The Aéro-Club de France delivered the first certificate to Louis Blériot in 1908-followed by Glenn Curtiss, Léon Delagrange, and Robert Esnault-Pelterie. To ensure the safety of people in the air and on the ground, early aviation soon required that aircraft be under the operational control of a properly trained, certified pilot at all times, who is responsible for the safe and legal completion of the flight. For example, a 1905 reference work described the Wright brothers' first airplane: 'The weight, including the body of the aviator, is a little more than 700 pounds'. These terms were used more in the early days of aviation, when airplanes were extremely rare, and connoted bravery and adventure. The term aviatrix ( aviatrice in French), now archaic, was formerly used for a female aviator. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne ('Aviation or Air Navigation').

The first recorded use of the term aviator ( aviateur in French) was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis (meaning bird), coined in 1863 by G.

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