ChatterBank0 min ago
A record to die for
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For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge. Click here and scroll down to 'Deaths 1908"
Quizmonster is correct, but it wasn't a balloon. Details below:
http://www.planecrashinfo.com/1920/1920-1.htm
Point taken! In my defence, may I quote from The Oxford English Dictionary under the head-word 'aircraft'? It says:
"Since the 1930s commonly restricted to denote an aeroplane as distinct from a balloon or airship."
(As I'm sure you're aware, C, our 'aeroplane' = your 'airplane'!)
On that basis, gliders clearly qualify as aircraft, so Lilienthal is certainly looking good! Sadly, both Icarus and de Rozier are more dubious.
...... and here is poor Icarus after he came a cropper - seems it was a soft landing .......
The first Briton killed in a plane crash was Charles Stewart Rolls, one half of Rolls-Royce. See here:
http://www.planecrashinfo.com/famous1910s.htm