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400
Kite was Invented
In 400 B.C.E, the Chinese invented the kite which was the first thing that got humans thinking about flight. Kites were used by the Chinese in religious ceremonies. They built many colorful kites for fun, also. More sophisticated kites were used to test weather conditions. Kites have been important to the invention of flight as they were the forerunner to balloons and gliders. -
Period: 400 to
Aircraft Investigation
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Jan 1, 1485
Leonardo Da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci made the first real studies of flight in the 1480's. He had over 100 drawings that illustrated his theories on flight. The Ornithopter flying machine was never actually created. It was a design that Leonardo da Vinci created to show how man could fly. The modern day helicopter is based on this concept. -
Period: Aug 31, 1500 to
Aircraft/Airspace
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First Hot Air Balloon
The brothers, Joseph Michel and Jacques Etienne Montgolfier, were inventors of the first hot air balloon. They used the smoke from a fire to blow hot air into a silk bag. The silk bag was attached to a basket. The hot air then rose and allowed the balloon to be lighter-than-air.In 1783, the first passengers in the colorful balloon were a sheep, rooster and duck. It climbed to a height of about 6,000 feet and traveled more than 1 mile. -
Gliders
George Cayley worked to discover a way that man could fly. He designed many different versions of gliders that used the movements of the body to control. A young boy, whose name is not known, was the first to fly one of his gliders. Over 50 years he made improvements to the gliders. He changed the shape of the wings so that the air would flow over the wings correctly. He designed a tail for the gliders to help with the stability. He tried a biplane design to add strength to the glider. He also r -
Otto Lilienthal
German engineer, 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 and was able to fly long distances. He was fascinated by the idea of flight. Based on his studies of birds and how they fly, he wrote a book on aerodynamics that was published in 1889 and this text was used by the Wright Brothers as the basis for their designs. -
The First Airplane
Orville and Wilbur Wright were very deliberate in their quest for flight. First, they read about all the early developments of flight. They decided to make "a small contribution" to the study of flight control by twisting their wings in flight. Then they began to test their ideas with a kite. They learned about how the wind would help with the flight and how it could affect the surfaces once up in the air. -
Take off from a ship
The first flight to take of from a ship, Eugene Ely departs from the deck of a cruiser, that was anchored in Hampton Roads in Virginia, in November. In January the next year he takes off from shore and lands on a ship that had been anchored off of the coast of California. -
First electromechanical flight simulator
The Link Trainer, the first electromechanical flight simulator, is introduced by Edwin Link. The Link Trainer was mounted on a base that allows the cockpit to pitch and roll as the trainer had a closed hood that made the pilots rely on the instruments. -
First modern commercial airliner
A twin-engine 10-passenger monoplane is introduces by Boeing this is the 247. It had variable-pitch propellers which helped with speed and excellent takeoffs. It also has retractable landing gear that reduces drag during flight time. -
Sputnik 1
First man made satellite launches, called Sputnik 1 by the Soviet Union. -
ISS
First two modules of the International Space Station are launched and joined together in orbit. -
First Residents of the ISS
First crew arrives to take up residence in the International Space Station.