---
title: "Which came first, the aeroplane or the telephone?"
description: "the aeroplane vs the telephone: the telephone came first, by 27 years — 1876 against 1903. What happened in each case, and why the dates are often given differently."
url: https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/aeroplane-vs-telephone/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Which came first, the aeroplane or the telephone?

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

1876 — 27 years before the aeroplane

the telephone came first, by 27 years. Bell was granted US patent 174,465.

## Side by side

|  | the aeroplane | the telephone |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Year | 1903 | 1876 |
| Date | 1903-12-17 | 1876-03-07 |
| Category | invention | invention |
| What happened | The Wright Flyer made four powered flights at Kitty Hawk. | Bell was granted US patent 174,465. |

## 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 telephone

Bell's patent was granted on 7 March 1876 and he made the famous call to Watson three days later. Elisha Gray filed a caveat for a similar device on the same day in February that Bell filed his application, and the priority dispute has never entirely gone away. Antonio Meucci had demonstrated a working voice telegraph in New York in 1860 but could not afford to renew his caveat.

## Common questions

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

the telephone, by 27 years — 1876 against 1903.

### When did the aeroplane start?

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

### When did the telephone start?

1876. Bell was granted US patent 174,465.

## Related pages

- [Big Ben or the telephone?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/big-ben-vs-telephone/)
- [the Statue of Liberty or the telephone?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/statue-of-liberty-vs-telephone/)
- [the Eiffel Tower or the telephone?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/eiffel-tower-vs-telephone/)
- [Germany or the telephone?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/germany-vs-telephone/)
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- [the bicycle or the telephone?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/bicycle-vs-telephone/)
- [photography or the telephone?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/photograph-vs-telephone/)
- [the fax machine or the telephone?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/fax-machine-vs-telephone/)
- [the telephone or television?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/telephone-vs-television/)
- [the lightbulb or the telephone?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/lightbulb-vs-telephone/)
- [the car or the telephone?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/car-vs-telephone/)
- [the aeroplane or the Statue of Liberty?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/aeroplane-vs-statue-of-liberty/)

## Sources

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