History of Flight
The history of flight is a record of mankind’s ambition to reach
the stars. One of the earliest stories about flight was the Greek legend
of Daedalus and his son, Icarus, who were trapped within a wall by king
Minos. Daedalus fashioned wings for himself and his son, and the two flew
out of their confines. However, Icarus, who did not obey his father’s
warning not to fly too close to the sun, fell to his death as the wax of
his wings melted. The myths in the history of flight warned mankind not
to push it too far.
Although there were many other ancient legends about flight, including
the story that Alexander the Great over his empire on a throne drawn by
Griffins, the history of flight didn’t make much progress until Leonardo
Da Vinci’s drawings in 1480. Up until that time, the history of flight
mainly involved people like Icarus inventing wings, not realizing that
humans are not equipped with bird muscles, and falling down. Leonardo Da
Vincie studied the science of flight in detail, and made over 100 drawings
of something called an ornithopter. Leonardo Da Vinci’s drawings
were so accurate that his ornithopter made a permanent impression in the
history of flight, and the modern helicopter is based on its design.
Although actual flight was a long way away, floating in the air became
a decisive step in the history of flight; in 1783, Joseph Michael and Jacques
Eitenna Montgolfer invented the hot air balloon that blew smoke from a
fire into a silk sack. The first passengers were a rooster, a duck and
a sheep, and the balloon rose to 60,000 feet and traveled for one mile.
The first manned “float” in the history of flight occurred
one year later.
Although the history of flight began to advance in the form of various
gliders, it was Orville and Wilbur Wright who accomplished the first manned
flight in 1903. The plane flew 120 feet in 12 seconds, but it was recorded
as a decisive step in the history of flight.
