The airship R101, designed by a UK Air Ministry team, explodes on its maiden vogage, killing all but four of those on board

US aviator Amelia Earhart lands in Ireland 15 hours after leaving Newfoundland, to become the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic

Draughtsman Harry Beck, inspired by electrical circuits, produces a classic map of London's underground

US industrialist Howard Hughes sets a new speed record of 352 mph, flying a plane designed by himself

The German airship Hindenburg bursts into flames over New Jersey, bringing to an end the era of rigid airships

Amelia Earhart and her navigator vanish somewhere over the Pacific four weeks into their attempt to fly round the world

British racing driver Malcolm Campbell sets a new water speed record of 141 mph

Thor Heyerdahl sets sail across the Pacific from Peru in a balsa wood boat, the Kon-Tiki

The Morris Minor is launched, designed by Alec Issigonis, and becomes one of Britain's best-selling cars

Prime minister Ben Chifley sees Australia's first mass-produced car, the Holden, roll off the production line

The world's first commercial jet airliner, the Comet, designed by de Havilland, goes into service with BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation)

The Canadian schooner St Roch becomes the first ship to travel through the Panama Canal and the Northwest Passage, thus circumnavigating North America

New Zealander Edmund Hillary and the Sherpa Tenzing Norgay stand together on the top of Everest

A Commonwealth team, led by Vivian Fuchs, completes the first overland crossing of Antarctica

The Mini is launched, designed by Alec Issigonis, and becomes the best-selling British car of all time

The Trans-Canada Highway is completed, stretching some 5000 miles across the continent

The Anglo-French airliner Concorde makes its first supersonic test flight

A fire in the Mont Blanc road tunnel kills 39 people and closes the tunnel for three years

A Concorde supersonic airliner crashes after take-off from Paris, killing all 109 on board

The last three Concorde airliners to carry fare-paying passengers land within a space of five minutes at Heathrow

The superjumbo Airbus A380 makes its first test flight from Toulouse

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, a Boeing 777 en route to Kuala Lumpur with 239 people on board, loses contact with the ground for unknown reasons but flies on for five hours and vanishes, causing a massive international search.

Swiss Solar Impulse 2 is the first solar-powered aircraft to circumnavigate the Earth

One of the largest and oldest travel firms, Thomas Cook, goes bankrupt as last-minute rescue negotiations fail, stranding 600,000 tourists worldwide