1853- Coachman Carrier

Sir George Cayley builds an improved version of his glider and convinces his coachman to pilot it. The coachman, whose name is lost to us, makes an wavering, uncontrolled glide of a few hundred feet -- the world’s first true manned flight in a fixed-wing aircraft. The coachman quits Cayley’s service immediately after his one and only feat of airmanship, reportedly saying, "I wish to give notice, sir -- I was hired to drive, not to fly."