On 30 May 1912, Wilbur Wright died of typhoid fever, eight and a half years after he and his brother Orville first flew a powered aeroplane near Kitty Hawk. The world he left was already taking to the air. Six weeks earlier, Harriet Quimby had flown alone across the English Channel, and three days before that, King George V had signed the warrant creating the Royal Flying Corps.
War soon turned flying machines into weapons. On Christmas Day 1914, British seaplanes raided Cuxhaven, aiming for the Zeppelin sheds there, and in April 1918 Britain merged its two air services into the Royal Air Force. After the war came new ambitions: in June 1919 Alcock and Brown crossed the Atlantic without stopping, in a converted bomber, and that October eight Dutch businessmen founded KLM.
The events that carry the story, in date order. Each card links to its full entry on the page for its year.
· Japan · Asia
Exact day uncertain.
Japanese naval aviation dates its origins to 1912 and the Commission on Naval Aeronautical Research. Two newly trained naval aviators returned at the end of 1912 and made the first flights at Oppama, one in a Curtiss seaplane and one in a Maurice Farman.
· United Kingdom · Europe
King George V signed a royal warrant creating the Royal Flying Corps on 13 April 1912, after a Committee of Imperial Defence sub-committee proposed naval and military wings and a flying school. It served as the Army's air arm until the RAF formed in 1918.
· Dover, England · Europe
Harriet Quimby took off from Dover on 16 April 1912 in a Blériot XI monoplane and flew to the French coast, the first woman to cross the Channel alone in a plane. A year earlier she had become the first American woman given a pilot's licence.
Why it is interesting. She flew for only a year, also worked as a journalist and wrote silent-film screenplays, and died in a flying accident at 37.
Notes, dating details and full entry on the 1912 page
· North America
Wilbur Wright died of typhoid fever on 30 May 1912; he had been born on 16 April 1867. With his brother Orville he built and flew the first successful powered aeroplane, near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on 17 December 1903.
Why it is interesting. From 1910 until his death he led the brothers' fight over patents, travelling constantly to see lawyers.
Notes, dating details and full entry on the 1912 page
· Monaco · Europe
The first Schneider Trophy contest, a seaplane race of six laps, was held at Monaco. Maurice Prévost of France won in a Deperdussin.
Why it is interesting. The contest ran twelve times until 1931 and helped advance aeroplane design.
· Cuxhaven, Germany · Europe
On Christmas Day 1914 the Royal Navy carried Royal Naval Air Service aircraft close to Cuxhaven to find and bomb the Zeppelin sheds. The seven aircraft damaged shore installations, and all crews survived.
· Sint-Amandsberg, Belgium · Europe
Reginald Warneford, flying a Morane Parasol, intercepted the German Zeppelin LZ 37 and brought it down near Sint-Amandsberg, Belgium, overnight into 7 June 1915.
· Seattle, United States · North America
Some details uncertain.
William E. Boeing founded the company in Seattle, first under the name Pacific Aero Products Co. It was renamed the Boeing Airplane Company in 1917.
Why it is interesting. The company now designs airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites and missiles.
· United Kingdom · Europe
The Royal Air Force was formed by merging the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service, near the end of the First World War.
Why it is interesting. It later played a key part in the Battle of Britain and the Combined Bomber Offensive in the Second World War.
· Vaux-sur-Somme, France · Europe
The German fighter pilot Manfred von Richthofen, known as the Red Baron, died when his aircraft came down over France close to Vaux-sur-Somme. He is regarded as the leading ace of the First World War.
Why it is interesting. The Red Baron led a fighter wing nicknamed the Flying Circus, and debate about how he died continues.
· Tønder, Denmark (then Germany) · Europe
On 19 July 1918 seven Sopwith Camels flew from HMS Furious against a German airship base used for bombing Britain. They destroyed Zeppelins L 54 and L 60 and a captive balloon.
Why it is interesting. Aircraft took off from a ship to bomb airship sheds for the first time.
· St. John's, Dominion of Newfoundland (now Canada), to Clifden, United Kingdom (now Ireland) · At sea
John Alcock and Arthur Brown, British aviators, crossed in a Vickers Vimy, a First World War bomber they had modified, from Lester's Field to Clifden, County Galway, and won the Daily Mail's 10,000 pound prize. Almost 200 letters went along. King George V knighted both a week later.
Why it is interesting. Almost 200 letters rode along, making this the earliest airmail across the Atlantic.
· Netherlands · Europe
Eight Dutch businessmen, among them Frits Fentener van Vlissingen, founded the airline KLM on 7 October 1919. Its first flight did not follow until 17 May 1920.
Why it is interesting. Queen Wilhelmina gave KLM its Royal title a month before the company was formally founded.
· Barranquilla, Colombia · South America
Avianca dates its history to 5 December 1919, when the Colombian airline SCADTA was registered in Barranquilla. Its first flight followed in September 1920.
One line each, in date order. Every link opens the event’s full entry, with its summary, notes and sources, on the page for its year.