On November 14, 1910, Eugene Ely made the first take off of an airplane from the deck of a ship. With the same airplane, on January 18, 1911, Ely made the first landing on a ship. Shortly after the Ely flights, the U.S. Navy purchased its first airplanes and began formal flight training of the first naval aviators.
The Ask An Expert lecture series at the National Mall building is presented every Wednesday at noon. A Museum staff member talks to the public about the history, collection, or personalities related to a specific artifact or exhibition in the Museum.
Developed for the U.S. Army, the 1909 Wright Military Flyer (foreground) was the world's first military airplane. While similar in design to the 1903 Wright Flyer, it could fly much farther and longer. An earlier version of the airplane crashed in 1908, seriously injuring Orville Wright and killing Lt. Thomas E. Selfridge, the first person to die in a powered airplane accident.