THE HISTORY OF FLIGHT

By Ainhoa Escobal
  • 1000 BCE

    KITE

    KITE
    The kite is invented in China.
    Kites have been important to the invention of flight as they were the forerunner to balloons and gliders.
  • Feb 19, 1485

    Ornithoper

    Ornithoper
    Leonardo da Vinci made the first real studies of flight in the 1480's.
    The Ornithopter was a design that Leonardo da Vinci created to show how man could fly. The modern day helicopter is based on this concept.

  • The First Hot Air Balloon

    The 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 textile bag.
    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.

  • One Version of a Glider

    One Version of a Glider
    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.

  • One of Lilienthal's Gliders

    One of Lilienthal's Gliders
    He was the first person to design a glider that could fly a person and was able to fly long distances.
    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

    The First Airplane
    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.
    Finally, on October 5, 1905, Wilbur piloted the Flyer III for 39 minutes and about 24 miles of circles