In 1971 the company changed its name to Southwest Airlines and made its first flight in June of that year.

FORBES: Magazine Article

In 1968, Russia's TU-144 supersonic airliner made its first flight, several months ahead of the Anglo-French Concorde, which it closely resembled.

CNN: Tuesday,

China's L-15 made its first flight in 2006, and was displayed for the first time overseas at the Dubai air show in 2009.

WSJ: China Eyes U.S. Defense Contracts

In 1939, although experiments with hovering aircraft had been going on since 1900, the first successful helicopter, Igor Sikorsky's VS-300, made its first flight.

CNN: Monday,

The spaceplane being developed by UK billionaire Sir Richard Branson has made its first powered flight.

BBC: Science correspondent, BBC News

Switzerland is home to several renewable energy projects, including the most advanced solar-powered aircraft, the Solar Impulse, which made its first international flight less than two weeks ago.

FORBES: In Switzerland's Decision to Phase Out Nuclear Power, a Glimpse of the Future?

So Russia has since turned its focus on China, which made its first successful manned flight in 2003 aboard the Shenzhou spacecraft and plans to put a capsule on the moon in 2013.

FORBES: Will Russia Win the Next Space Race?

In 1990, China's first airship, 40 metres (130 feet) long, made its maiden flight over the central province of Hubei.

CNN: Sunday,

It was not the stiff white dragonfly GlobalFlyer, a delicate construction of carbon fibre with all its interstices filled with fuel, in which in 2005 he had made the first non-stop solo flight round the world.

ECONOMIST: Steve Fossett