First Controlled & Sustained Power-Driven Flight - Was achieved by Orville Wright (1871-1948) flew the 12hp chain driven Flyer I for a distance of 120ft at a air speed of 30mph at an altitude of 8-12ft for 20sec. This happened near Kill Devil Hills, NC at 10:35 A.M. on December 17, 1903. The Flyer's flight was witnessed by his brother Wilbur and 5 others. The Flyer is now on display in the National Air & Space Museum.

Earliest Rational Design for Flight - According to the Royal Aeronautical Society, London, Britain, was published in 1717 by Emanuel Swendenborg.

Earliest Jet Engined Flight - Was made by the Heinkel He 178, piloted by Flug Kapitan Erich Warsitz. It was done at Marienehe, Germany on August 27, 1939.

First Transatlantic Flight - Was made by Lt-Cdr Albert C. Read and his crew in the 84 knot US Navy/Curtiss flying boat NC-4. Starting in Trepassey Harbor, Newfoundland, Canada the voyage ended in Lisbon, Portugal. It took place from May 16-17, 1919.

First Non-Stop Transatlantic Flight - Was achieved by Captian John Williams Alcock & navigator Lt. Author Brown. The flight went from St. Johns, Newfoundland, Canada, to the Perrygiunla Bog in the Republic of Ireland.

First Solo Transatlantic Flight - Was by Charles Lindberg. The flight was from Roosevelt Field, Long Island, NY to Le Bourget Airfield, Paris, France. His 220 horsepower Ryan monoplane Spirit of St. Louis is now on display.

Most Transatlantic flights - Between March 1948 and September 1984 2,880 crossings were made by Charles M. Schimpf. An average of 6.4 per month.

First Non-Stop Transpacific Flight - Was made by Major Clyde Pangbonn and Hugh Herndon in their Bellanca cabin monoplane Miss Veedo. The flight was from Sabishiro Beach, Japan to Wenatchee, WA, USA.

First Circumnavigational flights - Was achieved by the Chicago & New Orleans, two US Army Douglas DWC amphibians. The pilots were: Lt. Lowell Smith, Lt Leslie Arnold, Ct. Erik Nelson, and Lt. John Harding.

Fastest Circumnavigational flight - Was 36hr, 8min, and 34 sec by the Gulfstream IV. The flight was from Houston, TX and around the world through: Lake Charles, Ireland, Dubin, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Honolulu, and Miami.

First Circumnavigational Flight w/o Refueling - Was made by Richard Rutan & Jeana Yeager in Voyager. Their journey originated at Eddwards Air Force Base, CA.

First Circumpolar Flight - Made by Captian Elgen Long in a Piper PA-31 Navajo. Over Antarctia the cabin temperature fell to -40 degrees F.

Longest Wingspan - Was achieved by the "Spruce Goose." The 40 million dollar Hughes H.4 Hercules flying boat had a wingspan of 319ft 19in and was 218ft 8in.. It flew only once; It was piloted by Howard Hughes for a test run of 3,000 feet.

Longest Wingspan of a current aircraft - The Russian Antonov An-124 has a span of 240ft, the Boeing 747-400 has one of 213ft, and the USAF C-5B cargo plane has a span of 222ft.

Heaviest Aircraft - The Russian Antonov An-225 Myria at 660tons is the heaviest.

Electric Aircraft - The MB-E1 is the first electric aircraft.The aircraft has a wingspan of 39.4 ft, 24ft long, and weighs 882lb. It runs via a Bosch 10.7 hp engine. It's power comes from a Varta FP25 nickel-cadmium 25 Ah batteries.

Smallest Aircraft - Was the Bumble Bee Two. It was designed and buit by Robert Starr of Arizona. It had a wingspan of 5ft 6in and was 396lb empty. The fastest speed attained by it was 190mph. The Bumble Bee Two crashed on May 8, 1988.

Largest Airliner - Is the Boeing 747 "Jumbo Jet." It's first flight was on February 9, 1969. Estimated max capacity is 660 passengers or more. The latest model is the 747-400 introduced by Northwest Airlines.

Longest Air Ticket - M. Bruno Leunen of Brussels, Belgium in December 1984 had a ticket 39ft 4.5in long. The 53,203 mile flight was with 80 airlines and had 109 layovers.

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Passenger Load - Was achieved by a El Al 747 airline during Operation Solomon. It carried 1,087 Ethopian Jews out of Falasha to Israel in 1991.

Fastest Airliner - Is the supersonic BAC/Aerospatiale Concorde. It was first flown in 1969. It crusies at Mach 2.2 (1,450 mph). It is in service with Air France And British Airways. The fastest New York-London is 2hrs, 55min, 15sec in April, 1990.

Most Capacious - Is the Aero Spacelines Super Guppy. It has a cargo hold of 49,790 cubic feet. It has a max takeoff weight of 87.5 tons. It has a wingspan of 156ft 3in. The cargo compartment is 108ft long with a cylindrical section of 25ft in diameter.

Largest Propeller - The largest used is a 22ft 7.5in in diameter Garuda propeller. It was fitted on a Linke-Hofmann R II built in Breslau, Germany. It flew in 1919 and was driven by a 260hp engine at 545rpm.

Most Flights By a Jetliner - A typical DC-9 in service now has logged in 94,159 flights as of 1992.

Oldest Jetliner - According to the British-based aviation insurance service company Airclaims, a 707 and a DH106 Comet, built in 1958, were still being used as of May 1992.

Fastest Speed - Was achieved by Captian Eldon Joersz and Major George T. Morgan in a Lockheed SR-71. The record is 2,193.2 mph.

Supersonic Flight - Was first achieved by Chuck Yeager over Edwards Air Force Base, CA. He used a XS-1 rocket plane. He achieved Mach 1.015 (670mph) at 40,000ft on October 14, 1947.

Fastest Biplane - Is the Itailian Fiat CR42B, with a 1,010hp Daimler-Benz DB601A engine, which attained 323mph in 1941. Only one was built.

Longest Duration - Was attained by Robert Timm and John Cook in the Cessna 172. The record is 64 days, 22hrs, 19min, 5sec. They took of from McCarran Airfield, Las Vegas, NV. They traveled a distance eqiv. to 6 times around the world.