound up.
Bolivia founds a new state airline to fill the gap left by Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano.
David Neeleman, who had already founded JetBlue, sets up a third major airline in Brazil and takes it to the airports the other two did not serve.
After seventy-five years, the São Paulo airline is wound up. With it and with Transbrasil, Brazil lost two of its three historic majors within a few years.
The oldest airline in Latin America stops flying in August 2010, just short of its ninetieth birthday. Mexico was left without the company that had invented its aviation.
The airline that opened the Pacific to Americans hands its code and its fleet to Delta, which thereby becomes the largest in the world.
The Sociedad Aeronáutica de Medellín — sixty-five years in the air and an Avianca subsidiary since the eighties — makes its last flight and its brand is retired.
Bolivia’s oldest airline, and one of the oldest in the Americas, stops flying after eighty-five years.
The Houston name disappears inside United after almost eighty years. The merger produced one of the largest airlines on the planet, which still carries Continental’s blue globe on its tail.
After sixty-six years, the Hungarian airline stops flying overnight when it is ordered to repay the state aid it had received.
The Uruguayan airline suspends its flights in July 2012, leaving the country without an airline of its own for the first time in seventy-six years.
Three years after merging with Avianca, TACA repaints its aircraft and its name disappears from Central American skies after eighty-two years.
The Dominican Republic gets a low-cost airline designed to connect the Caribbean with the whole of the Americas from Santo Domingo.
The company merges with American Airlines and its name disappears. The merger created the largest airline in the world by passengers carried.
A low-cost airline starts up in Chile and spreads into Argentina, Peru and Colombia: the Ryanair model lands in the Southern Cone.
Germany’s second airline closes in October 2017 after years of losses. Lufthansa and easyJet shared out its aircraft and its airport slots.
The bankruptcy of the world’s oldest travel company drags down its airline and leaves hundreds of thousands of tourists away from home: it took the largest peacetime repatriation ever mounted.
The government decides to close the flag carrier in May 2020, in the middle of the pandemic and after years of losses.
Mexico’s second airline stops flying in December 2020, with enormous debts and a Sukhoi fleet that proved impossible to maintain.
After sixty-three years the Austral name disappears and its aircraft start flying in Aerolíneas Argentinas colours.
Seventy-five years after it was born, the Italian flag carrier closes and hands over to a new company. Its final flight landed in Rome in October 2021.
The Colombian low-cost airline abruptly suspends operations in February 2023, stranding thousands of passengers. Its attempt to be absorbed by Avianca did not arrive in time.
The Mexican regional airline closes in February 2023 after thirty-six years linking cities the majors did not serve.
The first flight of every aircraft that changed something, the marques that built them, their mergers, and the day each model went out of production.
Brothers Gabriel and Charles Voisin begin selling series-built aircraft from Billancourt, each one like the last, to customers such as Léon Delagrange and Henri Farman. Until then every airman built his own machine in a workshop: this is where the aviation industry begins.
Alliott Verdon Roe founds A.V. Roe and Company in Manchester, one of the first aircraft manufacturers in the world. From its drawing board would come the first aircraft with an enclosed cabin and, later, Britain’s post-war jets.
Britain’s Avro flies the Type F, the first aircraft with a fully enclosed cabin, glazed with celluloid. Until then you flew in the open, taking the wind, the rain and the engine oil in your face. All the comfort of modern cabins starts here.
At twenty-two, Dutchman Anthony Fokker sets up his factory in Germany. His name would stay with aviation for eighty-four years, from the fabric biplane to the regional jet.
In Saint Petersburg, a young Igor Sikorsky flies the first four-engine aircraft in history, at a time when almost everyone took for granted that such a machine would never even lift off. It had an enclosed cabin, electric light and room to walk about inside in mid-flight: the direct ancestor of the great airliners.
While the whole world is building aircraft of wood and doped fabric braced with wire, Hugo Junkers flies one made entirely of metal. They nicknamed it the “tin donkey” and it looked like folly, but every airliner that followed came out of that idea.
In Seattle, William Boeing and naval engineer Conrad Westervelt found the Pacific Aero Products Co. A year later it would be renamed the Boeing Airplane Company and would end up as half of the duopoly that builds the world’s aircraft.
Donald Douglas sets up his factory in southern California. Out of it would come the DC-3, which made flying pay, and the whole DC line that competed with Boeing for half a century.
Andrei Tupolev opens in Moscow the design bureau that would carry his name and that put the Soviet Union into the jet age — and into the supersonic one.
Clyde Cessna founds in Kansas the marque that would end up building more aircraft than any other in the world: general aviation, the light aircraft and the flying schools, all start here.
De Havilland’s Canadian subsidiary opens in Toronto. It would specialise in aircraft able to work where there is no runway: the bush, the ice and, later, city airports.
Sergey Ilyushin opens his design bureau in Moscow. From it would come the first Soviet wide-body and the four-engine aircraft that linked the Eastern Bloc.
The Douglas DC-3 flies for the first time. Reliable and profitable, it finally turns carrying passengers into a business that pays for itself.
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Pavel Sukhoi founds his design bureau. Famous for fighters, decades later it would return to civil aviation with the Superjet, modern Russia’s first airliner.
TWA introduces the Boeing 307 Stratoliner, the first airliner with a pressurised cabin: instead of flying through bad weather it can fly above it. The journey stops being one long succession of jolts.
The de Havilland Comet flies for the first time: the world’s first commercial jet, which opened the jet age for passengers.
The Vickers Viscount opens the world’s first scheduled service with turbine engines, between London and Nicosia. It flies higher and faster than piston airliners, and without their vibration: passengers discover a far quieter journey.
The Tupolev Tu-104 puts the Soviet Union into the jet age. For a time it was the only jet airliner in scheduled service anywhere in the world.
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The Dutch turboprop takes off and would become one of the best-selling and best-loved regional aircraft in the world, and the emblem of the Fokker name.
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The 707 makes jet travel popular and the world smaller: crossing the Atlantic starts to be measured in hours.
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Delta and United introduce the Douglas DC-8 on the same day, the great rival of the 707. With it, the manufacturer that had ruled the propeller era steps fully into the jet age.
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Air France introduces the Sud Aviation Caravelle, the first airliner with its engines mounted at the rear of the fuselage: a far quieter cabin and a silhouette that dozens of aircraft would copy.
The 727 takes off, able to operate from short runways with no ground support. It was the best-selling airliner in the world until its own sibling, the 737, overtook it.
See the model in the encyclopediaThe first Learjet 23 is delivered, a small, fast jet built to take a handful of passengers wherever and whenever they want. It did not improve a market: it created one, the private jet.
The Douglas DC-9 flies, designed for short runways and small airports: it brings the jet to half-hour hops. Its descendants — the MD-80s and the Boeing 717 — would still be flying half a century later.
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The 737 takes off; over the years it would become the best-selling commercial airliner in all of history.
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The house of the DCs joins McDonnell and McDonnell Douglas is born. The marque would build the DC-10, the MD-80s and the MD-11 before disappearing inside Boeing thirty years later.
The Tupolev Tu-144 flies for the first time, two months before Concorde: the first supersonic passenger aircraft in history, nicknamed the Concordski.
The 747, the first wide-body airliner, democratises long-haul travel with its unmistakable hump. It ruled the skies for almost half a century.
See the model in the encyclopediaConcorde flies for the first time. The only lasting supersonic airliner would cross the Atlantic in under three and a half hours.
Brazil founds its national manufacturer in São José dos Campos. In time it would be the world’s third builder of airliners and the undisputed king of the regional aircraft.
The French and the Germans sign Airbus Industrie into being, a European consortium set up to take on the American manufacturers. Almost nobody bet on it; half a century later it would be half of the world duopoly.
The A300 flies, the world’s first wide-body twinjet and the founding aircraft of Airbus: the seed of the great duopoly with Boeing.
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The de Havilland Canada Dash 7 flies, a four-engine turboprop able to take off and land on very short runways and quiet enough to operate from airports inside the city. It opened up the airfields jets could not use.
The Ilyushin Il-86 flies, the Soviet Union’s first wide-body aircraft. It came with an idea of its own: passengers entered through the hold, left their suitcase there and climbed an internal staircase to the cabin, so the aircraft could work at airports with no infrastructure.
The McDonnell Douglas MD-80 takes off, a stretched and re-engined DC-9 that would become one of the best-selling and most widespread single-aisle aircraft in the skies of the world.
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Twenty-two years after opening the jet age, Boeing delivers the last passenger 707. The line stayed open for military versions until 1991.
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The 767 opens the era of the big transoceanic twinjets: more efficient than four-engine aircraft, they opened routes that once demanded three or four engines.
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The Airbus A310 modernises the flight deck — two pilots and screens instead of three crew and dial instruments — setting the course for the aircraft that would follow.
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France and Italy merge their regional programmes into a joint consortium. Its twin turboprop would become the best-selling aircraft on short routes the world over.
The last of the 1,832 727 trijets leaves the factory, a freighter for Federal Express. For twenty-two years it was the aircraft that brought the jet to smaller airports.
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With only 250 sold, the TriStar line closes and Lockheed withdraws from commercial aircraft for good. It was technically magnificent and it arrived late: the DC-10 had already taken the market.
The Antonov An-124 Ruslan enters service, developed in the Soviet Union: the largest cargo aircraft in the world at the time, able to carry loads no other aircraft could move.
The A320 brings fly-by-wire controls to commercial aviation: the pilot flies through computers. It changed modern piloting.
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Production ends of McDonnell Douglas’ first wide-body trijet. Its heir, the MD-11, was already on the drawing board.
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The McDonnell Douglas MD-11 flies, heir to the DC-10 and one of the last three-engine airliners. It still crosses the world today as a freighter.
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The A340 takes off, the four-engine aircraft with which Airbus tackles the longest routes on the planet and stands up to Boeing outside Europe.
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Designed on computer from start to finish, the 777 proves that two engines are enough to cross any ocean.
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After eighty-four years, the Dutch manufacturer is declared insolvent. Its regional jets went on flying around half the world long after the factory had closed.
The biggest merger in the industry leaves two giants face to face — Boeing and Airbus — and switches off the historic DC and MD names.
The Boeing 717 flies — the former MD-95, final heir to the DC-9 — the last airliner designed by McDonnell Douglas before it merged into Boeing.
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Production ends of the single-aisle best-seller inherited from the DC-9. Boeing, by then the owner of the house, preferred to concentrate the range on the 737.
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Production of the big trijet ends, two hundred aircraft in all. It never reached the promised range and twinjets were already crossing oceans — but as a freighter it is still flying today.
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Brazil’s Embraer E170 launches the regional jet family that would make Embraer the third-largest airliner manufacturer in the world.
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Boeing closes the 757 line after 1,050 aircraft. It has never had an exact successor: it remains the longest-legged single-aisle ever built.
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The largest passenger aircraft ever built, with two full decks from end to end.
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Boeing delivers the final two 717s and closes the Long Beach factory. With that aircraft — a direct heir of the DC-9 — a line of aeroplanes that had begun in 1921 comes to an end.
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Airbus delivers the last A300 to FedEx, thirty-five years after the first. The aircraft that founded the company bows out as a freighter.
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The Superjet 100 flies, the first Russian passenger aircraft of the post-Soviet era, developed with Western partners to compete in the regional jet market.
China creates its own airliner manufacturer with the explicit brief of breaking the Boeing–Airbus duopoly. Nine years later its C919 would fly.
The first airliner with a fuselage made mostly of carbon fibre: lighter, more efficient and more comfortable in the cabin.
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The four-engine long-haul aircraft goes out of production: twinjets burn less and can now fly the same routes. It is the beginning of the end for four engines in passenger aviation.
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Lufthansa launches the 747-8 Intercontinental, the final and longest version of the Jumbo: at the time, the longest passenger aircraft in the world and the last chapter of the 747’s reign.
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Airbus’s composite twinjet for long-haul routes, a direct rival to the 787 and the 777.
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The last of more than a thousand Tu-154s leaves the Samara factory — the aircraft that for forty years was the backbone of Soviet and Russian aviation.
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Born as the Bombardier CSeries and later adopted by Airbus, it modernises the hundred-seat segment.
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The C919 flies for the first time: the first Chinese-built single-aisle airliner to challenge the 737 and the A320.
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Airbus takes control of Bombardier’s CSeries programme and renames it the A220. A Canadian aircraft takes a European surname and goes on sale through the largest commercial network in the world.
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The Canadian manufacturer sells Airbus its share of the A220 and abandons the airliner business to keep only its executive jets. So ends the third attempt to break the duopoly.
Airbus delivers the last A380 superjumbo to Emirates. The era of the largest passenger aircraft closes barely sixteen years after its debut.
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After fifty-four years and more than fifteen hundred aircraft, the last 747 leaves the factory. The reign of the Queen of the Skies ends.
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This page was last updated on August 10, 2026
APA
Vuelopedia. (2026, August 10). Timeline. Retrieved October 16, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/timeline
MLA
“Timeline.” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 10 Aug. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/timeline. Accessed 16 Oct. 2026.
Chicago
Vuelopedia. “Timeline.” Fundación Poderia. Last modified August 10, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/timeline.
Harvard
Vuelopedia (2026) Timeline. Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/timeline (Accessed: 16 October 2026).
BibTeX
@misc{vuelopedia_en_timeline,
author = {{Vuelopedia}},
title = {{Timeline}},
publisher = {Fundación Poderia},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-08-10},
url = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/timeline},
howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/timeline}},
urldate = {2026-10-16},
note = {Accessed 2026-10-16}
}Wikipedia
{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/timeline |title=Timeline |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-08-10 |access-date=2026-10-16 |language=en}}