F-104 delivered loads of records of wich many lastes for decades and few still are kept AFAIK. That alone should be wort a place on the list.

The Sopwith Cuckoo was the first torpedo-delivering aircraft! Though neglected by British government/military/economy in the time short after the end of the first war, it became instead the base of some of the first homebuilt Japanese airplanes, capable of carrier-use - As the first imperial japanese carrier torpedo-bombers the Cuckoo-offspinn certainly have done it's impact on naval aviation!

. . . . . . And the last IIRC, wich actually makes the rocket fighter to a simple footnote in the fighter-story IMO!

Helicopter-wise, the first one to place the engines on top, thus freeing up the cabin space should be in there. I'm tempted to say the Huey, although there is bound to be a predecessor.

The CH-47 Chinook would also be here, if it were not the victim of its own success (1200+ built and still in production). No other manufacturer has broken into military weight lifter market with this layout (twin rotor, rear loading ramp) since the Chinook's first flight in 1961.

The first single rotor helicopter with a rear ramp (Mil Mi-6?) could be also be considered to have set a precedent.

Wouldn't the Fokker F-VIIb/3m not qualify? The first airliner where your granny and todler could safely fly without leather coats and eye-goggles. Also, most airlines were started with this aircraft (eg Panam)

What about the Comet!
 

I wish to enter a claim, Your Honours, for the inclusion on the list of the original De Havilland Comet, the worlds first jet airliner. Head and shoulders above the opposition it suffered the fate of so many who lead from the front, but the achievement of its brilliant creation and pointers to the future must be recognised. I rest my case, M'Lud.

The DC2 was significant in that it was the first twin where safe flight on one engine was a design consideration.

Was that similar to the Me 163 Komet?

I was the radar monitor on Sector 6 at the LATCC radar unit at Heathrow for the first '747 departure from Heathrow in 1970, a demo flight out to Brecon with not much fuel.
His first words to radar after departure were 'London, Clipper XXX, I'm not gonna make 4,000 by Woodley'.

chevvron,

So did he blunder through the White Waltham circuit? ;)

Funnily enough there was an instructor and student in a U.L.A.S. Chipmunk who came very close to calling an airmiss with a 747 out of Heathrow in the very early days.
As the instructor ( H**h S*****r IIRC) explained later, both of them initially thought it was B 707.

I wasn't looking at a radar screen, my job was to monitor what was said on the radio and write it on a CCTV screen as an aid memoire for the radar controller. I think it made just over 3,000 by Woodley. In any case, the radar at that time did not display altitude readouts.
Certainly for a long time this poor rate of climb would have been noticeable from White Waltham when Heathrow were departing on westerlies as Haraka mentions.

stepwilk

How did this list eventually pan out? I'd be thrilled if you could point to the article you wrote too!

(Seeing as this thread is five years old, I sadly won't display my own list of notable aircraft...)