Friday, March 19, 1909. Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company forms.

 

Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company, the first dedicated airplane manufacturing company, was formed by Glenn Hammond Curtiss and Augustus Moore Herring in Hammondsport, New York.  In 1929 it would merge with the Wright Aeronautical to form Curtiss-Wright Corporation, which still exists.

Tuesday, February 23, 1909. The first Canadian built aircraft, the Aerial Experiment Association Sliver Dart, takes flight.

 

Thursday, January 7, 1909. Those early licenses.

The first pilot's licenses were issued in France on this day in 1909. The issuing entity was the Aero-Club de France and the recipients were Orville Wright, Wilbur Wright, Albert Santos-Dumont, Louis Blériot, Robert Esnault-Pelterie, Léon Delagrange, Henri Farman and Captain Ferdinand Ferber.

John Evershed discovered, on the same day, that gas radiates over the surface of sunspots, from the inner border to the outer edge.