1905 in aviation

Years in aviation:	1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908
Centuries:	19th Century · 20th century · 21st century
Decades:	1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s
Years:	1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908

This is a list of aviation-related events from 1905:

Events

January

• 18 January – The Wright brothers begin discussions with the United States Government about selling it an airplane.

March

• 16–20 March – Daniel Maloney is launched by balloon in a tandem-wing glider designed by John Montgomery and makes three successful flights at Aptos, California, the highest launch being at 3,000 feet with an 18 minute descent to a predetermined landing location.

April

• 27 April – Sapper Moreton of the British Army's balloon section is lifted 2,600 ft (792 m) by a kite at Aldershot under the supervision of the kite's designer, Samuel Cody.
• 29 April – Daniel Maloney is launched by balloon in a tandem-wing glider designed by John Montgomery to an altitude of 4,000 feet before release and gliding and then landing at a predetermined location as part of a large public demonstration of aerial flight at Santa Clara, California.

June

• 6 June – Gabriel Voisin lifts off of and flies along the River Seine in his float-glider towed by a motorboat.
• 23 June – The Wright brothers fly the Wright Flyer III for the first time. It is the first fully controllable and practical version of the original 1903 Wright Flyer.

July

• 14 July – Orville Wright has a serious crash with Wright Flyer III, upon which the Wright Brothers radically alter the aircraft. The front rudder is mainly the culprit for the Flyer's insistent pitching.
• 18 July – Daniel Maloney makes a launch in a tandem-wing glider designed by John Montgomery at Santa Clara, California. However, a balloon cable damages the glider and upon release Maloney and the aircraft fall uncontrolled to the ground, leading to Maloney's death.

August

• 5 August – Nineteen-year old Welshman Ernest Willows makes the first flight of Willows No. 1 a semi-rigid airship he had built.

September

• September – The Wright Brothers resume flight experiments with the re-designed Flyer III with performance of the airplane immediately in the positive. Smooth controlled flights lasting over 20 minutes now occur.

October

• 5 October – Wilbur Wright makes a flight of 24.2 miles (38.9 km) in Flyer III. The flight lasts for almost 39:23 minutes at Huffman Prairie in Dayton, Ohio.
• 14 October – The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) is founded in Paris.
• 16 October – The Wright brothers complete their 1905 test flight program, making their last flight until May 1908.

November

• 30 November – At Lake Constance, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin's LZ2 airship is damaged significantly while attempting its first launch.

December

• Neil MacDermid is carried aloft in Canada by a large box kite named The Siamese Twins, designed by Alexander Graham Bell.

Undated

• In Santa Clara, California, Daniel Maloney flies for 20 minutes with a glider after he starting from a balloon at a height of 4,000 ft (1,220 m).
• The engineer Maurice Stanislas Léger's helicopter lifts a person vertically into the air in Monaco.
• U.S. Army Signal Corps transferred all balloon school activities to Fort Omaha, Nebraska.