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Jan 1, 1485
The Ornithopter
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 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. -
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 silk bag. The silk bag was attached to a basket. The hot air raised the balloon up. -
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The 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. Over 50 years he made improvements to the gliders. He changed the shape of the wings so that the air would flow over the wings correctly. He designed a tail for the gliders to help with the stability. He tried a biplane design to add strength to the glider. He also -
The Zeppelin
On November 3, 1897 David Schwarz designed the Zeppelin. Its skeleton and outer cover were made of aluminum. Powered by a 12-horsepower Daimler gas engine connected to three propellers, it lifted off successfully in a test at Templehof near Berlin, Germany, however, the airship crashed. -
The Ader Eole
Clement Ader’s Eole is the first piloted aeroplane to take off under its own power, for a brief uncontrolled hop. This marvelous paper model of Ader's Eole was built from scratch by
Master Modeller Gabriele Macri, who also generously provided the image.
Gabriele Macri has also posted the files needed to build his paper model -
Otto Lilenthal's Glider
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. He was fascinated by the idea of flight. -
Aerodrome
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. -
Wright Brothers Glider
The next step was to test the shapes of gliders much like George Cayley did when he was testing the many different shapes that would fly. They spent three years testing and learning about how gliders could be controlled at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. -
12 horsepower engine used in flight
They designed and used a wind tunnel to test the shapes of the wings and the tails of the gliders. In 1902, with a perfected glider shape, they turned their attention to how to create a propulsion system that would create the thrust needed to fly. -
Actual Flight of The Flyer at Kitty Hawk
The brothers returned to Dayton, Ohio, where they worked for two more years perfecting their design. Finally, on October 5, 1905, Wilbur piloted the Flyer III for 39 minutes and about 24 miles of circles around Huffman Prairie. He flew the first practical airplane until it ran out of gas.
