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  1. Back to Air Transport

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Milestones In The Development Of Commercial Air Transport

Guy Norris
State Archives of Florida

1914. First fixed-wing scheduled passenger flight from St. Petersburg to Tampa, Florida.

Bzuk/Wikimedia

1926. First flight of Ford Trimotor, a design which boosted confidence in the safety of air travel.

ICAO

1929. Warsaw Convention—first international aviation agreement.

Wikimedia

1930. First flight of streamlined, metal-built Boeing 200 Monomail, set new design standard.

Wikipedia

1932. Heinkel He 70 first flight. High-speed, low-drag monoplane for mail service.

Museum of Flight

1933. First flight Boeing 247. Incorporated retractable gear and other modern airliner features.

NASA

1935. Pan American begins first transpacific mail flights.

Boeing

1936. Introduction of Douglas DC-3, first truly profitable airliner.

Wikimedia

1944. International Civil Aviation Organization founded at Chicago Convention.

IATA

1945. Formation in Havana of International Air Transport Association.

Fox Photos/Getty Images

1949. First flight of de Havilland Comet, first production jet airliner, enters service in 1952.

airandspace.si.edu

1954. First flight of Boeing Dash 80, prototype for 707 and first of “7-series” family.

Ken Fielding/Wikimedia

1955. Pan American orders 707 and DC-8, the latter the first of the “DC” jet series.

TWA Photos

1961. First in-flight movie introduced by TWA.

Boeing

1970. 747, world’s first widebody airliner, introduced by Pan Am.

Southwest Airlines

1971. U.S. low-cost carrier Southwest Airlines starts service with three 737s.

Airbus

1972. First flight of A300, first widebody twin, and first product of Airbus Industrie consortium.

Steve Fitzgerald/Wikimedia

1976. Anglo-French supersonic Concorde enters passenger service. Tupolev Tu-144 follows in 1977.

Jack E Kightlinger/Wikimedia

1978. U.S. Airline Deregulation Act becomes law, removing government controls on fares, routes.

American Airlines

1981. Robert Crandall of American Airlines introduces first true frequent flyers program.

Jon Proctor

1985. First extended range twin operations (ETOPS) approved flights.

Airbus

1987. First flight of Airbus A320, first airliner with digital fly-by-wire flight control.

NA

1989. KLM and Northwest Airlines form Wings Alliance—first of the major airline groupings.

Wikipedia

1991. Bombardier CRJ100 ushers in era of regional jets.

Shutterstock

1992. U.S. and Netherlands sign first “open skies” agreement to liberalize international services.

Lasse Fuss/Wikimedia

1998. First regular scheduled transpolar flight operates from New York to Hong Kong.

Airbus

2007. Airbus A380, first all-double decker and highest capacity airliner, enters service.

IATA

2008. 100% electronic ticketing is introduced.

ANA

2011. First commercial flight powered by biofuel. Boeing 787, first predominantly composite aircraft enters service.

Airbus

2014: First flights of next-generation single-aisle Pratt & Whitney geared turbofan and CFM Leap on A320neo and flying testbed respectively. 

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The phenomenal expansion of air transport can be charted over a series of milestones from its obscure beginnings in Florida in 1914 to the multibillion dollar business it has become today. While there are many interpretations of how these turning points can be defined, we present a lineup of events, major product introductions and first flights that, in most cases, are broadly accepted as significant punctuation marks in the history of the industry.  The milestones are presented as part of a series of special Centennial packages Aviation Week & Space Technology has produced to mark its100th anniversary:

100 Years Of Commercial Airliner Technology 

Key Airliner Technology Leaps

How Commercial Aircraft Shapes And Sizes Evolved

 

Guy Norris

Guy is a Senior Editor for Aviation Week, based in Colorado Springs. Before joining Aviation Week in 2007, Guy was with Flight International, first as technical editor based in the U.K. and most recently as U.S. West Coast editor. Before joining Flight, he was London correspondent for Interavia, part of Jane's Information Group.

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