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400
China
The kite was invented by the Chinese which started human thinking about flying. -
Aug 28, 1485
Leonardo da Vinci - The Ornithopter
The Ornithopter flying machine was never actually created because it was a design that Leonardo da Vinci created to show how man could fly. -
Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier- the First Hot Air Balloon
Joseph Michel and Jacques Etienne Montgolfier, were inventors of the first hot air balloon. They used fire to blow hot air into a bag. The bag was attached to a basket which made the it rise and fly. -
George Cayley
George Cayley designed many different versions of gliders that used the movements of the body to control. A young boy was the first to fly one of his gliders. Over 50 years he made improvements to the gliders changing the shape of the wings and a tail for the gliders to help with the stability. He also tried a biplane design to add strength to the glider. -
Otto Lilienthal
A German engineer named Otto Lilienthal, studied aerodynamics and worked to design a glider that would fly. He was the first person to design a glider that could fly a person for long distances. After more than 2500 flights, he was killed when he lost control because of a sudden strong wind and crashed into the ground. -
Samuel P. Langley
Samuel Langley was an astronomer who built a model of a plane that included a steam-powered engine. In 1891, his model flew for 3/4s of a mile before running out of fuel.
Langley received a $50,000 grant to build a full sized aerodrome. It was too heavy to fly and it crashed. He was very disappointed and he soon gave up trying to fly. -
Orville and Wilbur Wright and the First Airplane
The first heavier-than-air flight traveled one hundred twenty feet in twelve seconds. But the Flyer was unstable and very hard to control. The brothers returned to Dayton, Ohio, where they worked for two more years perfecting their design. Finally on October 5, 1905, Wilbur piloted the Flyer III for 39 minutes and about 24 miles of circles around Huffman Prairie until he ran out of gas. -
Traian Vuia
Traian Vuia flew a fully self-propelled, fixed-wing monoplane aircraft using a carbonic acid gas engine and a single tractor propeller. He flew for 12 metres at about 1 m height. His aircraft was unable to sustain flight. -
Paul Cornu, France
On November 13, 1907, the Paul Cornu helicopter lifted its inventor to 1 ft and remained in the air for 20 seconds. It was the first truly free flight with a pilot. -
Aurel Vlaicu, Romania
On July 17, 1910, Aurel Vlaicu made a demonstration flight of his first airplane which later became the first airplane of the Romanian military. He perfected the wing angle, designed the gear train between engine and propeller, utilized two coaxial contra-rotating propellers, double steering, independent landing wheels, and landing wheel brakes.
