- 1903 in aviation
yearbox
in?=in aviation
cp=19th Century
c=20th century
cf=21st century
yp1=1900
yp2=1901
yp3=1902
year=1903
ya1=1904
ya2=1905
ya3=1906
dp3=1870s
dp2=1880s
dp1=1890s
d=1900s
dn1=1910s
dn2=1920s
dn3=1930sThis is a list of
aviation -related events from1903 :Events
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Léon Levavasseur demonstrates hisAntoinette engine , designed as a lightweight powerplant specifically for aircraft.
*Konstantin Tsiolkovski deduces the Basic Rocket Equation in his article "Explorations of outer space with the help of reaction apparatuses".February
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February 16 Traian Vuia presented to theAcadémie des Sciences ofParis the possibility of flying with a heavier-than-air mechanical machine and his procedure for taking off, but it was rejected for being an utopia, adding the comments: "The problem of flight with a machine which weighs more than air can not be solved and it is only a dream."March
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March 31 -Richard Pearse is reputed to have made a powered flight in a heavier-than-air craft, a monoplane of his own construction, that crash lands on a hedge. This date is computed from circumstantial evidence of eyewitnesses as the flight was not well-documented at the time. The machine made a flight claimed to be around 150 feet (45 m) on his farm at Upper Waitohi, nearTimaru in south Canterbury,New Zealand .May
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May 11 -Richard Pearse is claimed to have made a flight of around 1,000 yards (900 m), landing in the semi-dry bed of theOpihi River .August
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August 18 -Karl Jatho makes a flight with his motored aircraft in front of four people. [http://www.flyingmachines.org/jatho.html] . His craft flies up to 200 feet (60 m) a few feet above the ground in a powered heavier-than-air craft.October
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October 7 -Samuel Langley conducts the first tests of his full-sized man carrying version of his earlier model aerodromes. The pilot Charles Manly nearly drowned when the machine slid off its launch aparatus atop a houseboat and fell into the Potomac River.November
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November 12 - TheLebaudy brothers make a controlleddirigible flight of 54 km (34 miles) fromMoisson toParis, France .December
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December 8 - second attempt by Charles Manly to fly Langley's repaired full-sized aerodrome. As with theOctober 7 attempt the machine failed to fly tripping on its launch gear and somersaulting into thePotomac River nearly killing Manly. A surviving photograph captures the machine upended on its side as it falls off the houseboat. Langley himself was absent at this attempt but the machine's failure to fly ended hisgovernment (aka U.S. Army) funded attempts at building a successful full sized man-carrying flying machine.*
December 17 - TheWright Brothers make four flights in their Flyer atKitty Hawk, North Carolina following years of research and development.Orville Wright takes off first and flies 120 ft (37 m)in 12 seconds. This is frequently considered the first controlled, powered heavier-than-air flight and is the first such flight photographed. On the fourth effort, Wilbur flies 852 ft (260 m) in 59 seconds.
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