January–December

• 18 January – The Wright brothers begin discussions with the United States Government about selling it an airplane.^[1]
• 16–20 March – Daniel Maloney is launched by balloon in a tandem-wing glider designed by John Montgomery^[2] and makes three successful flights at Aptos, California, the highest launch being at 3,000 feet (910 meters) with an 18-minute descent to a predetermined landing location.^{[citation needed]}
• 27 April – Sapper Moreton of the British Army's balloon section is lifted 2,600 ft (790 m) by a kite at Aldershot under the supervision of the kite's designer, Samuel Cody.
• 29 April – Daniel Maloney is launched by balloon in a tandem-wing glider designed by John Montgomery to an altitude of 4,000 feet (1,200 meters)^[2] before release and gliding and then landing at a predetermined location as part of a large public demonstration of aerial flight at Santa Clara, California].^{[citation needed]}
• 6 June – Gabriel Voisin lifts off of and flies along the River Seine in his float-glider towed by a motorboat.
• 23 June – The Wright brothers fly the Wright Flyer III for the first time. It is the first fully controllable and practical version of the original 1903 Wright Flyer.^[3]
• 14 July – Orville Wright has a serious crash with Wright Flyer III, upon which the Wright Brothers radically alter the aircraft. The front rudder^{[dubious – discuss]} is mainly the culprit for the Flyer's insistent pitching.
• 18 July – Daniel Maloney launches a tandem-wing glider designed by John Montgomery at Santa Clara, California. A balloon cable damages the glider and upon release Maloney and the aircraft fall uncontrolled to the ground, killing Maloney.^[2] This is the third death of a heavier-than-air aircraft pilot after Otto Lilienthal in 1896 and Percy Pilcher in 1899.^{[citation needed]}
• 5 August – Nineteen-year-old Welshman Ernest Willows makes the first flight of Willows No. 1 a semi-rigid airship he had built.
• 31 August –Balloonist John Baldwin accidentally killed during a premature dynamite/balloon stunt at County Fair, Greenville Ohio^[4]
• September – The Wright Brothers resume flight experiments with the re-designed Flyer III with performance of the airplane immediately in the positive. Smooth controlled flights lasting over 20 minutes now occur.
• 7 September – Flying circles over a cornfield near Dayton, Ohio, and chasing flocks of birds, Orville Wright records history's first bird strike. The dead bird lays on the airplane's wing before Wright makes a sharp turn and dumps it off.^[5]
• 4 October – Piloting the Flyer III over Huffman Prairie outside Dayton, Ohio, Orville Wright makes the first airplane flight in history of over 30 minutes in length.^[6]
• 5 October – Wilbur Wright makes a flight of 24.2 miles (38.9 km) over Huffman Prairie in the Flyer III. The flight lasts for 39 minutes 23 seconds.
• 14 October – The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) is founded in Paris.
• 15 October – The Wright brothers record a flight of just over 24 miles (39 km) in 28 minutes in the Wright Flyer III.^[7]
• 16 October – The Wright brothers complete their 1905 test flight program, making their last flight until May 1908.^[3]
• 30 November – At Lake Constance, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin's LZ2 airship is damaged significantly while attempting its first launch.^[3]
• December – Neil MacDermid is carried aloft in Canada by a large box kite named The Siamese Twins, designed by Alexander Graham Bell.