Early Aviation History

Historic images of early aircraft and aviators, showcasing vintage planes on the ground and preparations for flight in sepia tones.

1910S Group Of Three Men Standing In Front Of Early Monoplane One With Hand On Propeller
1910S Group Of Three Men Standing In Front Of Early Monoplane One With Hand On Propeller
253 assets in this story
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Roger Sommer in a Farman Biplane
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Baron Caters in his biplane
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Henri Farman flies with a French journalist, New Year's Eve 1909.
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Plane shop, College Point
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Canada, Quebec, Lac Brome-Knowlton. Brome County Historical Society, WW1-era German Fokker D-VIII fighter airplane
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Skiopticone image with motifs of junker aircraft S-AAX walking in for landing.
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W.L. Avery and D.W. Beatty
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Wilhelm Kress's airplane of water. Wilhelm Kress (1836-1913) an aviation pioneer. Dated 20th Century
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Photography from albums from Meisters-Airport companies in Gothenburg. Karl Gustaf Meister.
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Latham and Johnstone
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Car of French Military Dirigible "Republique"
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Swedish-built Farmman-Hydroaeroplan from Södertälje workshops, at the air exhibition in Stockholm in 1915.
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Lucy Burns, National Vice-Chairman of the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage. She is in an aeroplane with Lt. Marony at Seattle to scatter hand-bills announcing a meeting of the Union. April-May 1916 (BSLOC_2018_4_232)
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Samuel Franklin Cody (1862-1913) in his biplane. American-born British aviator.OP
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Poll photo collection. National Aerial Jource Holland. The pander EF 85 biplane registration pH-AFZ, training plane of the National Aviation School in Amsterdam Schiphol is pushed off by future pilots the hangar. 12 February 1931. Amsterdam, Rotterdam
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Aircraft at Oakland Aviation Museum, Oakland International Airport, Oakland, California, USA
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Residents of probably one of the Wadden Islands look at the Havilland DHC-2 Beaver, registration S-7, which is on a stroke and landing strip in the snow.
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Aircraft, Burma, India &Maintenance,
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Engraving depicting a Biplane being loaded with mail. Dated 20th Century
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A mechanic checking and fixing the left engine of a flying airship, photograph from the magazine L'Illustration, year 75, no 3895, October 27, 1917.
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Engraving depicting De Groof's flying machine which rose from the Cremorne Gardens, London, attached to a balloon. At a given height it was released, but instead of flying it crashed to the ground and its inventor was killed. Dated 19th century
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H. Latham
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ESPAÑA AUTOMOVIL Y LA AERONAUTICA - 15 VII 1913 P 169 AEROSTABLE MONTERO. Location: BIBLIOTECA NACIONAL-COLECCION. MADRID.
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Portraits - Portraits "G". Photographs Relating to National Forests, Resource Management Practices, Personnel, and Cultural and Economic History
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Bert Hinkler, 1928, (1933). Australian pioneer aviator and inventor Hinkler (1892-1933), dubbed 'Australian Lone Eagle', designed and built early aircraft and was the first person to fly solo from England to Australia. He was also the first person to fly solo across the Southern Atlantic Ocean. He died aged 40 after crashing into remote countryside near Florence, Italy during another solo flight record attempt. From "The Pageant of the Century". Odhams Press Ltd, 1933
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Aircraft Hanno, Imperial Airways, Gaza, ca. 1935, Gaza Strip, Middle East
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High angle view of a pilot standing near a World War I aircraft
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Me-262 Jet Was Abandoned At Salzburg, Austria, By Back-Pedaling Nazis.
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Airplane in pergine.
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Aircraft and Balloons Used by Some of the Air Pioneers Who Were Contemporary With Samuel Franklin Cody. Close up of Geoffrey de Havilland sat in the cockpit of an aircraft.
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Aircraft and Balloons Used by Some of the Air Pioneers Who Were Contemporary With Samuel Franklin Cody. Close up of Geoffrey de Havilland sat in the cockpit of an aircraft.
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Charles Lindbergh and Group of Men with Airplane, Spirit of St. Louis, circa 1927
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Santos-Dumont making the first powered plane flight in Europe, Paris, 1906. Artist: Unknown
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Louis Paulhan, pioneering French aviator flying in Farman III biplane, in a competition in Blackpool, September 1909. Date: September 1909
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Henson and Stringfellow's 1843 design for steam-powered flying machine.
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UK Shuttleworth Preparing A Bristol F2B For Flight
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Charles A. Lindbergh with his Plane Spirit of St. Louis, Gosport, May 27th 1927 1927
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San Antonio Aeroplane used for army messages
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Water crossing of a Honest John rocket thrower of an artillery unit using a sailing bridge.
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The image shows two types of British pursuit airplanes used during World War One. The upper aircraft is a Sopwith Camel, which had a slow speed and low ceiling. The lower aircraft is a Sopwith Dolphin, which was an improved version of the original Sopwith and was the fastest British pursuit machine.
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Hubert Latham's 'Antoinette' monoplane in Blackpool, England. Taking part in the first officially recognised aviation meeting to be held in Britain, the Blackpool Flying Week, which took place in October 1909. Latham took off and covered 8 miles in 11 minutes at almost 70mph with winds of at 40 mph. Date: 1909
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Airplane FVM Thumbsite "" Hearts Aces ", 1923 Close-up of Airplane FVM Tummelite 'Heart Ess' Related Flight Company on a field. A man named Lindström is seated in the driver's seat.
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A Month In The Sky Without Coming Down - Mrs. Bruce Reveals Her Plans -- Mrs. Victor Bruce waving from the cockpit of her plane when completing the final lap of her round the world flight last year.An amazing attempt to live for a month in a small airplane - flying over England but never coming down - is to be made this summer by the Hon. Victor Bruce and his equally daring wife. They are to take turns at piloting, cooking, and sleeping, while fuel and food supplies will be lowered to them once or twice a day from another airplane flying over them. They are out to best the duration record of twenty-seven days set up eighteen months ago by America. March 18, 1932. (Photo by Keystone).
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Howard Hughes emerging from an airplane cockpit on his arrival at Newark Airport 7 hours and 28 minutes after leaving from Los Angeles. Hughes averaged a record-breaking speed of 332 miles per hour over the 2 490 mile flight. January 19 1937. LC-USZ62-124392
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Aviation in Britain Before the First World War A close up of Cody wearing his flying helmet in the cockpit of the Cody aircraft mark V. Note that the cockpit is not covered unlike any of the other photographs of this aircraft. The second seat can just be seen behind Cody. With the help of his family and friends Cody built the mark V mainly from the remains of the mark III in just four weeks, after both the aircraft that he intended to enter in the trials were written off. It was powered by the 120 hp Austro-Daimler engine which was relatively unscathed from the crashes it had been in. Note the triangular rudders similar to those on the monoplane. It was with this machine that Cody won both the International Division and the British Division (GBP5000 prize in total) of the 1912 military trials, a competition to find an aircraft for the army. 32 machines were entered from 21 companies in a series of tests. These tests covered areas such as rate of climb, speed (both fast and slow), glid
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Aerodrome Flying Machine by Samuel Pierpont Langley, Historic, digitally restored reproduction of an original 19th century model
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Wilbur Wright's (American aviator) first flight in Europe, at the Hanaudieres racetrack near Le Mans, France in the Wright Brothers' 'Flier'. August 1908., Illustration from Le Petit Journal Paris, 30 August 1908.
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Szczepan Grzeszczyk in the SG-21 glider. Bezmiechowa, June 1932..
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12/31/1929. The American pilot Charles A. Lindbergh with his plane "the Spirit of Saint Louis", with which he made the first solo and non-stop Atlantic flight.
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The Airship Game, Victorian Games
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A group of aviators posing in front of a seaplane, April 26, 1937, seaplane base in Genoa, Italy, 20th century.
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Come Josephine, In My Flying Machine, Biplanes
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The AEROPLANE waltz, dedicated to Colonel Cody (the photograph is of his flying machine) Date: circa 1909