-
The ancient Greek engineer, Hero of Alexandria, worked with air pressure and steam to create sources of power. One experiment that he developed was the aeolipile which used jets of steam to create rotary motion.
-
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 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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
Samuel Langley was an astronomer, who realized that power was needed to help man fly. He built a model of a plane, which he called an aerodrome, that included a steam-powered engine. In 1891, his model flew for 3/4s of a mile before running out of fuel
-
The first sucsesful plane was invented
-
Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-Aktiengesellschaft was the first Comercial airliner
-
Boeing an Company that makes many planes that are flown today.
-
The worlds first helicopter was the Focke-Wolf Fw 61
-
The Me 262 was the worlds first fighter jet
-
Airbus another big company that makes planes is founded.
-
Worlds first double decker commercial aircraft
-
First flight of the boeing 787
-
The first AMerican Jet was the FJ-1 Fury used by the NAvy in World War 2