Flight History
The Early History of
Flight
Around
400 BC - Flight in China
The
Chinese’s discovery of a kite that could fly in the air started humans thinking
about flying. 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.
Humans
Try to Fly like Birds
For
many centuries, humans have tried to fly just like the birds and have
studied the flight of winged creatures.
Wings made of feathers or
light weight wood have been attached to arms to test their ability to fly.
The results were often
disastrous as the muscles of the human arms are not like a birds and cannot
move with the strength of a bird.
Hero
and the Aeolipile
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.
To do this, Hero mounted a
sphere on top of a water kettle. A fire below the kettle turned the water into
steam, and the gas traveled through pipes to the sphere.
Two L-shaped tubes on
opposite sides of the sphere allowed the gas to escape, which gave a thrust to
the sphere that caused it to rotate.
The
importance of the aeolipile is that it marks the start of engine created
movement will later prove essential in the history of flight.
1485
Leonardo da Vinci’s Ornithopter and the Study of Flight.
Leonardo da Vinci made
the first real studies of flight in the 1480's. He had over 100 drawings that
illustrated his theories on bird and mechanical flight.
The
drawings illustrated the wings and tails of birds, ideas for man carrying
machines and devices for the testing of wings.
His 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. Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks on flight were re-examined
in the 19th century by aviation pioneers.
1783
- Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier and The Flight of the First Hot Air Balloon
Two
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 one mile.
After this initial success,
the brothers began to send men up in hot air balloons.
The first manned hot air
balloon flight was carried out on November 21, 1783 and the passengers were
Jean-Francois Pilatre de Rozier and Francois Laurent.
1799-1850's
- George Cayley’s Gliders
Sir
George Cayley is considered the father of aerodynamics.
Cayley experimented with wing
design, distinguished between lift and drag and formulated the concepts of
vertical tail surfaces, steering rudders, rear elevators and air screws.
He also designed many
different versions of gliders that used the movements of the body for control.
A young boy, whose name is
not known, was the first to fly one of Cayley's gliders. It was the first
glider capable of carrying a human.
For over 50 years, George
Cayley made improvements to his gliders.
Cayley changed the shape of
the wings so that the air would flow over the wings correctly.
He also designed a tail for
the gliders to help with the stability. He then tried a biplane design to add
strength to the glider.
Additionally, Cayley
recognized that there would be a need for machine power if the flight was to be
in the air for a long time.
Mary Bellis has been writing about inventors since
1997. She also loves to tinker (invent) and spends too much time in her
workshop developing her ideas.
Experience
Forbes Best of the Web credits Mary for creating
the number one online destination for information about inventors and
inventions. Her writing has been reprinted and referenced to in numerous
educational books and articles. Her opinion and advice is requested by media
outlets on a constant basis. In addition, she has produced and directed a
number of films, including a documentary on Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor
of the telephone, and has worked as a curator specializing in computer
generated art.
Education
Mary has two degrees in film and animation from
the San Francisco Art Institute. She is a big fan of both history and
technology and an avid reader of books and periodicals on those topics.
Mary Bellis
I have a passion for inventing and a deep
respect for all inventors. I know firsthand the difficulties that inventors
face and I want to help by making the path from idea to marketplace a clearer
process.
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