 Welcome to All Hands Update, I'm Petty Officer Jonathan Pankaw. This month will mark the 104th anniversary of a first naval aviation. On January 18, 1911, aviator Eugene Ealy landed a small aircraft aboard a warship for the first time. The armored cruiser USS Pennsylvania anchored in San Francisco Bay, hosted the event. A temporary wooden platform was constructed as a flight deck, and ropes attached to heavy sandbags served as an early arresting gear. Ealy flew a Curtis pusher biplane from San Francisco and successfully landed aboard Pennsylvania and took off from the flight deck, marking a milestone in naval aviation. Today the innovation that landed Ealy's plane lives on in complex arresting gear technology and the aircraft carriers that employ them. For more information about naval aviation history, visit the Naval History and Heritage Command's website.