World Aviation in 1906

18 January
The Zeppelin LZ2 is destroyed in a gale the day after its first flight.

5 March
The Vuia I, built by Rumanian born aviator Trajan Vuia, is the first aircraft with pneumatic tyres and is first tested at Montesson in France. However, the aircraft was virtually flightless. Five 'flights' were made of which the longest was 24 metres.

11 August
Mrs C.J. Miller becomes the first American woman passenger in a dirigible (steerable airship).

13 September
Alberto Santos-Dumont's 14-bis biplane makes a first hop of 7 metres (23 feet).

30 September
The first international balloon race starts from Les Tuileries in Paris and is won by Lieutenant Frank P. Lahm of the United States Army.

Lahm flies his balloon 'United States' a distance of 637 kilometres (402 miles) to Fylingdales Moor in North Yorkshire, England.

23 October
Alberto Santos-Dumont wins the 3,000 franc Archdeacon Prize, flying his 14-bis biplane for nearly 60 metres (197 feet).

12 November
Alberto Santos-Dumont makes the first officially recognised, sustained flight by a powered aeroplane in Europe. His aeroplane travelled a distance of 220 metres (722 feet) at a height of 6 metres. This is the first internationally ratified world distance aeroplane record.