History of Flight

China

400 BCE

The discovery of the kite that could fly in the air by the Chinese started humans thinking about flying.

GREEK

350 BCE

The ancient Greek engineer, Hero of Alexandria, worked with air pressure and steam to create sources of power.

The Ornithoper

Apr 17, 1485

Leonardo da Vinci made the first real studies of 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.

First Hot Air Balloon

Feb 17, 1783

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.

Glider

Feb 17, 1785

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.

Otto Lilienthal

Feb 17, 1891

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.

The Wright Brother's

Feb 17, 1900

The first heavier-than-air flight traveled one hundred twenty feet in twelve seconds. The two brothers took turns flying that day with the fourth and last flight covering 850 feet in 59 seconds. But the Flyer was unstable and very hard to control.

Actualy

Feb 17, 2017

Humankind was now able to fly! During the next century, many new airplanes and engines were developed to help transport people, luggage, cargo, military personnel and weapons. The 20th century's advances were all based on this first flights by the American Brothers from Ohio.