The history of flight

This wonderful contribution to man’s knwoledge began in ancient China, were religious
people discovered how to produce an object with certain characteristics that gave it the ability
to fly: the kite. A piece of light-weight Wood and some paper arranged in a certain way
produce lift, thus if we amplify that object, man will be able to fly, that´s what they thought,
and since then, various experiments were performed to try to satisfy that desire, but due to
the lack of knowledge and resources, these experiments were sometimes disastrous.
Early experiments about the flight were made between the XV abd XVIII centuries, even
though they were unsuccesful, they gave us the basics to understand how fligt is possible,
some of the most important experiments were:

 Leonardo’s Ornithopter (1485).

 Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier Hot Air Balloon (1783)
 George Cayley’s glider (1850)

After these years of experiments the 19th century arrived, and it brought what is considered
now the modern vision of flight. Contributions like Otto Lilienthal’s glider (which was able
to fly large distances by then), Samuel Langely’s aerodrome ( the first person who realize the
power needed for man to fly) and Octave Chanute’s Progress in flying machines (the first
book published with relevant information about flying techniques) gave the possibility for
future researchers to reach the ancient dream.

Thanks to Octave Chanute’s work, the Wright brothers were able to perform experiments
having in mind all the prevoius knowlegde about the subject, and with that, they were able
to test different shapes of gliders with the purpose of finding the most suitable shape of glider
for the matter.

In 1902 Orville and Wilbur Wright found the perfect shape of glider for the purpose, but
then, they realized they had another problem for the realization of flight, they needed a
propulsion system just as Samuel Langely implied in the past. After various experiments, the
Wright brothers found the perfect propulsion system for their matters: a 12 horsepower
engine.

With the perfect shape of glider, and a “powerful” enough propulsion system, it was time to
build the first “modern flying machine”. This machine is known as the Flyer, and with a
weight of six hundred pounds, it flew one hundred twenty feet in twelve seconds. This was
a big step for mankind, but these two ambicious brothers were not satisfied with this result,
so they returned to their laboratory and started perfectioning the flyer until they achivied a
39 minutes and 24 miles flight.

With the contribution of the Wright brothers, modern flight techniques were discovered and
since the 20th century, an exponential growth in knwoledge has come through the years.