Note followed tune, and first appeared in flight (8)
I believe the answer is:
airborne
'in flight' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'note followed tune and first appeared' is the wordplay.
'note' becomes 'b' (musical note).
'followed' says to put letters next to each other (some letters go after others).
'tune' becomes 'air' (air can mean a piece of music).
'and' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'first appeared' becomes 'orne' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'b' put after 'air' is 'airb'.
'airb'+'orne'='AIRBORNE'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for airborne that I've seen before include "upwardly mobile" , "In flight after taking off" , "(Of aircraft) flying" , "Aloft, flying" , "Off the ground" .)