---
title: "Which came first, the aeroplane or the car?"
description: "the aeroplane vs the car: the car came first, by 17 years — 1886 against 1903. What happened in each case, and why the dates are often given differently."
url: https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/aeroplane-vs-car/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Which came first, the aeroplane or the car?

**Which came first, the aeroplane or the car?: the car**

1886 — 17 years before the aeroplane

the car came first, by 17 years. Karl Benz patented the Motorwagen.

## Side by side

|  | the aeroplane | the car |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Year | 1903 | 1886 |
| Date | 1903-12-17 | 1886-01-29 |
| Category | invention | invention |
| What happened | The Wright Flyer made four powered flights at Kitty Hawk. | Karl Benz patented the Motorwagen. |

## the aeroplane

The first flight lasted 12 seconds and covered 36 metres — less than the wingspan of a Boeing 747. The Wrights' real contribution was not the engine but three-axis control, which they worked out with a wind tunnel of their own design after finding the published lift tables wrong. Sixty-six years separate that flight from the Moon landing, well within a single lifetime.

## the car

Benz's patent of 29 January 1886 is the usual date for the first practical petrol car. The vehicle's commercial breakthrough came from his wife: in 1888 Bertha Benz drove 106 km to Pforzheim without telling him, fixing the fuel line with a hatpin and the ignition with a garter on the way, and the resulting publicity sold the machine. Ford did not exist until 1903 and the Model T not until 1908.

## Common questions

### Which came first, the aeroplane or the car?

the car, by 17 years — 1886 against 1903.

### When did the aeroplane start?

1903. The Wright Flyer made four powered flights at Kitty Hawk.

### When did the car start?

1886. Karl Benz patented the Motorwagen.

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## Sources

- Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History — Smithsonian Institution (https://naturalhistory.si.edu/)