---
title: "Which came first, the aeroplane or the Eiffel Tower?"
description: "the aeroplane vs the Eiffel Tower: the Eiffel Tower came first, by 14 years — 1889 against 1903. What happened in each case."
url: https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/aeroplane-vs-eiffel-tower/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Which came first, the aeroplane or the Eiffel Tower?

**Which came first, the aeroplane or the Eiffel Tower?: the Eiffel Tower**

1889 — 14 years before the aeroplane

the Eiffel Tower came first, by 14 years. The tower opened for the Paris Exposition Universelle.

## Side by side

|  | the aeroplane | the Eiffel Tower |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Year | 1903 | 1889 |
| Date | 1903-12-17 | 1889-03-31 |
| Category | invention | landmark |
| What happened | The Wright Flyer made four powered flights at Kitty Hawk. | The tower opened for the Paris Exposition Universelle. |

## 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 Eiffel Tower

Built for the 1889 World's Fair and intended to be dismantled after twenty years, the Eiffel Tower survived because it turned out to be useful as a radio antenna. It was the tallest structure in the world until the Chrysler Building in 1930. It opened in the same year Nintendo was founded, and two and a half years after the Statue of Liberty it is often assumed to predate.

## Common questions

### Which came first, the aeroplane or the Eiffel Tower?

the Eiffel Tower, by 14 years — 1889 against 1903.

### When did the aeroplane start?

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

### When did the Eiffel Tower start?

1889. The tower opened for the Paris Exposition Universelle.

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## Sources

- Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History — Smithsonian Institution (https://naturalhistory.si.edu/)
- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (https://www.wikidata.org/) [CC0 1.0]