1903
Fabric and wood
Short hops; the airframe is carpentry plus an engine. Civil experiment, not a combat score.
Infrastructure Field, shed, mechanic.
Turbofan passenger aircraft that collapsed continents into hours.
Overall 78 🛸Uncrewed aircraft from pocket quadcopters to long-endurance military UAVs.
Overall 71 ✈️Fixed-wing freighters with wide doors and main-deck pallets — the air bridge for time-critical freight.
Overall 62 🛰️High-performance military aircraft optimized for air superiority and strike.
Overall 54 🛩️Unpowered fixed-wing aircraft that ride thermals and ridge lift — silent flight and competition soaring.
Overall 52 🛩️Small cabin jets for point-to-point travel outside airline schedules.
Overall 52 🚁Rotary-wing aircraft for vertical lift, hover and point landings.
Overall 51 🎈Lighter-than-air craft — rigid zeppelins, blimps and modern cargo concepts.
Overall 49 🛩️Aircraft that take off and land on water — flying boats, floatplanes and amphibians.
Overall 49 🎈Buoyant envelopes heated by burners — the oldest human-carrying flight technology still aloft.
Overall 43