Aviation History

Aviation History

For many centuries, humankind had the desire to fly like the birds and taste the flight experience. Throughout history, there have been many flying attempts which eventually failed.

The Kite was the first known flying instrument. It was invented at around 400BC in China. Its use was mainly for entertainment at celebrations but was also used for the checking of the weather condition. Because the kite didn't answer man's desire to fly, the quest was continued.  

It was Leonardo Da-Vinci who designed the first glider, the non-motorized aircraft, which had a similar structure to the nowadays airplane. Leonardo Da-Vinci was, among many other professions, an engineer and an inventor.

Leonardo was fascinated by the phenomenon of flight, producing many studies of the flight of birds, and plans for several flying machines, including a helicopter and a light hang glider. Of these, most were impractical and Da-Vinci never implemented his designs and they were only used in the 20th century, after many other aircrafts have already been constructed. The research on flight continued during the 17th and 18th after Da-Vinci's Death.

Otto Lilienthal, a German engineer, 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 for long distances
The idea of flight interested Otto. He wrote a book on aerodynamics based on his studies of birds and how they fly and this text was used to help build the first powered aircraft by the Wright brothers.

After few successful and also some less successful attempts to fly a glider, the two brothers decided to design and build an engine that will have enough power to fly it.
After solving some problems that popped during the construction, the two brothers finally succeeded to build the engine. They decided to test their powered aircraft.
The first powered aircraft flight attempt was made at Kill Devil Hill in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina on December 17,...