Milestones In The Development Of Commercial Air Transport

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

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

1929. Warsaw Convention—first international aviation agreement.

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

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

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

1935. Pan American begins first transpacific mail flights.

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

1944. International Civil Aviation Organization founded at Chicago Convention.

1945. Formation in Havana of International Air Transport Association.

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

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

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

1961. First in-flight movie introduced by TWA.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1991. Bombardier CRJ100 ushers in era of regional jets.

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

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

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

2008. 100% electronic ticketing is introduced.

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

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