Isle of Man 2003 - 100th Anniversary of Powered Flight - Uncirculated Cupro Nickel

To celebrate this Centenary of Powered Flight, the Isle of Man Government has approved the release of two superb crowns which portray the evolution of flight from 1903, through the intervening years to the present day.

Since Orville Wright climbed aboard the ‘Wright Flyer’ on 17th December 1903 and piloted the aircraft for 120 feet which made history as the first powered flying machine to have taken off from level ground, travel through the air and land under the control of its pilot, aviation has made remarkable progress and now aeroplanes carry millions of passengers all over the world and we can even fly to the moon and back.

The second coin features a further four aircraft which show the evolution of aviation from 1927 to the present day.  The aircraft shown on this coin are:

• The Spirit of Louis, the Ryan monoplane in which Charles Lindbergh completed the first solo non-stop transatlantic flight from 20th-21st May 1927.
• The Graf Zeppelin, which completed the first round-the-world airship flight in 1929.
• A Comet of B.O.A.C., which completed the first transatlantic jet passenger service from New York to London on 4th October 1958.
• Concorde, which is the world’s only supersonic passenger aircraft and started the first regular scheduled supersonic flights in 1976.