People have probably wanted to learn how to fly, since the time they conceived their first thought. It seems to be the nature of humans, to push the limits of what they can do, regardless of how illogical it may be. The pursuit of flight may have been a more prevalent thought, than those surrounding the automobile. People were always able to travel with their feet, but to be able to fly, now that would be special. Most people credit the Wright brothers for starting the flying revolution, but the fact is, the Wright brothers were just another step in a process that had started years earlier. As far back as the 9th century, gliders were being built and flown. Even the great Leonardo da Vinci had sketched designs for aircrafts, one being a helicopter, but it was never built. The first known human flight actually took place in 1783, in Paris. The flight was in a hot air balloon and it lasted for 5 miles. As the 1800s got under way, many more advances were made to the glider. The main problem was, trying to build a controllable glider. This was also the period, when people started to design machine powered aircraft. In Paris, in 1890, a steam powered aircraft went 164 feet, thus becoming the first self-propelled distance flight, in history. The first aircrafts to make regular, controlled flights were non-rigid airships, which were later called blimps. The Wright brothers continued the progression of flight, during the early 1900s. They started out by testing kites and gliders, before they experimented with planes. The Wright brothers actually built their own wind tunnel, so they could test their wing designs. Finally, on December 17, 1903, the Wright brothers made the first, controlled, sustained flight of a powered aircraft. The flight went 121 feet. There was actually a fourth flight, made the same day, that went 852 feet. In 1908, the Wright brothers were credited with making the first two-person aircraft flight. Later that same year, Madame Hart Berg became the first woman to fly in an aircraft. The military made immediate use of the plane. Bulgaria, was the first country to use planes in their military. Before World War I, the plane wasn't viewed as a weapon, but as a way for the military to take photos of potential targets. It didn't take long before planes did start firing at each other. Of course, accuracy was a problem, but this was solved in 1914, when a French flyer attached a machine gun to the front of his plane. After World War II, many of the military planes were converted for commercial use. In 1952, the British came out with the first jet airliner; not long after this, the Boeing 707 was introduced to the public. Technological advances have made planes bigger, faster and more comfortable to fly in. The dangers associated with the earlier planes have long been resolved. It's doubtful that the pioneers of flight, who only wanted to fly, would have conceived of the plane being what it has become. |
