Video: 'How Eugene Ely Performed The First Ever Flight From A Ship | Wings Of War'

(Monday, November 14, 1910, 3:32 p.m. local time) — Pilot Eugene B. Ely became the first aviator to take off from a ship today as his Curtiss Pusher rolled off a sloping platform on the deck of the scout cruiser USS Birmingham off Hampton Roads, Virginia, paving the way towards the development of aircraft carriers as part of modern naval fleets.

On Jan. 18, 1911, Ely would also become the first person to land an airplane on a ship, bringing his plane down onto the deck of the USS Pennsylvania.