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First Commercial Aircraft

Max Brewer Bridge

There She Goes - The World's First Commercial Aircraft! - January 1, 1914

 

The World's First Commercial Aircraft!

 

This is the first flight of the world's first commercial aircraft, a Benoist Type XIV, Model No. 43, in Tampa-St. Petersburg on January 1, 1914. Thomas Wesley Benoist, who once manufactured more planes than the Wright brothers, was the first to keep and record costs per "air-ton-mile" as early as 1912.