OK – probably should have shared that I am ok with giving presentations to challenging audiences. I am struggling with the list though. Below is a further reduced list and why I think each item should be in.
History of flight
1st Manned flight,Montgolfier brothers ,1783 France
Has to be in - it is the first of the first
1st Aviation disaster, Tullamore, County Offaly, 1785 Ireland
Aviation is dangerous and the destruction of over 100 houses is a good story
1st Manned, controlled, heavier-than-air craft, George Cayley,1853 Great Britain
He was more important than the Wright brothers in my opinion.
1st Woman to pilot a powered aircraft, Rose Isabel Spencer, 1902 Great Britain
3/5 of the audience will be female and I have been asked to avoid a long list of white men.
1st Female military pilot, Eugenie Shakhovskaya, 1914 Russia
Keen to stress that being female is not a barrier.
1st Landing by an airplane on a moving ship, Edwin Dunning,1917 Great Britain
Leads in to the aircraft carrier.
1st Non-stop transatlantic flight, Alcock and Brown,1919 Great Britain
Incredible tail of daring do, climbing out on the wing to fix both engines etc
1st Female airline pilot,Marga von Etzdorf,1927 Germany
Specifically asked to include this.
1st Supersonic scheduled passenger flight,Concorde,1976 GB / France
An amazing achievement and shows what can be done with collaboration
1st Artificial satellite,Sputnik 1,1957 USSR
1st Human in space,Yuri Gagarin,1961 Russia
1st First woman in space,Valentina Tereshkova,1963 Russia
1st Human on the moon,Neil Armstrong,1969 USA
All big firsts
1st Rover,Lunokhod,1970 USSR
This is a great engineering story – traveled further than Spirit & Opportunity managed 40 years later and the designers were puled out of retirement to help with Chernobyl clean up and had kit on site in two weeks! Joke about Lord Britain owning the Moon
1st First space station,Salyut 1,1971 USSR
Another big first
1st Soft landing on a comet,Rosetta,2014 Europe
A big first and the only one the kids might remember actually happening
Next big step
1st Human to land on Mars,SpaceX,2023 USA?
Or do I go with Virgin Galactic
I have to cut out another 4 – Ideas and why please!
Rod1