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1506 BCE
da Vinci designs planes
Among the many subjects Leonardo studied, the possibility of human mechanical flight held particular fascination. He produced more than 35,000 words and 500 sketches dealing with flying machines, the nature of air, and bird flight -
Model glider design
The wings of a modern racing glider were designed by computers to create a low-drag laminar flow airfoil. After the wings' surfaces have been shaped by a mould to great accuracy, they are then highly polished. Vertical winglets at the ends of the wings decrease drag and so improve wing efficiency. -
Hot Air Balloon Flight
The hot air balloon is the first successful human-carrying flight technology. The first untethered manned hot air balloon flight was performed by Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d'Arlandes on November 21, 1783, in Paris, France, in a balloon created by the Montgolfier brothers -
Biplane design
George Cayley's 1843 design for an "aerial carriage" a biplane "convertiplane". Four circular rotors provided vertical lift like a helicopter, then acted as circular wings for forward flight. -
Biplane gliders
A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. -
First powered flight
On December 17, 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright made four brief flights at Kitty Hawk with their first powered aircraft. The Wright brothers had invented the first successful airplane. The Wrights used this stopwatch to time the Kitty Hawk flights. -
after the first powered flight
Between 1899 and 1905, the Wright brothers conducted a program of aeronautical research and experimentation that led to the first successful powered airplane in 1903 and a refined, practical flying machine two years later. -
The First Air Port
the world's first airport, closed its runways and was replaced not too long after opening by the Croydon Airport in March 1920. It was in the London borough of Hounslow, and in 1919 the first scheduled daily international commercial air services flew to and from there. -
The first pilot
Still, few are remembered so well or mentioned so often as the Wright Brothers, whose "Flying Machine" was the first powered airplane to execute controlled and sustained flight. -
the oldest airport
College Park Airport (KCGS), in the city of College Park, Maryland, US, is the world's oldest airport in operation, when Wilbur Wright arrived at the field to train two military officers in the US Army