Bland achieved the first successful powered flight of her self-built aircraft, the Mayfly, at Randalstown, County Antrim.
On 31 August 1910, Lilian Bland achieved a landmark moment in aviation history when her homemade biplane, the Mayfly, made a successful powered flight at Randalstown, County Antrim, in what is now Northern Ireland. Bland had spent the preceding months since 1909 studying aeronautics, largely self-taught from magazine articles and correspondence, and constructing the aircraft's frame from spruce and bamboo with the help of a local mechanic, before fitting it with a small engine sourced from England.
Early trials had been conducted nearby on Carnmoney Hill using glider tests, but it was at Randalstown that the aircraft, fitted with its engine, achieved genuine powered, sustained flight — a remarkable feat given the primitive state of aviation technology at the time, only seven years after the Wright brothers' first flight.
The achievement was widely reported and celebrated, cementing Bland's reputation as a fearless and ingenious pioneer. It demonstrated that women could master the emerging, male-dominated field of aeronautical engineering and piloting, defying the era's deep skepticism about women's capabilities in science and technology. The flight of the Mayfly remains one of the most celebrated moments in the early history of aviation in Ireland and Britain.