Heavier-than-air
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The history of aviation spans over two millennia, from the earliest innovations like
kite A kite is a tethered heavier than air flight, heavier-than-air craft with wing surfaces that react against the air to create Lift (force), lift and Drag (physics), drag forces. A kite consists of wings, tethers and anchors. Kites often have ...
s and attempts at tower jumping to
supersonic Supersonic speed is the speed of an object that exceeds the speed of sound (Mach 1). For objects traveling in dry air of a temperature of 20 °C (68 °F) at sea level, this speed is approximately . Speeds greater than five times ...
and
hypersonic flight Hypersonic flight is flight through the atmosphere below altitudes of about at Hypersonic speed, speeds greater than Mach 5, a speed where Dissociation (chemistry), dissociation of air begins to become significant and high heat loads exist. Spe ...
in powered, heavier-than-air
jet aircraft A jet aircraft (or simply jet) is an aircraft (nearly always a fixed-wing aircraft) propelled by one or more jet engines. Whereas the engines in Propeller (aircraft), propeller-powered aircraft generally achieve their maximum efficiency at much ...
. Kite flying in China, dating back several hundred years BC, is considered the earliest example of man-made flight. In the 15th-century
Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 - 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested o ...
created several flying machine designs incorporating aeronautical concepts, but they were unworkable due to the limitations of contemporary knowledge. In the late 18th century, the
Montgolfier brothers The Montgolfier brothers – Joseph-Michel Montgolfier (; 26 August 1740 – 26 June 1810) and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier (; 6 January 1745 – 2 August 1799) – were aviation pioneers, balloonists and paper manufacturers from the Communes o ...
invented the hot-air balloon which soon led to manned flights. At almost the same time, the discovery of
hydrogen Hydrogen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol H and atomic number 1. It is the lightest and abundance of the chemical elements, most abundant chemical element in the universe, constituting about 75% of all baryon, normal matter ...
gas led to the invention of the
hydrogen balloon Hydrogen is a chemical element; it has symbol H and atomic number 1. It is the lightest and most abundant chemical element in the universe, constituting about 75% of all normal matter. Under standard conditions, hydrogen is a gas of diatomi ...
. Various theories in
mechanics Mechanics () is the area of physics concerned with the relationships between force, matter, and motion among Physical object, physical objects. Forces applied to objects may result in Displacement (vector), displacements, which are changes of ...
by physicists during the same period, such as
fluid dynamics In physics, physical chemistry and engineering, fluid dynamics is a subdiscipline of fluid mechanics that describes the flow of fluids – liquids and gases. It has several subdisciplines, including (the study of air and other gases in motion ...
and
Newton's laws of motion Newton's laws of motion are three physical laws that describe the relationship between the motion of an object and the forces acting on it. These laws, which provide the basis for Newtonian mechanics, can be paraphrased as follows: # A body re ...
, led to the development of modern
aerodynamics Aerodynamics () is the study of the motion of atmosphere of Earth, air, particularly when affected by a solid object, such as an airplane wing. It involves topics covered in the field of fluid dynamics and its subfield of gas dynamics, and is an ...
; most notably by Sir George Cayley. Balloons, both free-flying and tethered, began to be used for military purposes from the end of the 18th century, with France establishing balloon companies during the French Revolution.Hallion (2003) In the 19th century, especially the second half, experiments with gliders provided the basis for learning the dynamics of winged aircraft; most notably by Cayley,
Otto Lilienthal Karl Wilhelm Otto Lilienthal (23 May 1848 – 10 August 1896) was a German pioneer of aviation who became known as the "flying man". He was the first person to make well-documented, repeated, successful flights with gliders, therefore making t ...
, and
Octave Chanute Octave Chanute (February 18, 1832 – November 23, 1910) was a French-American civil engineer and aviation pioneer. He advised and publicized many aviation enthusiasts, including the Wright brothers. At his death, he was hailed as the father of ...
. By the early 20th century, advances in engine technology and aerodynamics made controlled, powered, manned heavier-than-air flight possible for the first time. In 1903, following their pioneering research and experiments with wing design and aircraft control, the
Wright brothers The Wright brothers, Orville Wright (August 19, 1871 – January 30, 1948) and Wilbur Wright (April 16, 1867 – May 30, 1912), were American aviation List of aviation pioneers, pioneers generally credited with inventing, building, and flyin ...
successfully incorporated all of the required elements to create and fly the first aeroplane. The basic configuration with its characteristic
cruciform tail The cruciform tail is an aircraft empennage configuration which, when viewed from the aircraft's front or rear, looks much like a cross. The usual arrangement is to have the tailplane, horizontal stabilizer intersect the vertical tail somewhere ...
was established by 1909, followed by rapid design and performance improvements aided by the development of more powerful engines. The first vessels of the air were the rigid steerable balloons pioneered by
Ferdinand von Zeppelin Graf, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin (; 8 July 1838 – 8 March 1917) was a General (Germany), German general and later inventor of the Zeppelin rigid airships. His name became synonymous with airships and dominated long-distance flight until the ...
that became synonymous with
airship An airship, dirigible balloon or dirigible is a type of aerostat (lighter-than-air) aircraft that can navigate through the air flying powered aircraft, under its own power. Aerostats use buoyancy from a lifting gas that is less dense than the ...
s and dominated long-distance flight until the 1930s, when large
flying boat A flying boat is a type of seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water. It differs from a floatplane in having a fuselage that is purpose-designed for flotation, while floatplanes rely on fuselage-mounted floats for buoyancy. Though ...
s became popular for trans-oceanic routes. After
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, the flying boats were in turn replaced by airplanes operating from land, made far more capable first by improved propeller engines, then by
jet engine A jet engine is a type of reaction engine, discharging a fast-moving jet (fluid), jet of heated gas (usually air) that generates thrust by jet propulsion. While this broad definition may include Rocket engine, rocket, Pump-jet, water jet, and ...
s, which revolutionized both civilian air travel and
military aviation Military aviation is the design, development and use of military aircraft and other flying machines for the purposes of conducting or enabling aerial warfare, including national airlift (air cargo) capacity to provide military logistics, logist ...
. In the latter half of the 20th century, the development of
digital electronics Digital electronics is a field of electronics involving the study of digital signals and the engineering of devices that use or produce them. It deals with the relationship between Binary number, binary inputs and outputs by passing electrical s ...
led to major advances in flight instrumentation and "
fly-by-wire Fly-by-wire (FBW) is a system that replaces the conventional aircraft flight control system#Hydro-mechanical, manual flight controls of an aircraft with an electronic interface. The movements of flight controls are converted to electronic sig ...
" systems. The 21st century has seen the widespread use of pilotless drones for military, commercial, and recreational purposes. With computerized controls, inherently unstable aircraft designs, such as
flying wing A flying wing is a tailless fixed-wing aircraft that has no definite fuselage, with its crew, payload, fuel, and equipment housed inside the main wing structure. A flying wing may have various small protuberances such as pods, nacelles, blis ...
s, have also become practical.


Etymology

The term aviation, is a noun of action from the stem of Latin avis "bird" with the suffix -ation meaning action or progress. It was coined in 1863 by French pioneer Guillaume Joseph Gabriel de La Landelle (1812–1886) in ''Aviation ou Navigation aérienne sans ballons''.


Primitive beginnings


Tower jumping

Since ancient times, there have been stories of men strapping birdlike wings, stiffened cloaks, or other devices to themselves and attempting to fly, typically by jumping off a tower. The Greek legends of
Daedalus In Greek mythology, Daedalus (, ; Greek language, Greek: Δαίδαλος; Latin language, Latin: ''Daedalus''; Etruscan language, Etruscan: ''Taitale'') was a skillful architect and craftsman, seen as a symbol of wisdom, knowledge and power. H ...
and
Icarus In Greek mythology, Icarus (; , ) was the son of the master craftsman Daedalus, the architect of the labyrinth of Crete. After Theseus, king of Athens and enemy of King Minos, escaped from the labyrinth, Minos suspected that Icarus and Daedalu ...
are some of the earliest known. Others originated in ancient Asia and the European Middle Ages. During this early period, the concepts of lift, stability, and control were not well understood, and most attempts resulted in serious injuries or death. The Andalusian scientist
Abbas ibn Firnas Abū al-Qāsim ʿAbbās ibn Firnās ibn Wardūs al-Tākurnī (; c. 809/810 – 887 CE), known as ʿAbbās ibn Firnās () was an Andalusi polymath: Lynn Townsend White, Jr. (Spring, 1961). "Eilmer of Malmesbury, an Eleventh Century Aviator: A C ...
(810–887 AD) attempted to fly in
Córdoba, Spain Córdoba ( ; ), or sometimes Cordova ( ), is a city in Andalusia, Spain, and the capital of the Province of Córdoba (Spain), province of Córdoba. It is the third most populated Municipalities in Spain, municipality in Andalusia. The city prim ...
, by covering his body with
vulture A vulture is a bird of prey that scavenges on carrion. There are 23 extant species of vulture (including condors). Old World vultures include 16 living species native to Europe, Africa, and Asia; New World vultures are restricted to Nort ...
feathers and attached two wings to his arms. The 17th-century
Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...
n historian Ahmed Mohammed al-Maqqari, quoting a poem by
Muhammad I of Córdoba Muhammad I of Cordoba (; 823–886) was the Fifth Umayyad ruler of al-Andalus. He ruled during a time of thriving art, architecture and culture in Islamic Iberia in the 9th century, turning Cordoba into a cultural and political center. Reign ...
's 9th-century court poet Mu'min ibn Said, recounts that Firnas flew some distance before landing with some injuries, attributed to his lacking a tail (as birds use them to land). Lynn Townsend White, Jr. (Spring, 1961). "Eilmer of Malmesbury, an Eleventh Century Aviator: A Case Study of Technological Innovation, Its Context and Tradition", ''Technology and Culture'' 2 (2), pp. 97–111 01/ref> In the 12th century,
William of Malmesbury William of Malmesbury (; ) was the foremost English historian of the 12th century. He has been ranked among the most talented English historians since Bede. Modern historian C. Warren Hollister described him as "a gifted historical scholar and a ...
wrote that
Eilmer of Malmesbury Eilmer of Malmesbury (also known as Oliver due to a scribe's miscopying, or Elmer, or Æthelmær) was an 11th-century English Benedictine monk best known for his early attempt at a gliding flight using wings. Life Eilmer was a monk of Malme ...
, an 11th-century Benedictine monk, attached wings to his hands and feet and flew a short distance, but broke both legs while landing, also having neglected to make himself a tail. Many others made well-documented jumps in the following centuries. As late as 1811, Albrecht Berblinger constructed an ornithopter and jumped into the
Danube The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...
at Ulm.


Kites

The
kite A kite is a tethered heavier than air flight, heavier-than-air craft with wing surfaces that react against the air to create Lift (force), lift and Drag (physics), drag forces. A kite consists of wings, tethers and anchors. Kites often have ...
may have been the first form of man-made heavier-than-air aircraft. It was invented in
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
possibly as far back as the 5th century BC. by
Mozi Mozi, personal name Mo Di, was a Chinese philosopher, logician, and founder of the Mohist school of thought, making him one of the most important figures of the Warring States period (221 BCE). Alongside Confucianism, Mohism became the ...
(Mo Di) and Lu Ban (Gongshu Ban). Evidence to support this finding stands with materials commonly found and ideal for kite building located in China.  These are materials such as "silk fabric for sail material, fine, high-tensile-strength silk for flying line, and resilient bamboo for…framework" The reason these materials were so perfect for building kites is largely due to the structure of the materials themselves. Bamboo being a strong, hollow material, largely resembled the hollow bones in birds, which allow for less weight, making flight easier. Some kites were fitted with strings and whistles to make musical sounds while flying. Ancient and mediaeval Chinese sources describe kites being used to measure distances, test the wind, lift men, signal, and communicate and send messages. Later designs often depicted images of flying insects, birds, and other beasts, both real and mythical. Kites spread from China around the world. After being introduced into the rest of
Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...
, the kite further evolved into the
fighter kite Fighter kites are kites used for the sport of kite fighting. Traditionally, most are small, unstable single-line flat kites where line tension alone is used for control, at least part of which is Manja (kite), manja, typically glass-coated co ...
, which has an abrasive line used to cut down other kites. The most notable fighter kite designs originated in
India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
and
Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...


Man-lifting kites

Man-lifting kites are believed to have been used extensively in ancient China for civil and military purposes and sometimes enforced as a punishment. An early recorded flight was that of the prisoner Yuan Huangtou, a Chinese prince, in the 6th century AD. Stories of man-lifting kites can be found in Japan, following the introduction of the kite from China around the seventh century AD. For a period, there was a Japanese law against man-carrying kites.Pelham, D.; ''The Penguin book of kites'', Penguin (1976)


Rotor wings

The use of a
rotor ROTOR was an elaborate air defence radar system built by the British Government in the early 1950s to counter possible attack by Soviet bombers. To get it operational as quickly as possible, it was initially made up primarily of WWII-era syst ...
for vertical flight has existed since 400 BC in the form of the bamboo-copter, an ancient Chinese toy. The similar "moulinet à noix" (rotor on a nut) appeared in
Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
in the 14th century AD.


Hot air balloons

Since ancient times, the Chinese understood that hot air rises and applied the principle to a type of small
hot air balloon A hot air balloon is a lighter-than-air aircraft consisting of a bag, called an envelope, which contains heated air. Suspended beneath is a gondola or wicker basket (in some long-distance or high-altitude balloons, a capsule), which carri ...
called a sky lantern. A sky lantern consists of a paper balloon under or just inside which a small lamp is placed. Sky lanterns are traditionally launched for recreation and during festivals. According to
Joseph Needham Noel Joseph Terence Montgomery Needham (; 9 December 1900 – 24 March 1995) was a British biochemist, historian of science and sinologist known for his scientific research and writing on the history of Chinese science and technology, initia ...
, such lanterns were found in China since the 3rd century BC. Their military use is attributed to the general
Zhuge Liang Zhuge Liang () (181September or October 234), also commonly known by his courtesy name Kongming, was a Chinese statesman, strategist, and inventor who lived through the End of the Han dynasty, end of the Eastern Han dynasty ( 184–220) and t ...
(180–234 AD), who is said to have used them to scare the enemy troops. There is evidence that the Chinese also "solved the problem of aerial navigation" using balloons, hundreds of years before the 18th century.


Renaissance

Eventually, some investigators began to discover and define some of the basics of rational aircraft design. Most notable of these was
Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 - 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested o ...
, although his work remained unknown until 1797, and so had no influence on developments over the next three hundred years. While his designs are rational, they are not scientific. He particularly underestimated the amount of power that would be needed to propel a flying object, basing his designs on the flapping wings of a bird rather than an engine-powered propeller. Leonardo studied bird and bat flight, claiming the superiority of the latter owing to its unperforated wing. He analyzed these and anticipated many principles of aerodynamics. He understood that "An object offers as much resistance to the air as the air does to the object."
Isaac Newton Sir Isaac Newton () was an English polymath active as a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author. Newton was a key figure in the Scientific Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment that followed ...
later defined this as the third law of motion in 1687. From the last years of the 15th century until 1505, Leonardo wrote about and sketched many designs for flying machines and mechanisms, including ornithopters, fixed-wing gliders, rotorcraft (perhaps inspired by
whirligig A whirligig is an object that spins or whirls, or has at least one part that spins or whirls. It can also be a Pinwheel (toy), pinwheel, Top (toy), spinning top, buzzer, comic weathervane, gee-haw, spinner, whirlygig, whirlijig, whirlyjig, whirl ...
toys), parachutes (in the form of a wooden-framed pyramidal tent) and a wind speed gauge. His early designs were man-powered and included ornithopters and rotorcraft; however, he came to realise the impracticality of this and later turned to controlled gliding flight, also sketching some designs powered by a spring. In an essay titled ''Sul volo'' (''On flight''), Leonardo describes a flying machine called "the bird" which he built from starched linen, leather joints, and raw silk thongs. In the '' Codex Atlanticus'', he wrote, "Tomorrow morning, on the second day of January 1496, I will make the thong and the attempt." According to one commonly repeated, albeit presumably fictional story, in 1505 Leonardo or one of his pupils attempted to fly from the summit of Monte Ceceri.


Lighter than air


Beginnings of modern theories

Francesco Lana de Terzi Francesco Lana de Terzi (1631 in Brescia, Lombardy – 22 February 1687, in Brescia, Lombardy) was an Italian Jesuit priest, mathematician, naturalist and aeronautics pioneer. Having been professor of physics and mathematics at Brescia, he fi ...
proposed in ''Prodromo dell'Arte Maestra'' (1670) that large vessels could float in the atmosphere by applying the principles of a vacuum. Lana designed an airship with four huge copper foil spheres connected to support a rider's basket, a tail, and a steering rudder. Critics argued that the thin copper spheres could not sustain ambient air pressure, and further experiments proved that his idea was impossible. Using a vacuum to create lift is called a vacuum airship, but it is still impossible to build with the materials available today. In 1709, Bartolomeu de Gusmão approached King John V of Portugal and claimed to have discovered a way for airborne flight. Due to the King's illness, Gusmão's experiment was rescheduled from its initial 24 June 1709, date to 8 August. The experiment was carried out in front of the king and other nobles in the Casa da India yard, but the paper ship or device burned down before it could take flight.


Balloons

In France, five aviation firsts were accomplished between 4 June and 1 December 1783: * On 4 June, a crowd gathered in
Annonay Annonay (; ) is a Communes of France, commune and largest city in the north of the Ardèche department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of southeastern France. It is the most populous commune in the Ardèche department although it is not the ...
, France, to witness the unmanned hot air balloon display by the
Montgolfier brothers The Montgolfier brothers – Joseph-Michel Montgolfier (; 26 August 1740 – 26 June 1810) and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier (; 6 January 1745 – 2 August 1799) – were aviation pioneers, balloonists and paper manufacturers from the Communes o ...
. Their 500-pound balloon ascended to nearly 3,000 feet and traveled over a mile and a half. It stayed in the air for ten minutes before tipping over and catching fire. * On 27 August,
Jacques Charles Jacques Alexandre César Charles (12 November 1746 – 7 April 1823) was a French people, French inventor, scientist, mathematician, and balloonist. Charles wrote almost nothing about mathematics, and most of what has been credited to him was due ...
and the
Robert brothers Les Frères Robert were two French brothers. Anne-Jean Robert (1758–1820) and Nicolas-Louis Robert (1760–1828) were the engineers who built the world's first hydrogen balloon for professor Jacques Charles, which flew from central Paris on ...
unveiled the first unmanned hydrogen balloon from Paris'
Champ de Mars Champ, CHAMP or The Champ may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Champ (cartoon character), an animated dog introduced in 1960 * The Champ, played on radio and created by Jake Edwards (radio personality), Jake Edwards * Champ ...
. It landed almost an hour later in Gonesse, where terrified farmers mistook it for a monster and destroyed it. * On 19 October, in front of 2,000 spectators,
Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier () (30 March 1754 – 15 June 1785) was a French chemistry and physics teacher, and one of the first pioneers of aviation. He made the first manned free balloon flight with François Laurent d'Arlandes on 21 Nov ...
and the
Marquis d'Arlandes A marquess (; ) is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The German-language equivalent is Markgraf (margrave). A woman with the rank of a marquess or the wife (or wido ...
boarded the Montgolfier aircraft as the first people. Later that day, Giroud de Villette, another pilot, took to the skies much higher. * On 21 November, the Montgolfiers launched the first free flight with human passengers. King Louis XVI had originally decreed that condemned criminals would be the first pilots, but Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier, along with the Marquis François d'Arlandes, successfully petitioned for the honour. They drifted in a balloon powered by a wood fire. * On 1 December, Jacques Charles and the Nicolas-Louis Robert launched their manned hydrogen balloon from the Jardin des Tuileries in Paris, as a crowd of 400,000 witnessed. They ascended to a height of about 5and landed at sunset in
Nesles-la-Vallée Nesles-la-Vallée () is a commune in the Val-d'Oise department in Île-de-France in northern France. See also *Communes of the Val-d'Oise department The following is a list of the 183 Communes of France, communes of the Val-d'Oise Department ...
after a flight of 2 hours and 5 minutes, covering 36 km. After Robert alighted Charles decided to ascend alone. This time he ascended rapidly to an altitude of about , where he saw the sun again, suffered extreme pain in his ears, and never flew again. Ballooning became a major interest in Europe in the late 18th century, providing the first detailed understanding of the relationship between altitude and the atmosphere. Non-steerable balloons were employed during the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
by the Union Army Balloon Corps. The young
Ferdinand von Zeppelin Graf, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin (; 8 July 1838 – 8 March 1917) was a General (Germany), German general and later inventor of the Zeppelin rigid airships. His name became synonymous with airships and dominated long-distance flight until the ...
first flew as a balloon passenger with the Union
Army of the Potomac The Army of the Potomac was the primary field army of the Union army in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. It was created in July 1861 shortly after the First Battle of Bull Run and was disbanded in June 1865 following the Battle of ...
in 1863. In the early 1900s, ballooning was a popular sport in Britain. These privately owned balloons usually used
coal gas Coal gas is a flammable gaseous fuel made from coal and supplied to the user via a piped distribution system. It is produced when coal is heated strongly in the absence of air. Town gas is a more general term referring to manufactured gaseous ...
as the lifting gas. This has half the lifting power of hydrogen so the balloons had to be larger, however, coal gas was far more readily available and the local gas works sometimes provided a special lightweight formula for ballooning events.


Airships

Airships were originally called "dirigible balloons" and are still sometimes called dirigibles today. Work on developing a steerable (or dirigible) balloon continued sporadically throughout the 19th century. The first powered, controlled, sustained lighter-than-air flight is believed to have taken place in 1852 when
Henri Giffard Baptiste Jules Henri Jacques Giffard (8 February 182514 April 1882) was a French engineer. In 1852 he invented the steam injector and the powered Giffard dirigible airship. Career Giffard was born in Paris in 1825. He invented the injector a ...
flew in France, with a
steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs Work (physics), mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a Cylinder (locomotive), cyl ...
-driven craft. Another advancement was made in 1884, when the first fully controllable free-flight was made in a French Army electric-powered airship, '' La France'', by
Charles Renard Charles Renard (1847–1905) born in Damblain, Vosges, was a French military engineer. Airships After the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 he started work on the design of airships at the French army aeronautical department. Together with A ...
and
Arthur Krebs Arthur Constantin Krebs (16 November 1850 – 22 March 1935) was a French officer and pioneer in automotive engineering. Life Collaborating with Charles Renard, Krebs piloted the first fully controlled free-flight made in the French ...
. The long, airship covered in 23 minutes with the aid of an 8½ horsepower electric motor. However, these aircraft were generally short-lived and extremely frail. Routine, controlled flights did not occur until the advent of the
internal combustion engine An internal combustion engine (ICE or IC engine) is a heat engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal comb ...
. The first aircraft to make routine controlled flights were
non-rigid airship A non-rigid airship, commonly called a blimp ( /blɪmp/), is an airship (dirigible) without an internal structural framework or a keel. Unlike semi-rigid and rigid airships (e.g. Zeppelins), blimps rely on the pressure of their lifting gas (us ...
s (sometimes called "blimps".) The most successful early pioneering pilot of this type of aircraft was the Brazilian
Alberto Santos-Dumont Alberto Santos-Dumont (self-stylised as Alberto Santos=Dumont; 20 July 1873 – 23 July 1932) was a Brazilian aeronaut, sportsman, inventor, and one of the few people to have contributed significantly to the early development of both lighter-t ...
who effectively combined a balloon with an internal combustion engine. On 19 October 1901, he flew his airship ''Number 6'' over Paris from the Parc de Saint Cloud around the
Eiffel Tower The Eiffel Tower ( ; ) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower from 1887 to 1889. Locally nicknamed "''La dame de fe ...
and back in under 30 minutes to win the Deutsch de la Meurthe prize. Santos-Dumont went on to design and build several aircraft. The subsequent controversy surrounding his and others' competing claims with regard to aircraft overshadowed his great contribution to the development of airships. At the same time that non-rigid airships were starting to have some success, the first successful rigid airships were also being developed. These were far more capable than fixed-wing aircraft in terms of pure cargo-carrying capacity for decades. Rigid airship design and advancement was pioneered by the German count
Ferdinand von Zeppelin Graf, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin (; 8 July 1838 – 8 March 1917) was a General (Germany), German general and later inventor of the Zeppelin rigid airships. His name became synonymous with airships and dominated long-distance flight until the ...
. Construction of the first
Zeppelin A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Ferdinand von Zeppelin () who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874Eckener 1938, pp. 155 ...
airship began in 1899 in a floating assembly hall on
Lake Constance Lake Constance (, ) refers to three bodies of water on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps: Upper Lake Constance (''Obersee''), Lower Lake Constance (''Untersee''), and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Seerhein (). These ...
in the Bay of Manzell,
Friedrichshafen Friedrichshafen ( or ; Low Alemannic: ''Hafe'' or ''Fridrichshafe'') is a city on the northern shoreline of Lake Constance (the ''Bodensee'') in Southern Germany, near the borders of both Switzerland and Austria. It is the district capital (''K ...
. This was intended to ease the starting procedure, as the hall could easily be aligned with the wind. The prototype airship '' LZ 1'' (LZ for "Luftschiff Zeppelin") had a length of , was driven by two Daimler engines and balanced by moving a weight between its two
nacelle A nacelle ( ) is a streamlined container for aircraft parts such as Aircraft engine, engines, fuel or equipment. When attached entirely outside the airframe, it is sometimes called a pod, in which case it is attached with a Hardpoint#Pylon, pylo ...
s. Its first flight, on 2 July 1900, lasted for only 18 minutes, as ''LZ 1'' was forced to land on the lake after the winding mechanism for the balancing weight had broken. Upon repair, the technology proved its potential in subsequent flights, bettering the 6 m/s speed attained by the French airship ''La France'' by 3 m/s, but could not yet convince possible investors. It was several years before the Count was able to raise enough funds for another try. The German airship passenger service known as
DELAG DELAG, acronym for ''Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-Aktiengesellschaft'' (German for "German Airship Travel Corporation"), was the world's first airline to use an aircraft in revenue service. It operated a fleet of zeppelin rigid airships manufacture ...
(Deutsche-Luftschiffahrts AG) was established in 1910. Although airships were used in both World War I and II, and continue on a limited basis to this day, their development has been largely overshadowed by heavier-than-air craft.


Heavier than air


17th and 18th centuries

Traveller
Evliya Çelebi Dervish Mehmed Zillî (25 March 1611 – 1682), known as Evliya Çelebi (), was an Ottoman Empire, Ottoman explorer who travelled through his home country during its cultural zenith as well as neighboring lands. He travelled for over 40 years, rec ...
reported that in 1633, Ottoman scientist and engineer Lagari Hasan Çelebi blasted off from Sarayburnu in a 7-winged rocket propelled by 50 okka (140 lbs) of
gunpowder Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, charcoal (which is mostly carbon), and potassium nitrate, potassium ni ...
. The flight was said to have been undertaken at the time of the birth of
Sultan Sultan (; ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be use ...
Murad IV Murad IV (, ''Murād-ı Rābiʿ''; , 27 July 1612 – 8  February 1640) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1623 to 1640, known both for restoring the authority of the state and for the brutality of his methods. Murad I ...
's daughter. As Evliya Celebi wrote, Lagari proclaimed before launching his craft "O my sultan! Be blessed, I am going to talk to Jesus!"; after ascending in the rocket, he landed in the sea, swimming ashore and joking "O my sultan! Jesus sends his regards to you!"; he was rewarded by the Sultan with silver and the rank of
sipahi The ''sipahi'' ( , ) were professional cavalrymen deployed by the Seljuk Turks and later by the Ottoman Empire. ''Sipahi'' units included the land grant–holding ('' timar'') provincial ''timarli sipahi'', which constituted most of the arm ...
in the
Ottoman army The Military of the Ottoman Empire () was the armed forces of the Ottoman Empire. It was founded in 1299 and dissolved in 1922. Army The Military of the Ottoman Empire can be divided in five main periods. The foundation era covers the years ...
. Evliya Çelebi also wrote of Lagari's brother,
Hezârfen Ahmed Çelebi Hezârfen Ahmed Çelebi (;hezarfen
TDK Büyük Türkçe Sözlük. Erişim: 26 Mayıs 2009
1 ...
, making a flight by glider a year earlier. Italian inventor Tito Livio Burattini, invited by the Polish King Władysław IV to his court in
Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...
, built a model aircraft with four fixed glider wings in 1647. Described as "four pairs of wings attached to an elaborate 'dragon, it was said to have successfully lifted a cat in 1648 but not Burattini himself. He promised that "only the most minor injuries" would result from landing the craft.Quoted in His "Dragon Volant" is considered "the most elaborate and sophisticated aeroplane to be built before the 19th Century". The first published paper on aviation was "Sketch of a Machine for Flying in the Air" by
Emanuel Swedenborg Emanuel Swedenborg (; ; born Emanuel Swedberg; (29 January 168829 March 1772) was a Swedish polymath; scientist, engineer, astronomer, anatomist, Christian theologian, philosopher, and mysticism, mystic. He became best known for his book on the ...
published in 1716. This flying machine consisted of a light frame covered with strong canvas and provided with two large oars or wings moving on a horizontal axis, arranged so that the upstroke met with no resistance while the downstroke provided lifting power. Swedenborg knew that the machine would not fly, but suggested it as a start and was confident that the problem would be solved. Swedenborg proved prescient in his observation that a method of powering of an aircraft was one of the critical problems to be overcome. On 16 May 1793, Spanish inventor Diego Marín Aguilera crossed the river Arandilla in Coruña del Conde, Castile, flying with a flying machine.


19th century

Balloon jumping replaced tower jumping, also demonstrating with typically fatal results that man-power and flapping wings were useless in achieving flight. At the same time scientific study of heavier-than-air flight began in earnest. In 1801, the French officer André Guillaume Resnier de Goué managed a 300-metre glide by starting from the top of the city walls of
Angoulême Angoulême (; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Engoulaeme''; ) is a small city in the southwestern French Departments of France, department of Charente, of which it is the Prefectures of France, prefecture. Located on a plateau overlooking a meander of ...
and he broke one leg on arrival. In 1837, French mathematician and brigadier general Isidore Didion stated, "Aviation will be successful only if one finds an engine whose ratio with the weight of the device to be supported will be larger than current steam machines or the strength developed by humans or most of the animals".


George Cayley and the first modern aircraft

George Cayley Sir George Cayley, 6th Baronet (27 December 1773 – 15 December 1857) was an English engineer, inventor, and aviator. He is one of the most important people in the history of aeronautics. Many consider him to be the first true scientific ...
was first called the "father of the aeroplane" in 1846. During the last years of the 18th century, he had begun the first rigorous study of the physics of flight and would later design the first modern heavier-than-air craft. Among his many achievements, his most important contributions to aeronautics include: * Clarifying our ideas and laying down the principles of heavier-than-air flight. * Reaching a scientific understanding of the principles of bird flight. * Scientific aerodynamic experiments were conducted to demonstrate drag and streamlining, movement of the center of pressure, and the increase in lift from curving the wing surface. * Defining the modern aeroplane configuration comprising a fixed-wing, fuselage and tail assembly. * Demonstrations of manned, gliding flight. * Identified the crucial understanding that a lightweight, powerful engine would be necessary for sustained heavier-than-air flight, now known as the
power-to-weight ratio Power-to-weight ratio (PWR, also called specific power, or power-to-mass ratio) is a calculation commonly applied to engines and mobile power sources to enable the comparison of one unit or design to another. Power-to-weight ratio is a measurement ...
* Recognized for establishing the theoretical foundation for engine use in airplanes and modern aircraft design by identifying and explaining the four fundamental forces of flight: lift, thrust, drag, and weight. Cayley's research on the aeroplane aimed to address the four fundamental areas that are essential to aeronautics: propulsion, structural design, aerodynamics, and stability and control. His work laid the groundwork for a comprehensive understanding of these critical components, which continue to be vital in the field today. Cayley's first innovation was to study the basic science of lift by adopting the whirling arm test rig for use in aircraft research and using simple aerodynamic models on the arm, rather than attempting to fly a model of a complete design. In 1799, he set down the concept of the modern aeroplane as a
fixed-wing A fixed-wing aircraft is a heavier-than-air aircraft, such as an airplane, which is capable of flight using Lift (force), aerodynamic lift. Fixed-wing aircraft are distinct from rotorcraft, rotary-wing aircraft (in which a Helicopter rotor, r ...
flying machine with separate systems for lift, propulsion, and control. In 1804, Cayley constructed a model glider, which was the first modern heavier-than-air flying machine. It had the layout of a conventional modern aircraft, with an inclined wing towards the front and an adjustable tail at the back with both tailplane and fin. A movable weight allowed adjustment of the model's
centre of gravity In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space (sometimes referred to as the barycenter or balance point) is the unique point at any given time where the weighted relative position of the distributed mass sums to zero. For a ...
. In 1809, goaded by the farcical antics of his contemporaries, he began the publication of a landmark three-part
treatise A treatise is a Formality, formal and systematic written discourse on some subject concerned with investigating or exposing the main principles of the subject and its conclusions."mwod:treatise, Treatise." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Acc ...
titled "''On Aerial Navigation''" (1809–1810).''Cayley, George''. "On Aerial Navigation
Part 1

Part 2

Part 3
''Nicholson's Journal of Natural Philosophy'', 1809–1810. (Via
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
)
Raw text
. Retrieved: 30 May 2010.
In it he wrote the first scientific statement of the problem, "The whole problem is confined within these limits, viz. to make a surface support a given weight by the application of power to the resistance of air". He identified the four vector forces that influence an aircraft:
thrust Thrust is a reaction force described quantitatively by Newton's third law. When a system expels or accelerates mass in one direction, the accelerated mass will cause a force of equal magnitude but opposite direction to be applied to that ...
,
lift Lift or LIFT may refer to: Physical devices * Elevator, or lift, a device used for raising and lowering people or goods ** Paternoster lift, a type of lift using a continuous chain of cars which do not stop ** Patient lift, or Hoyer lift, mobile ...
, drag and
weight In science and engineering, the weight of an object is a quantity associated with the gravitational force exerted on the object by other objects in its environment, although there is some variation and debate as to the exact definition. Some sta ...
and distinguished stability and control in his designs. He also identified and described the importance of the cambered
aerofoil An airfoil (American English) or aerofoil (British English) is a streamlined body that is capable of generating significantly more lift than drag. Wings, sails and propeller blades are examples of airfoils. Foils of similar function designed ...
, dihedral, diagonal bracing and drag reduction, and contributed to the understanding and design of ornithopters and
parachute A parachute is a device designed to slow an object's descent through an atmosphere by creating Drag (physics), drag or aerodynamic Lift (force), lift. It is primarily used to safely support people exiting aircraft at height, but also serves va ...
s. In 1848, he had progressed far enough to construct a glider in the form of a
triplane A triplane is a fixed-wing aircraft equipped with three vertically stacked wing planes. Tailplanes and canard (aeronautics), canard foreplanes are not normally included in this count, although they occasionally are. Design principles The trip ...
large and safe enough to carry a child. A local boy was chosen; his name is unknown. He went on to publish in 1852 the design for a full-size manned glider or "governable parachute" to be launched from a balloon. He then constructed a version capable of launching from the top of a hill, which carried the first adult aviator across Brompton Dale in 1853.


Age of steam

Drawing directly from Cayley's work, Henson's 1842 design for an aerial steam carriage broke new ground. Although only a design, it was the first in history for a propeller-driven fixed-wing aircraft. 1866 saw the founding of the
Aeronautical Society of Great Britain The Royal Aeronautical Society, also known as the RAeS, is a British multi-disciplinary professional institution dedicated to the global aerospace community. Founded in 1866, it is the oldest aeronautical society in the world. Members, Fellows ...
and two years later the world's first aeronautical exhibition was held at the Crystal Palace, London, where John Stringfellow was awarded a £100 prize for the steam engine with the best
power-to-weight ratio Power-to-weight ratio (PWR, also called specific power, or power-to-mass ratio) is a calculation commonly applied to engines and mobile power sources to enable the comparison of one unit or design to another. Power-to-weight ratio is a measurement ...
.Jarrett 2002, p. 53.Stokes 2002, pp. 163–166, 167–168. In 1848, Stringfellow achieved the first powered flight using an unmanned wingspan steam-powered monoplane built in a disused lace factory in
Chard, Somerset Chard is a town and a civil parishes in England, civil parish in the English county of Somerset. It lies on the A30 road near the Devon and Dorset borders, south west of Yeovil. The parish has a population of approximately 14,000 and, at an el ...
. Employing two contra-rotating propellers on the first attempt, made indoors, the machine flew ten feet before becoming destabilised, damaging the craft. The second attempt was more successful, the machine leaving a guidewire to fly freely, achieving thirty yards of straight and level powered flight.
Francis Herbert Wenham __NOTOC__ Francis Herbert Wenham (1824, Kensington – 1908) was a British marine engineer, inventor, and pioneering aeronautical scientist. Best known for his foundational work on the theory of flight and the invention of the wind tunnel, Wenh ...
presented the first paper to the newly formed Aeronautical Society (later the
Royal Aeronautical Society The Royal Aeronautical Society, also known as the RAeS, is a British multi-disciplinary professional institution dedicated to the global aerospace community. Founded in 1866, it is the oldest Aeronautics, aeronautical society in the world. Memb ...
), ''On Aerial Locomotion''. He advanced Cayley's work on cambered wings, making important findings. To test his ideas, from 1858 he had constructed several gliders, both manned and unmanned, and with up to five stacked wings. He realised that long, thin wings are better than bat-like ones because they have more leading edge for their area. Today this relationship is known as the
aspect ratio The aspect ratio of a geometry, geometric shape is the ratio of its sizes in different dimensions. For example, the aspect ratio of a rectangle is the ratio of its longer side to its shorter side—the ratio of width to height, when the rectangl ...
of a wing. The latter part of the 19th century became a period of intense study, characterized by the " gentleman scientists" who represented most research efforts until the 20th century. Among them was the British scientist-philosopher and inventor
Matthew Piers Watt Boulton Matthew Piers Watt Boulton (22 September 1820 – 30 June 1894), also published under the pseudonym M. P. W. ...
, who studied lateral flight control and was the first to patent an aileron control system in 1868. In 1871, Wenham made the first
wind tunnel A wind tunnel is "an apparatus for producing a controlled stream of air for conducting aerodynamic experiments". The experiment is conducted in the test section of the wind tunnel and a complete tunnel configuration includes air ducting to and f ...
using a fan, driven by a steam engine, to propel air down a tube to the model. Meanwhile, the British advances had galvanised French researchers. In 1857, Félix du Temple proposed a monoplane with a tailplane and retractable undercarriage. Developing his ideas with a model powered first by clockwork and later by steam, he eventually achieved a short hop with a full-size manned craft in 1874. It achieved lift-off under its own power after launching from a ramp, glided for a short time and returned safely to the ground, making it the first successful powered glide in history. In 1865, Louis Pierre Mouillard published an influential book ''The Empire Of The Air'' (''l'Empire de l'Air''). In 1856, Frenchman
Jean-Marie Le Bris Jean Marie Le Bris (25 March 1817, Concarneau – 17 February 1872, Douarnenez) was a French aviator, born in Concarneau, Brittany who built two glider aircraft and performed at least one flight on board of his first machine in late 1856. His name ...
made the first flight higher than his point of departure, by having his glider "''L'Albatros artificiel'' pulled by a horse on a beach. He reportedly achieved a height of 100 metres, over a distance of 200 metres.
Alphonse Pénaud Alphonse Pénaud (31 May 1850 – 22 October 1880), was a 19th-century French pioneer of aviation design and engineering. He was the originator of the use of twisted rubber to power model aircraft, and his 1871 model airplane, which he called ...
, a Frenchman, advanced the theory of wing contours and aerodynamics. He also constructed successful models of aeroplanes, helicopters and ornithopters. In 1871 he flew the first aerodynamically stable fixed-wing aeroplane, a model monoplane he called the "Planophore", a distance of . Pénaud's model incorporated several of Cayley's discoveries, including the use of a tail, wing dihedral for inherent stability, and rubber power. The planophore also had longitudinal stability, being trimmed such that the tailplane was set at a smaller angle of incidence than the wings, an original and important contribution to the theory of aeronautics. Pénaud's later project for an amphibian aeroplane, although never built, incorporated other modern features. A tailless monoplane with a single vertical fin and twin tractor propellers, it also featured hinged rear elevator and rudder surfaces, retractable undercarriage and a fully enclosed, instrumented cockpit. Another theorist was Frenchman
Victor Tatin Victor Tatin (1843–1913) was a French engineer who created an early airplane, the ''Aéroplane'', in 1879. The craft was the first model airplane to take off using its own power after a run on the ground. The model had a span of and weighed ...
. In 1879, he flew a model which, like Pénaud's project, was a monoplane with twin tractor propellers but also had a separate horizontal tail. It was powered by compressed air. Flown tethered to a pole, this was the first model to take off under its own power. In 1884, Alexandre Goupil published his work ''La Locomotion Aérienne'' (''Aerial Locomotion''), although the flying machine he later constructed failed to fly. In 1890, the French engineer
Clément Ader Clément Ader (; 2 April 1841 – 3 May 1925) was a French inventor and engineer who was born near Toulouse in Muret, Haute-Garonne, and died in Toulouse. He is remembered primarily for his pioneering work in aviation. In 1870 he was also one o ...
completed the first of three steam-driven flying machines, the ''Éole''. On 9 October 1890, Ader made an uncontrolled hop of around ; this was the first manned aeroplane to take off under its own power. His ''
Avion III The ''Avion III'' (sometimes referred to as the ''Aquilon'' or the ''Éole III'') was a steam engine, steam-powered aircraft built by Clément Ader between 1890s in aviation, 1892 and 1897, financed by the French War Office. Retaining the same ...
'' of 1897, notable only for having twin steam engines, failed to fly:Jarrett 2002, p. 87. Ader later claimed success and was not debunked until 1910 when the French Army published its report on his attempt.
Hiram Maxim Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim (5 February 1840 – 24 November 1916) was an American-born British inventor best known as the creator of the first automatic machine gun, the Maxim gun. Maxim held patents on numerous mechanical devices such as hai ...
was an American engineer who had moved to England. He built his own whirling arm rig and wind tunnel and constructed a large machine with a wingspan of , a length of , fore and aft horizontal surfaces and a crew of three. Twin propellers were powered by two lightweight compound
steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs Work (physics), mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a Cylinder (locomotive), cyl ...
s each delivering . The overall weight was . It was intended as a test rig to investigate aerodynamic lift; because it lacked flight controls it ran on rails, with a second set of rails above the wheels to restrain it. Completed in 1894, on its third run it broke from the rail, became airborne for about 200 yards at two to three feet of altitude and was badly damaged upon falling back to the ground. It was subsequently repaired, but Maxim abandoned his experiments shortly afterwards.


Manned gliders and Otto Lilienthal

Around the last decade of the 19th century, a number of key figures were refining and defining the modern aeroplane. Lacking a suitable engine, aircraft work focused on stability and control in gliding flight. In 1879, Biot constructed a bird-like glider with the help of Massia and flew in it briefly. It is preserved in the Musee de l'Air, France, and is claimed to be the earliest man-carrying flying machine still in existence. The Englishman Horatio Phillips made key contributions to aerodynamics. He conducted extensive wind tunnel research on
aerofoil An airfoil (American English) or aerofoil (British English) is a streamlined body that is capable of generating significantly more lift than drag. Wings, sails and propeller blades are examples of airfoils. Foils of similar function designed ...
sections, proving the principles of aerodynamic lift foreseen by Cayley and Wenham. His findings underpin all modern aerofoil design. Between 1883 and 1886, the American
John Joseph Montgomery John Joseph Montgomery (February 15, 1858 – October 31, 1911) was an American inventor, physicist, engineer, and professor at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, California, who is best known for his invention of controlled heavier-than-ai ...
developed a series of three manned gliders, before conducting his own independent investigations into aerodynamics and circulation of lift.
Otto Lilienthal Karl Wilhelm Otto Lilienthal (23 May 1848 – 10 August 1896) was a German pioneer of aviation who became known as the "flying man". He was the first person to make well-documented, repeated, successful flights with gliders, therefore making t ...
became known as the "Glider King" or "Flying Man" of Germany. He duplicated Wenham's work and greatly expanded on it in 1884, publishing his research in 1889 as ''Birdflight as the Basis of Aviation'' (''Der Vogelflug als Grundlage der Fliegekunst''), which is seen as one of the most important works in aviation history. He also produced a series of
hang glider Hang gliding is an air sport or recreational activity in which a pilot flies a light, non-motorised, fixed-wing heavier-than-air aircraft called a hang glider. Most modern hang gliders are made of an aluminium alloy or composite frame covered ...
s, including bat-wing, monoplane, and biplane forms, such as the Derwitzer Glider and Normal soaring apparatus, which is considered to be the first airplane in series production, making the "Maschinenfabrik Otto Lilienthal" the first airplane production company in the world. Starting in 1891, he became the first person to make controlled untethered glides routinely, and the first to be photographed flying a heavier-than-air machine, stimulating interest around the world. Lilienthal's work led to him developing the concept of the modern wing. His flights in the year 1891 are seen as the beginning of human flight and because of that he is often referred to as either the "father of aviation" or "father of flight". He rigorously documented his work, including photographs, and for this reason is one of the best known of the early pioneers. Lilienthal made over 2,000 glider flights until his death in 1896 from injuries sustained in a glider crash. Picking up where Lilienthal left off,
Octave Chanute Octave Chanute (February 18, 1832 – November 23, 1910) was a French-American civil engineer and aviation pioneer. He advised and publicized many aviation enthusiasts, including the Wright brothers. At his death, he was hailed as the father of ...
took up aircraft design after an early retirement, and funded the development of several gliders. In the summer of 1896, his team flew several of their designs eventually deciding that the best was a biplane design. Like Lilienthal, he documented and photographed his work. In Britain
Percy Pilcher Percy Sinclair Pilcher (16 January 1867 – 2 October 1899) was a British inventor and pioneer aviator who was his country's foremost experimenter in unpowered flight near the end of the nineteenth century. After corresponding with Otto Lili ...
, who had worked for Maxim, built and successfully flew several gliders during the mid to late 1890s. The invention of the
box kite A box kite is a high-performance Kite flying, kite, noted for developing relatively high Lift (force), lift; it is a type within the family of cellular kites. The typical design has four parallel struts. The box is made rigid with diagonal cros ...
during this period by the Australian
Lawrence Hargrave Lawrence Hargrave, MRAeS, (29 January 18506 July 1915) was an Australian engineer, explorer, astronomer, inventor and aeronautical pioneer. He was perhaps best known for inventing the box kite, which was quickly adopted by other aircraft desig ...
led to the development of the practical
biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...
. In 1894, Hargrave linked four of his kites together, added a sling seat, and was the first to obtain lift with a heavier than air aircraft, when he flew up . Later pioneers of manned kite flying included Samuel Franklin Cody in England and Captain Génie Saconney in France. William Frost from
Pembrokeshire, Wales Pembrokeshire ( ; ) is a county in the south-west of Wales. It is bordered by Carmarthenshire to the east, Ceredigion to the northeast, and otherwise by the sea. Haverfordwest is the largest town and administrative headquarters of Pembrokesh ...
started his project in 1880 and after 16 years, he designed a flying machine and in 1894 won a patent for a "Frost Aircraft Glider". Reports say witnesses claimed the craft flew at Saundersfoot in 1896, travelling 500 yards before colliding with a tree and falling in a field.


Langley

After a distinguished career in
astronomy Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...
and shortly before becoming Secretary of the
Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...
,
Samuel Pierpont Langley Samuel Pierpont Langley (August 22, 1834 – February 27, 1906) was an American aviation pioneer, astronomer and physicist who invented the bolometer. He was the third secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and a professor of astronomy a ...
started a serious investigation into aerodynamics at what is today the
University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...
. In 1891, he published ''Experiments in Aerodynamics'' detailing his research, and then turned to building his designs. He hoped to achieve automatic aerodynamic stability, so he gave little consideration to in-flight control. On 6 May 1896, Langley's ''Aerodrome No. 5'' made the first successful sustained flight of an unpiloted, engine-driven heavier-than-air craft of substantial size. It was launched from a spring-actuated catapult mounted on top of a houseboat on the
Potomac River The Potomac River () is in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and flows from the Potomac Highlands in West Virginia to Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography D ...
near
Quantico, Virginia Quantico (; formerly Potomac) is a town in southeastern Prince William County, Virginia, United States. The population was 578 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Quantico is approximately 35 miles southwest of Washington, D.C., bound ...
. Two flights were made that afternoon, one of and a second of , at a speed of approximately . On both occasions, the ''Aerodrome No. 5'' landed in the water as planned, because, in order to save weight, it was not equipped with landing gear. On 28 November 1896, another successful flight was made with the ''Aerodrome No. 6''. This flight, of , was witnessed and photographed by
Alexander Graham Bell Alexander Graham Bell (; born Alexander Bell; March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born Canadian Americans, Canadian-American inventor, scientist, and engineer who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone. He als ...
. The ''Aerodrome No. 6'' was actually ''Aerodrome No. 4'' greatly modified. So little remained of the original aircraft that it was given a new designation. With the successes of the ''Aerodrome No. 5'' and ''No. 6'', Langley started looking for funding to build a full-scale man-carrying version of his designs. Spurred by the
Spanish–American War The Spanish–American War (April 21 – August 13, 1898) was fought between Restoration (Spain), Spain and the United States in 1898. It began with the sinking of the USS Maine (1889), USS ''Maine'' in Havana Harbor in Cuba, and resulted in the ...
, the U.S. government granted him $50,000 to develop a man-carrying flying machine for aerial reconnaissance. Langley planned on building a scaled-up version known as the Aerodrome A, and started with the smaller Quarter-scale Aerodrome, which flew twice on 18 June 1901, and then again with a newer and more powerful engine in 1903. With the basic design apparently successfully tested, he then turned to the problem of a suitable engine. He contracted Stephen Balzer to build one, but was disappointed when it delivered only instead of the he expected. Langley's assistant, Charles M. Manly, then reworked the design into a five-cylinder water-cooled radial that delivered at 950 rpm, a feat that took years to duplicate. Now with both power and a design, Langley put the two together with great hopes. To his dismay, the resulting aircraft proved to be too fragile. Simply scaling up the original small models resulted in a design that was too weak to hold itself together. Two launches in late 1903 both ended with the ''Aerodrome'' immediately crashing into the water. The pilot, Manly, was rescued each time. Also, the aircraft's control system was inadequate to allow quick pilot responses, and it had no method of lateral control, and the ''Aerodrome''s aerial stability was marginal. Langley's attempts to gain further funding failed, and his efforts ended. Nine days after his second abortive launch on 8 December, the
Wright brothers The Wright brothers, Orville Wright (August 19, 1871 – January 30, 1948) and Wilbur Wright (April 16, 1867 – May 30, 1912), were American aviation List of aviation pioneers, pioneers generally credited with inventing, building, and flyin ...
successfully flew their ''Flyer''.
Glenn Curtiss Glenn Hammond Curtiss (May 21, 1878 – July 23, 1930) was an American aviation and motorcycling pioneer, and a founder of the U.S. aircraft industry. He began his career as a bicycle racer and builder before moving on to motorcycles. As early a ...
made 93 modifications to the ''Aerodrome'' and flew this very different aircraft in 1914. Without acknowledging the modifications, the Smithsonian Institution asserted that Langley's ''Aerodrome'' was the first machine "capable of flight".


Whitehead

Gustave Weißkopf was a German who emigrated to the U.S., where he soon changed his name to Whitehead. From 1897 to 1915, he designed and built early flying machines and engines. On 14 August 1901, two and a half years before the Wright Brothers' flight, he claimed to have carried out a controlled, powered flight in his Number 21 monoplane at Fairfield, Connecticut. The flight was reported in the ''Bridgeport Sunday Herald'' local newspaper. About 30 years later, several people questioned by a researcher claimed to have seen that or other Whitehead flights. In March 2013, ''
Jane's All the World's Aircraft ''Janes All the World's Aircraft'' (formerly Jane's) is an aviation annual publication founded by John Frederick Thomas Jane in 1909. Long issued by Sampson Low, Marston in Britain (with various publishers in the U.S.), it has been published by ...
'', an authoritative source for contemporary aviation, published an editorial which accepted Whitehead's flight as the first manned, powered, controlled flight of a heavier-than-air craft. The
Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...
(custodians of the original ''
Wright Flyer The ''Wright Flyer'' (also known as the ''Kitty Hawk'', ''Flyer'' I or the 1903 ''Flyer'') made the first sustained flight by a manned heavier-than-air powered and controlled aircraft on December 17, 1903. Invented and flown by brothers Wrigh ...
'') and many aviation historians continue to maintain that Whitehead did not fly as suggested. The historians of the
Royal Aeronautical Society The Royal Aeronautical Society, also known as the RAeS, is a British multi-disciplinary professional institution dedicated to the global aerospace community. Founded in 1866, it is the oldest Aeronautics, aeronautical society in the world. Memb ...
noted that: "All available evidence fails to support the claim that Gustave Whitehead made sustained, powered, controlled flights predating those of the Wright brothers." The editors of ''
Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it, with more than 150 Nobel Pri ...
'' agree: "The data show that not only was Whitehead not first in flight, but that he may never have made a controlled, powered flight at any time."


Pearse

Richard Pearse was a New Zealand farmer and inventor who performed pioneering aviation experiments. Witnesses interviewed many years afterward claimed that Pearse flew and landed a powered heavier-than-air machine on 31 March 1903, nine months before the Wright brothers flew.  Documentary evidence for these claims remains open to interpretation and dispute, and Pearse himself never made such claims. In a newspaper interview in 1909, he said he did not "attempt anything practical ... until 1904". If he did fly in 1903, the flight appears to have been poorly controlled in comparison to the Wrights'.


Wright brothers

Using a methodical approach and concentrating on the controllability of the aircraft, the brothers built and tested a series of kite and glider designs from 1898 to 1902 before attempting to build a powered design. The gliders worked, but not as well as the Wrights had expected based on the experiments and writings of their predecessors. Their first full-size glider, launched in 1900, had only about half the lift they anticipated. Their second glider, built the following year, performed even more poorly. Rather than giving up, the Wrights constructed their own
wind tunnel A wind tunnel is "an apparatus for producing a controlled stream of air for conducting aerodynamic experiments". The experiment is conducted in the test section of the wind tunnel and a complete tunnel configuration includes air ducting to and f ...
and created a number of sophisticated devices to measure lift and drag on the 200 wing designs they tested. As a result, the Wrights corrected earlier mistakes in calculations regarding drag and lift. Their testing and calculating produced a third glider with a higher
aspect ratio The aspect ratio of a geometry, geometric shape is the ratio of its sizes in different dimensions. For example, the aspect ratio of a rectangle is the ratio of its longer side to its shorter side—the ratio of width to height, when the rectangl ...
and true three-axis control. They flew it successfully hundreds of times in 1902, and it performed far better than the previous models. By using a rigorous system of experimentation, involving wind-tunnel testing of airfoils and flight testing of full-size prototypes, the Wrights not only built a working aircraft the following year, the ''
Wright Flyer The ''Wright Flyer'' (also known as the ''Kitty Hawk'', ''Flyer'' I or the 1903 ''Flyer'') made the first sustained flight by a manned heavier-than-air powered and controlled aircraft on December 17, 1903. Invented and flown by brothers Wrigh ...
'', but also helped advance the science of aeronautical engineering. The Wrights appear to be the first to make serious studied attempts to simultaneously solve the power and control problems. Both problems proved difficult, but they never lost interest. They solved the control problem by inventing
wing warping Wing warping was an early system for lateral (roll) control of a fixed-wing aircraft or kite. The technique, used and patented by the Wright brothers, consisted of a system of pulleys and cables to twist the trailing edges of the wings in opposit ...
for roll control, combined with simultaneous yaw control with a steerable rear rudder. Almost as an afterthought, they designed and built a low-powered
internal combustion engine An internal combustion engine (ICE or IC engine) is a heat engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal comb ...
. They also designed and carved wooden propellers that were more efficient than any before, enabling them to gain adequate performance from their low engine power. Although wing-warping as a means of lateral control was used only briefly during the early history of aviation, the principle of combining lateral control in combination with a rudder was a key advance in aircraft control. While many aviation pioneers appeared to leave safety largely to chance, the Wrights' design was greatly influenced by the need to teach themselves to fly without unreasonable risk to life and limb, by surviving crashes. This emphasis, as well as low engine power, was the reason for low flying speed and for taking off in a headwind. Performance, rather than safety, was the reason for the rear-heavy design because the canard could not be highly loaded; anhedral wings were less affected by crosswinds and were consistent with the low yaw stability. According to the
Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...
and
Fédération Aéronautique Internationale The World Air Sports Federation (; FAI) is the world governing body for air sports, and also stewards definitions regarding human spaceflight. It was founded on 14 October 1905, and is headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland. It maintains worl ...
(FAI), the Wrights made the first sustained, controlled, powered heavier-than-air manned flight at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, four miles (8 km) south of
Kitty Hawk, North Carolina Kitty Hawk is a town in Dare County, North Carolina, United States, located on Bodie Island within the state's Outer Banks. The population was 3,708 at the 2020 United States census. It was established in the early 18th century as Chickahawk. Hi ...
on 17 December 1903. The first flight by
Orville Wright The Wright brothers, Orville Wright (August 19, 1871 – January 30, 1948) and Wilbur Wright (April 16, 1867 – May 30, 1912), were American aviation pioneers generally credited with inventing, building, and flying the world's first succes ...
, of in 12 seconds, was recorded in a famous photograph. In the fourth flight of the same day,
Wilbur Wright The Wright brothers, Orville Wright (August 19, 1871 – January 30, 1948) and Wilbur Wright (April 16, 1867 – May 30, 1912), were American aviation List of aviation pioneers, pioneers generally credited with inventing, building, and flyin ...
flew in 59 seconds. The flights were witnessed by three coastal lifesaving crewmen, a local businessman, and a boy from the village, making these the first public flights and the first well-documented ones. Orville described the final flight of the day: "The first few hundred feet were up and down, as before, but by the time three hundred feet had been covered, the machine was under much better control. The course for the next four or five hundred feet had but little undulation. However, when out about eight hundred feet the machine began pitching again, and, in one of its darts downward, struck the ground. The distance over the ground was measured to be ; the time of the flight was 59 seconds. The frame supporting the front rudder was badly broken, but the main part of the machine was not injured at all. We estimated that the machine could be put in condition for flight again in about a day or two". They flew only about ten feet above the ground as a safety precaution, so they had little room to manoeuvre, and all four flights in the gusty winds ended in a bumpy and unintended "landing". Modern analysis by Professor Fred E. C. Culick and Henry R. Rex (1985) has demonstrated that the 1903 ''Wright Flyer'' was so unstable as to be almost unmanageable by anyone but the Wrights, who had trained themselves in the 1902 glider. The Wrights continued flying at Huffman Prairie near
Dayton, Ohio Dayton () is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of cities in Ohio, sixth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 137,644 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Dayton metro ...
in 1904–05. In May 1904 they introduced the ''Flyer II'', a heavier and improved version of the original Flyer. On 23 June 1905, they first flew a third machine, the ''Flyer III''. After a severe crash on 14 July 1905, they rebuilt the ''Flyer III'' and made important design changes. They almost doubled the size of the
elevator An elevator (American English) or lift (Commonwealth English) is a machine that vertically transports people or freight between levels. They are typically powered by electric motors that drive traction cables and counterweight systems suc ...
and rudder and moved them about twice the distance from the wings. They added two fixed vertical vanes (called "blinkers") between the elevators and gave the wings a very slight dihedral. They disconnected the rudder from the wing-warping control, and as in all future aircraft, placed it on a separate control handle. When flights resumed the results were immediate. The serious pitch instability that hampered Flyers I and II was significantly reduced, so repeated minor crashes were eliminated. Flights with the redesigned ''Flyer III'' started lasting over 10 minutes, then 20, then 30. ''Flyer III'' became the first practical aircraft (though without wheels and needing a launching device), flying consistently under full control and bringing its pilot back to the starting point safely and landing without damage. On 5 October 1905, Wilbur flew in 39 minutes 23 seconds. According to the April 1907 issue of the ''
Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it, with more than 150 Nobel Pri ...
'' magazine, the Wright brothers seemed to have the most advanced knowledge of heavier-than-air navigation at the time. However, the same magazine issue also claimed that no public flight had been made in the United States before its April 1907 issue. Hence, they devised the Scientific American Aeronautic Trophy in order to encourage the development of a heavier-than-air flying machine. Glenn H. Curtiss won the trophy in 1908 with the first pre-announced and officially recorded flight of the June Bug.


History


Pioneer Era (1903–1914)

This period saw the development of practical aeroplanes and airships and their early application, alongside balloons and kites, for private, sport and military use.


Pioneers in Europe

Although the full details of the Wright Brothers' system of flight control had been published in l'Aerophile in January 1906, the importance of this advance was not recognised, and European experimenters generally concentrated on attempting to produce inherently stable machines. Short powered flights were performed in France by Romanian engineer
Traian Vuia Traian Vuia or Trajan Vuia (; 17 August 1872 – 3 September 1950) was a Romanian inventor and List of aviation pioneers, aviation pioneer who designed, built, and tested the first tractor configuration, tractor monoplane. He was the first to de ...
on 18 March and 19 August 1906 when he flew 12 and 24 metres, respectively, in a self-designed, fully self-propelled, fixed-wing aircraft, that possessed a fully wheeled undercarriage. He was followed by Jacob Ellehammer who built a
monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple wings. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing con ...
which he tested with a tether in Denmark on 12 September 1906, flying 42 metres. On 13 September 1906, the Brazilian
Alberto Santos-Dumont Alberto Santos-Dumont (self-stylised as Alberto Santos=Dumont; 20 July 1873 – 23 July 1932) was a Brazilian aeronaut, sportsman, inventor, and one of the few people to have contributed significantly to the early development of both lighter-t ...
made a public flight in Paris with the 14-bis, also known as ''Oiseau de proie'' (French for "bird of prey"). This was canard configured with a pronounced wing dihedral, and covered a distance of on the grounds of the Chateau de Bagatelle in Paris'
Bois de Boulogne The Bois de Boulogne (, "Boulogne woodland") is a large public park that is the western half of the 16th arrondissement of Paris, near the suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt and Neuilly-sur-Seine. The land was ceded to the city of Paris by the Em ...
before a large crowd of witnesses. This well-documented event was the first flight verified by the
Aéro-Club de France The Aéro-Club de France () is one of the oldest French aviators' associations still active. It was founded as the Aéro-Club on 20 October 1898 as a society 'to encourage aerial locomotion' by Ernest Archdeacon, Léon Serpollet, Henri de la ...
of a powered heavier-than-air machine in Europe and won the Deutsch-Archdeacon Prize for the first officially observed flight greater than . On 12 November 1906, Santos-Dumont set the first world record recognized by the Federation Aeronautique Internationale by flying in 21.5 seconds. Only one more brief flight was made by the 14-bis in March 1907, after which it was abandoned. In March 1907, Gabriel Voisin flew the first example of his Voisin biplane. On 13 January 1908, a second example was flown by Henri Farman to win the Deutsch-Archdeacon ''Grand Prix d'Aviation'' prize for a flight in which the aircraft flew a distance of more than a kilometre and landed at the point where it had taken off. The flight lasted 1 minute and 28 seconds.


Flight as an established technology

Santos-Dumont later added
aileron An aileron (French for "little wing" or "fin") is a hinged flight control surface usually forming part of the trailing edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. Ailerons are used in pairs to control the aircraft in roll (or movement aroun ...
s between the wings in an effort to gain more lateral stability. His final design, first flown in 1907, was the series of Demoiselle monoplanes (Nos. 19 to 22). The ''Demoiselle No 19'' could be constructed in only 15 days and became the world's first series production aircraft. The Demoiselle achieved 120 km/h.Hartmann, Gérard
"Clément-Bayard, sans peur et sans reproche" (French).
''hydroretro.net''. Retrieved: 14 November 2010.
The fuselage consisted of three specially reinforced bamboo booms. The pilot sat in a seat between the main wheels of a
conventional landing gear Conventional landing gear, or tailwheel-type landing gear, is an aircraft Landing gear, undercarriage consisting of two main wheels forward of the Center of gravity of an aircraft, center of gravity and a small wheel or skid to support the tail ...
whose pair of wire-spoked mainwheels were located at the lower front of the airframe, with a tailskid half-way back beneath the rear fuselage structure. The Demoiselle was controlled in flight by a
cruciform tail The cruciform tail is an aircraft empennage configuration which, when viewed from the aircraft's front or rear, looks much like a cross. The usual arrangement is to have the tailplane, horizontal stabilizer intersect the vertical tail somewhere ...
unit hinged on a form of
universal joint A universal joint (also called a universal coupling or U-joint) is a joint or coupling connecting rigid shafts whose axes are inclined to each other. It is commonly used in shafts that transmit rotary motion. It consists of a pair of hinges ...
at the aft end of the fuselage structure to function as elevator and rudder, with roll control provided through wing warping (No. 20), with the wings only warping "down". In 1908,
Wilbur Wright The Wright brothers, Orville Wright (August 19, 1871 – January 30, 1948) and Wilbur Wright (April 16, 1867 – May 30, 1912), were American aviation List of aviation pioneers, pioneers generally credited with inventing, building, and flyin ...
travelled to Europe, and starting in August gave a series of flight demonstrations at
Le Mans Le Mans (; ) is a Communes of France, city in Northwestern France on the Sarthe (river), Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the Provinces of France, province of Maine (province), Maine, it is now the capital of ...
in France. The first demonstration, made on 8 August, attracted an audience including most of the major French aviation experimenters, who were astonished by the clear superiority of the Wright Brothers' aircraft, particularly its ability to make tight controlled turns. The importance of using roll control in making turns was recognised by almost all the European experimenters: Henri Farman fitted ailerons to his Voisin biplane and shortly afterwards set up his own aircraft construction business, whose first product was the influential Farman III biplane. The following year saw the widespread recognition of powered flight as something other than the preserve of dreamers and eccentrics. On 25 July 1909,
Louis Blériot Louis Charles Joseph Blériot ( , also , ; 1 July 1872 – 1 August 1936) was a French aviator, inventor, and engineer. He developed the first practical headlamp for cars and established a profitable business manufacturing them, using much of t ...
won worldwide fame by winning a £1,000 prize offered by the British ''
Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily Middle-market newspaper, middle-market Tabloid journalism, tabloid conservative newspaper founded in 1896 and published in London. , it has the List of newspapers in the United Kingdom by circulation, h ...
'' newspaper for a flight across the
English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...
, and in August around half a million people, including the President of France Armand Fallières and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
David Lloyd George David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. A Liberal Party (United Kingdom), Liberal Party politician from Wales, he was known for leadi ...
, attended one of the first aviation meetings, the Grande Semaine d'Aviation at
Reims Reims ( ; ; also spelled Rheims in English) is the most populous city in the French Departments of France, department of Marne (department), Marne, and the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, 12th most populous city in Fran ...
. In 1914, pioneering aviator Tony Jannus captained the inaugural flight of the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line, the world's first commercial
passenger airline An airline is a company that provides air transport services for traveling passengers or freight (cargo). Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for codeshare agreements, in w ...
. Historians disagree about whether the
Wright brothers patent war The Wright brothers patent war centers on the patent that the Wright brothers received for their method of airplane flight control. They were two Americans who are widely credited with inventing and building the world's first flyable airplane and ...
impeded development of the aviation industry in the United States compared to Europe. The patent war ended during World War I when the government pressured the industry into forming a
patent pool In patent law, a patent pool is a consortium of two or more companies agreeing to cross-license patents relating to a particular technology. The creation of a patent pool can save patentees and licensees time and money, and, in case of blocking pa ...
, and major litigants had left the industry.


Rotorcraft

In 1877, the Italian engineer, inventor and aeronautical pioneer
Enrico Forlanini Enrico Forlanini (13 December 1848 – 9 October 1930) was an Italian engineer, inventor and aeronautical pioneer, known for his works on helicopters, aeroplanes, hydrofoils and Airship, dirigibles. He was born in Milan. His older brother Carlo ...
developed an unmanned
helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...
powered by a
steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs Work (physics), mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a Cylinder (locomotive), cyl ...
. It rose to a height of , where it remained for 20 seconds, after a vertical take-off from a park in
Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...
. Milan has dedicated its city airport to Enrico Forlanini, the airport is also named
Linate Airport Milan Linate Airport is a city airport located in Milan, the second-largest city and largest urban area of Italy. It served 10.6 million passengers and recorded 118,060 aircraft movements in 2024, making it one of the busiest airports in Ital ...
, as well as the nearby park, the Parco Forlanini. In Milan he also has an avenue named after him, Viale Enrico Forlanini. The first time a manned helicopter is known to have risen off the ground was on a tethered flight in 1907 by the
Breguet-Richet Gyroplane The Breguet-Richet Gyroplane was an early French experimental quadcopter rotary-wing aircraft developed by Breguet Aviation. Design and development The Gyroplane No.I was one of the earliest attempts to create a practical rotary-wing aircraft. ...
. Later the same year the Cornu helicopter, also French, made the first rotary-winged free flight at Lisieux, France. However, these were not practical designs.


Military use

Almost as soon as they were invented, aeroplanes were used for military purposes. The first country to use them for military purposes was Italy, whose aircraft made reconnaissance, bombing and artillery correction flights in
Libya Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...
during the Italian-Turkish war (September 1911 – October 1912). This war also saw Ottoman soldiers shoot down a warplane for the first time in history. The first warplane reconnaissance mission flown on 23 October 1911 by the Italian air force's Captain Carlo Piazza, and the first bombing mission was flown on 1 November 1911 by Italy's Second Lieutenant Giolio Gavotti. Bulgaria later followed this example. Its planes attacked and reconnoitred Ottoman positions during the First Balkan War 1912–13. The first war to see major use of aeroplanes in offensive, defensive and reconnaissance capabilities was
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
. The
Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are calle ...
and
Central Powers The Central Powers, also known as the Central Empires,; ; , ; were one of the two main coalitions that fought in World War I (1914–1918). It consisted of the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulga ...
both used aeroplanes and airships extensively. While the concept of using the aeroplane as an offensive weapon was generally discounted before World War I, the idea of using it for photography was one that was not lost on any of the major forces. All of the major forces in Europe had light aircraft, typically derived from pre-war sporting designs, attached to their
reconnaissance In military operations, military reconnaissance () or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, the terrain, and civil activities in the area of operations. In military jargon, reconnai ...
departments.
Radiotelephone A radiotelephone (or radiophone), abbreviated RT, is a radio communication system for conducting a conversation; radiotelephony means telephony by radio. It is in contrast to ''radiotelegraphy'', which is radio transmission of telegrams (messag ...
s were also being explored on aeroplanes, notably the SCR-68, as communication between pilots and ground commander grew more and more important.


World War I (1914–1918)


Combat schemes

It was not long before aircraft were shooting at each other, but the lack of any sort of steady point for the gun was a problem. The French solved this problem when, in late 1914, Roland Garros attached a fixed machine gun to the front of his plane. Adolphe Pegoud became known as the first " ace", getting credit for five victories before also becoming the first ace to die in action, it was German
Luftstreitkräfte The ''Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte'' (, German Air Combat Forces)known before October 1916 as (The Imperial German Air Service, lit. "The flying troops of the German Kaiser’s Reich")was the air arm of the Imperial German Army. In English-langu ...
Leutnant () is the lowest junior officer rank in the armed forces of Germany ( Bundeswehr), the Austrian Armed Forces, and the military of Switzerland. History The German noun (with the meaning "" (in English "deputy") from Middle High German «locum ...
Kurt Wintgens who, on 1 July 1915, scored the very first aerial victory by a purpose-built fighter plane, with a synchronized machine gun. Aviators were styled as modern-day knights, doing individual combat with their enemies. Several pilots became famous for their air-to-air combat; the most well known is
Manfred von Richthofen Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen (; 2 May 1892 – 21 April 1918), known in English as Baron von Richthofen or the Red Baron, was a fighter pilot with the German Air Force during World War I. He is considered the ace-of-aces of th ...
, better known as the "Red Baron", who shot down 80 planes in
air-to-air combat Air combat manoeuvring (ACM) is the Military tactics, tactic of moving, turning, and situating one's fighter aircraft in order to attain a position from which an attack can be made on another aircraft. Commonly associated with dogfighting, air c ...
with several different planes, the most celebrated of which was the Fokker Dr.I. On the Allied side, René Paul Fonck is credited with the most all-time victories at 75, even when later wars are considered. France, Britain, Germany, and Italy were the leading manufacturers of fighter planes that saw action during the war, with German aviation technologist
Hugo Junkers Hugo Junkers (3 February 1859 – 3 February 1935) was a German aircraft engineer and aircraft designer who pioneered the design of all-metal airplanes and flying wings. His company, Junkers Flugzeug- und Motorenwerke AG (Junkers Aircraft and ...
showing the way to the future through his pioneering use of all-metal aircraft from late 1915.


Between the World Wars (1918–1939)

The years between
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
and
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
saw great advancements in aircraft technology. Airplanes evolved from low-powered
biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...
s made from wood and fabric to sleek, high-powered
monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple wings. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing con ...
s made of aluminum, based primarily on the founding work of
Hugo Junkers Hugo Junkers (3 February 1859 – 3 February 1935) was a German aircraft engineer and aircraft designer who pioneered the design of all-metal airplanes and flying wings. His company, Junkers Flugzeug- und Motorenwerke AG (Junkers Aircraft and ...
during the World War I period and its adoption by American designer
William Bushnell Stout William Bushnell Stout (March 16, 1880 – March 20, 1956) was a pioneering American inventor, engineer, developer and designer whose works in the automotive and aviation fields were groundbreaking. Known by the nickname "Bill", Stout designed an ...
and Soviet designer
Andrei Tupolev Andrei Nikolayevich Tupolev (; – 23 December 1972) was a Russian and later Soviet aeronautical engineer known for his pioneering aircraft designs as the director of the Tupolev Design Bureau. Tupolev was an early pioneer of aeronautics i ...
. After World War I, experienced fighter pilots were eager to show off their skills. Many American pilots became barnstormers, flying into small towns across the country and showing off their flying abilities, as well as taking paying passengers for rides. Eventually, the barnstormers grouped into more organized displays. Air shows sprang up around the country, with air races, acrobatic stunts, and feats of air superiority. The air races drove engine and airframe development—the
Schneider Trophy The Coupe d'Aviation Maritime Jacques Schneider, also known as the Schneider Trophy, Schneider Prize or (incorrectly) the Schneider Cup is a trophy that was awarded first annually, and later biennially, to the winner of a race for seaplanes and ...
, for example, led to a series of ever faster and sleeker
monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple wings. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing con ...
designs culminating in the Supermarine S.6B. With pilots competing for cash prizes, there was an incentive to go faster.
Amelia Earhart Amelia Mary Earhart ( ; July 24, 1897 – January 5, 1939) was an American aviation pioneer. On July 2, 1937, she disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to become the first female pilot to circumnavigate the world. During her li ...
was perhaps the most famous of those on the barnstorming/air show circuit. She was also the first female pilot to achieve records such as the crossing of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Prizes for distance and speed records also drove development forwards. On 14 June 1919, Captain John Alcock and Lieutenant Arthur Brown co-piloted a
Vickers Vimy The Vickers Vimy was a British heavy bomber aircraft developed and manufactured by Vickers Limited. Developed during the latter stages of the First World War to equip the Royal Flying Corps (RFC), the Vimy was designed by Rex Pierson, Vickers ...
non-stop from St. John's,
Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the population ...
to Clifden, Ireland, winning the £13,000 ($65,000). Northcliffe prize. The first flight across the South Atlantic and the first aerial crossing using astronomical navigation, was made by the naval aviators Gago Coutinho and Sacadura Cabral in 1922, from
Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...
, Portugal, to
Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...
, Brazil, using an aircraft fitted with an artificial horizon for aeronautical use. In 1924, Major General
Mason Patrick Mason Mathews Patrick (December 13, 1863 – January 29, 1942) was a general officer in the United States Army who led the United States Army Air Service during and after World War I and became the first United States Army Air Corps, Chief of the ...
led a group of U.S. Army Air Service members to complete the first aerial circumnavigation of the world. This flight around the world came with many logistical challenges, traveling 26,343 miles over the span of 175 days. This flight led to improved foreign relations by promoting commercial collaboration, and greater public interest in aviation, prompting governments to put more resources into developing their aviation forces. On 21 May 1927,
Charles Lindbergh Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974) was an American aviator, military officer, and author. On May 20–21, 1927, he made the first nonstop flight from New York (state), New York to Paris, a distance of . His aircra ...
received the
Orteig Prize The Orteig Prize was a reward of $25,000 offered in 1919 by New York City hotel owner Raymond Orteig to the first Allies of World War I, Allied aviator, or aviators, to fly non-stop from New York City to Paris or vice versa.Bak. Pages 28 and 29. Se ...
of $25,000 for the first ''solo'' non-stop crossing of the Atlantic. This caused what was known in aviation at the time as the "Lindbergh boom", which increased public interest in aviation. Australian Sir Charles Kingsford Smith was the first to fly across the larger Pacific Ocean in the Southern Cross. His crew left
Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...
to make the first trans-Pacific flight to
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
, making three stops to complete the journey. Kingsford-Smith and his crew made their first stop in
Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...
from Oakland, California, and from Hawaii to Suva, Fiji. During the last segment of their journey from Fiji to
Brisbane, Australia Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...
, they encountered severe thunderstorms, and were thrown nearly 140 miles off their course. The flight concluded on 9 June 1928 after flying 7,230 miles, Kingsford-Smith and his crew landed in Brisbane, Australia, receiving $25,000 from the Australian government for their achievement. Accompanying him were Australian aviator Charles Ulm as the relief pilot, and the Americans James Warner and Captain Harry Lyon (who were the radio operator, navigator and engineer). A week after they landed, Kingsford Smith and Ulm recorded a disc for Columbia talking about their trip. With Ulm, Kingsford Smith later continued his journey being the first in 1929 to circumnavigate the world, crossing the equator twice. The first lighter-than-air crossings of the Atlantic were made by airship in July 1919 by His Majesty's Airship R34 and crew when they flew from
East Lothian East Lothian (; ; ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, as well as a Counties of Scotland, historic county, registration county and Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area. The county was called Haddingtonshire until 1921. In ...
, Scotland to
Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...
, New York and then back to Pulham, England. By 1929, airship technology had advanced to the point that the first round-the-world flight was completed by the '' Graf Zeppelin'' in September and in October, the same aircraft inaugurated the first commercial transatlantic service. However, the age of the rigid airship ended following the destruction by fire of the zeppelin LZ 129 ''Hindenburg'' just before landing at Lakehurst, New Jersey on 6 May 1937, killing 35 of the 97 people aboard. Previous spectacular airship accidents, from the '' Wingfoot Express'' disaster (1919), the loss of the
R101 R101 was one of a pair of British rigid airships completed in 1929 as part of the Imperial Airship Scheme, a British government programme to develop civil airships capable of service on long-distance routes within the British Empire. It was d ...
(1930), the ''Akron'' (1933) and the ''Macon'' (1935) had already cast doubt on airship safety. The disasters of the U.S. Navy's rigids showed the importance of solely using
helium Helium (from ) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol He and atomic number 2. It is a colorless, odorless, non-toxic, inert gas, inert, monatomic gas and the first in the noble gas group in the periodic table. Its boiling point is ...
as the lifting medium. Following the destruction of the Hindenburg, the remaining airship making
international flight An international flight is a form of commercial flight within civil aviation where the Takeoff, departure and the arrival take place in different Country, countries. Regular international passenger air service began in August 1919 with a flight ...
s, the '' Graf Zeppelin'' was retired (June 1937). Its replacement, the rigid airship '' Graf Zeppelin II'', made a number of flights, primarily over Germany, from 1938 to 1939, but was grounded when Germany began World War II. Both remaining German zeppelins were scrapped in 1940 to supply metal for the German
Luftwaffe The Luftwaffe () was the aerial warfare, aerial-warfare branch of the before and during World War II. German Empire, Germany's military air arms during World War I, the of the Imperial German Army, Imperial Army and the of the Imperial Ge ...
air force. Meanwhile, Germany, which was restricted by the
Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allies of World War I, Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace ...
in its development of powered aircraft, developed
gliding Gliding is a recreational activity and competitive air sports, air sport in which pilots fly glider aircraft, unpowered aircraft known as Glider (sailplane), gliders or sailplanes using naturally occurring currents of rising air in the atmospher ...
as a sport, especially at the
Wasserkuppe The Wasserkuppe (;) is the highest mountain in the Rhön Mountains, Rhön range and the tallest elevation in the Germany, German state of Hesse, standing at above sea level. It forms a prominent plateau within the Fulda district and is known as ...
, during the 1920s. In its various forms, in the 21st-century sailplane aviation now has over 400,000 participants. In 1929,
Jimmy Doolittle James Harold Doolittle (December 14, 1896 – September 27, 1993) was an American military general and aviation pioneer who received the Medal of Honor for his raid on Japan during World War II, known as the Doolittle Raid in his honor. He ma ...
developed
flight instruments Flight instruments are the instruments in the cockpit of an aircraft that provide the pilot with data about the flight situation of that aircraft, such as altitude, airspeed, vertical speed, heading and much more other crucial information in f ...
. 1929 also saw the first flight of by far the largest plane ever built until then: the Dornier Do X with a wingspan of 48 m. On its 70th test flight on 21 October 1929, there were 169 people on board, a record that was not broken for 20 years. In 1923, The first successful
rotorcraft A rotary-wing aircraft, rotorwing aircraft or rotorcraft is a heavier-than-air aircraft with rotor wing, rotary wings that spin around a vertical mast to generate lift (force), lift. Part 1 (Definitions and Abbreviations) of Subchapter A of Chapt ...
appeared in the form of the
autogyro An autogyro (from Greek and , "self-turning"), gyroscope, gyrocopter or gyroplane, is a class of rotorcraft that uses an unpowered rotor in free autorotation to develop lift. A gyroplane "means a rotorcraft whose rotors are not engine-d ...
, invented by Spanish engineer
Juan de la Cierva Juan de la Cierva y Codorníu, 1st Count of la Cierva (; 21 September 1895 – 9 December 1936), was a Spanish civil engineer, pilot and a self-taught aeronautical engineer. His most famous accomplishment was the invention in 1920 of a rotorcr ...
and first flown in 1919. In this design, the rotor is not powered but spins freely as it moves through the air, while a separate engine powers the aircraft to move forward. This was the basis of further development and prototypes that led to the creation of the
helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...
. In 1930 Corradino D'Ascanio, an Italian engineer, developed a
coaxial In geometry, coaxial means that several three-dimensional linear or planar forms share a common axis. The two-dimensional analog is ''concentric''. Common examples: A coaxial cable has a wire conductor in the centre (D), a circumferential ou ...
helicopter with the important inclusion of three small propellers on the craft, which controlled the pitch, roll, and yaw of the aircraft. Later helicopters saw several adjustments to their rotors but the first modern helicopter was not constructed until 1947 by
Igor Sikorsky Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky, (25 May 1889 – 26 October 1972) was a Russian-American aviation pioneer in both helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. His first success came with the Sikorsky S-2, the second aircraft of his design and construc ...
Only five years after the German Dornier Do-X had flown,
Tupolev Tupolev ( rus, Туполев, , ˈtupəlʲɪf), officially United Aircraft Company Tupolev - Public Joint Stock Company, is a Russian aerospace and Arms industry, defence company headquartered in Basmanny District, Moscow. UAC Tupolev is succes ...
designed the largest aircraft of the 1930s era, the ''Maksim Gorky'' in the Soviet Union by 1934, as the largest aircraft ever built using the Junkers methods of metal aircraft construction. In the 1930s, development of the
jet engine A jet engine is a type of reaction engine, discharging a fast-moving jet (fluid), jet of heated gas (usually air) that generates thrust by jet propulsion. While this broad definition may include Rocket engine, rocket, Pump-jet, water jet, and ...
s began in Germany and in Britain and they began testing in 1939 before World War II. The jet engine saw considerable development during the war, with a few jet powered aircraft being used in the war. After enrolling in the Military Aviation Academy in Eskisehir in 1936 and undertaking training at the First Aircraft Regiment, Sabiha Gökçen, flew fighter and bomber planes becoming the first Turkish, female aviator and the world's first, female, combat pilot. During her flying career, she achieved some 8,000 hours, 32 of which were combat missions.


World War II (1939–1945)

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
saw a great increase in the pace of development and production, not only of aircraft but also the associated flight-based weapon delivery systems. Air combat tactics and doctrines started being rapidly developed. Large-scale
strategic bombing Strategic bombing is a systematically organized and executed military attack from the air which can utilize strategic bombers, long- or medium-range missiles, or nuclear-armed fighter-bomber aircraft to attack targets deemed vital to the enemy' ...
campaigns were launched, fighter escorts introduced and the more flexible aircraft and weapons allowed precise attacks on small targets with
dive bomber A dive bomber is a bomber aircraft that dives directly at its targets in order to provide greater accuracy for the bomb it drops. Diving towards the target simplifies the bomb's trajectory and allows the pilot to keep visual contact througho ...
s,
fighter-bomber A fighter-bomber is a fighter aircraft that has been modified, or used primarily, as a light bomber or attack aircraft. It differs from bomber and attack aircraft primarily in its origins, as a fighter that has been adapted into other roles, wh ...
s, and
ground-attack aircraft An attack aircraft, strike aircraft, or attack bomber is a tactical military aircraft that has a primary role of carrying out airstrikes with greater precision than bombers, and is prepared to encounter strong low-level air defenses while pres ...
. New technologies like
radar Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), direction ( azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to detect and track ...
also allowed more coordinated and controlled deployment of air defence. The first jet aircraft to fly was the
Heinkel He 178 The Heinkel He 178 was an experimental aircraft designed and produced by the German aircraft manufacturer Heinkel. It was the world's first aircraft to fly using the thrust from a turbojet engine. The He 178 was developed to test the jet prop ...
(Germany), flown by Erich Warsitz in 1939, followed by the world's first operational jet aircraft, the
Messerschmitt Me 262 The Messerschmitt Me 262, nicknamed (German for "Swallow") in fighter versions, or ("Storm Bird") in fighter-bomber versions, is a fighter aircraft and fighter-bomber that was designed and produced by the German aircraft manufacturer Messers ...
, in July 1942 and world's first jet-powered bomber, the
Arado Ar 234 The Arado Ar 234 ''Blitz'' (English: lightning) is a jet-powered bomber designed and produced by the German aircraft manufacturer Arado. It was the world's first operational turbojet-powered bomber, seeing service during the final years of the ...
, in June 1943. British developments, like the
Gloster Meteor The Gloster Meteor was the first British jet fighter and the Allies' only jet aircraft to engage in combat operations during the Second World War. The Meteor's development was heavily reliant on its ground-breaking turbojet engines, pioneere ...
, followed afterwards, but saw only brief use in World War II. The first cruise missile ( V-1), the first ballistic missile ( V-2), the first (and to date only) operational rocket-powered combat aircraft Me 163—which attained velocities of up to in test flights—and the first vertical take-off a manned point-defence interceptor, the
Bachem Ba 349 The Bachem Ba 349 Natter () is a World War II German point-defence rocket-powered interceptor aircraft, interceptor, which was to be used in a very similar way to a manned surface-to-air missile. After a vertical take-off, which eliminated the n ...
''Natter'', were also developed by Germany. However, jet and rocket aircraft had only limited impact due to their late introduction, fuel shortages, the lack of experienced pilots and the declining war industry of Germany. Not only aeroplanes, but also helicopters saw rapid development in the Second World War, with the introduction of the Focke Achgelis Fa 223, the Flettner Fl 282 synchropter in 1941 in Germany and the
Sikorsky R-4 The Sikorsky R-4 is a two-seat light helicopter that was designed by Igor Sikorsky with a single, three-bladed main rotor and powered by a radial engine. The R-4 was the world's first large-scale mass production, mass-produced helicopter and the ...
in 1942 in the USA.


Postwar era (1945–1979)

Following World War II,
commercial aviation Commercial aviation is the part of civil aviation that involves operating aircraft for remuneration or hire, as opposed to private aviation. Definition Commercial aviation is not a rigorously defined category. All commercial air transport and ae ...
expanded quickly, primarily relying on former military aircraft to carry passengers and cargo. There was an excess of large bombers, such as the B-29 and Lancaster, which were easily converted for commercial use. The
DC-3 The Douglas DC-3 is a propeller-driven airliner manufactured by the Douglas Aircraft Company, which had a lasting effect on the airline industry in the 1930s to 1940s and World War II. It was developed as a larger, improved 14-bed sleeper ...
specifically played a key role, enabling longer and more efficient flights. The British
de Havilland Comet The de Havilland DH.106 Comet is the world's first commercial jet airliner. Developed and manufactured by de Havilland in the United Kingdom, the Comet 1 prototype first flew in 1949. It features an aerodynamically clean design with four ...
became the first commercial jet airliner and was introduced into scheduled service by 1952. The aircraft was a breakthrough in technical achievements, but had several intense failures. The square design of the windows caused stress cracks from metal fatigue, caused by cycles of cabin pressurization and depressurization. This eventually led to severe structural failures in the fuel area. These issues were resolved too late, since competing jet airliners were already flying. On 15 September 1956, the USSR's airline
Aeroflot PJSC AeroflotRussian Airlines (, ), commonly known as Aeroflot ( or ; , , ), is the flag carrier and the largest airline of Russia. Aeroflot is headquartered in the Central Administrative Okrug, Moscow, with its hub being Sheremetyevo Interna ...
 became the first to offer continuous, regular jet services using the Tupolev Tu-104. Soon after,
Boeing 707 The Boeing 707 is an early American long-range Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliner, the first jetliner developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype, the initial first flew on Decembe ...
and  DC-8 also set new standards in comfort, safety, and passenger experience. This was the beginning of the
Jet Age The Jet Age is a period in the history of aviation defined by the advent of aircraft powered by jet turbine engines and the social and cultural changes fostered by commercial jet travel. Jet airliners were able to fly higher, faster, and farth ...
, the introduction of large-scale commercial air travel. In October 1947,
Chuck Yeager Brigadier general (United States), Brigadier General Charles Elwood Yeager ( , February 13, 1923December 7, 2020) was a United States Air Force officer, flying ace, and record-setting test pilot who in October 1947 became the first pilot in his ...
became the first to fly faster than the speed of sound when he piloted the rocket-powered
Bell X-1 The Bell X-1 (Bell Model 44) is a rocket engine–powered aircraft, designated originally as the XS-1, and was a joint National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics– U.S. Army Air Forces– U.S. Air Force supersonic research project built by B ...
past the
sound barrier The sound barrier or sonic barrier is the large increase in aerodynamic drag and other undesirable effects experienced by an aircraft or other object when it approaches the speed of sound. When aircraft first approached the speed of sound, th ...
. The air speed record for an aircraft was set by the
X-15 The North American X-15 is a Hypersonic speed, hypersonic rocket-powered aircraft which was operated by the United States Air Force and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the List of X-planes, X-plane series of ...
at 4,534 mph (7,297 km/h) or
Mach The Mach number (M or Ma), often only Mach, (; ) is a dimensionless quantity in fluid dynamics representing the ratio of flow velocity past a Boundary (thermodynamic), boundary to the local speed of sound. It is named after the Austrian physi ...
6.1 in 1967. This record was later broken by the X-43 in 2004, excluding spacecraft. Military aircraft had a strategic advantage during the
Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
with the invention of
nuclear bomb A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon), producing a nuclear exp ...
s in 1945. Even just a small fleet of
bomber A bomber is a military combat aircraft that utilizes air-to-ground weaponry to drop bombs, launch aerial torpedo, torpedoes, or deploy air-launched cruise missiles. There are two major classifications of bomber: strategic and tactical. Strateg ...
s could inflict catastrophic damage, which caused for the development of effective defenses. One early development was
supersonic Supersonic speed is the speed of an object that exceeds the speed of sound (Mach 1). For objects traveling in dry air of a temperature of 20 °C (68 °F) at sea level, this speed is approximately . Speeds greater than five times ...
interceptor aircraft An interceptor aircraft, or simply interceptor, is a type of fighter aircraft designed specifically for the defensive interception role against an attacking enemy aircraft, particularly bombers and reconnaissance aircraft. Aircraft that are c ...
. By 1955, the focus shifted toward guided
surface-to-air missile A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground or the sea to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-ai ...
s. This eventually led to the emergence of
intercontinental ballistic missile An intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is a ballistic missile with a range (aeronautics), range greater than , primarily designed for nuclear weapons delivery (delivering one or more Thermonuclear weapon, thermonuclear warheads). Conven ...
s (ICBMs), which have nuclear capabilities. An early example of ICBMs occurred in 1957 when the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
launched
Sputnik 1 Sputnik 1 (, , ''Satellite 1''), sometimes referred to as simply Sputnik, was the first artificial Earth satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957 as part of the Soviet space program ...
, beginning the
Space Race The Space Race (, ) was a 20th-century competition between the Cold War rivals, the United States and the Soviet Union, to achieve superior spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the ballistic missile-based nuclear arms race between t ...
. In 1961,
Yuri Gagarin Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin; Gagarin's first name is sometimes transliterated as ''Yuriy'', ''Youri'', or ''Yury''. (9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968) was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut who, aboard the first successful Human spaceflight, crewed sp ...
became the first human in space when he completed a single orbit around Earth in 108 minutes aboard Vostok I. Following this, the United States sent
Alan Shepard Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. (November 18, 1923 – July 21, 1998) was an American astronaut. In 1961, he became the second person and the first American to travel into space and, in 1971, he became the List of Apollo astronauts#Apollo astr ...
on a suborbital flight using a
Mercury program Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. An early highlight of the Space Race, its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and return him safely, ideally before the Soviet Un ...
capsule. In 1963, Canada became the third nation to enter space with the launch of its satellite, Alouette I. The space race culminated in the landing on the moon in 1969. The
Harrier jump jet The Harrier, informally referred to as the Harrier jump jet, is a family of jet-powered attack aircraft capable of vertical/short takeoff and landing operations (V/STOL). Named after the bird of prey, it was originally developed by British ...
, capable of vertical landing and takeoff, first flew in 1969. This was also the year of the introduction of the
Boeing 747 The Boeing 747 is a long-range wide-body aircraft, wide-body airliner designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States between 1968 and 2023. After the introduction of the Boeing 707, 707 in October 1958, Pan Am ...
. Additionally, the Aérospatiale-BAC
Concorde Concorde () is a retired Anglo-French supersonic airliner jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Studies started in 1954, and France and the United Kingdom signed a treaty establishin ...
supersonic passenger airliner had its
maiden flight The maiden flight, also known as first flight, of an aircraft is the first occasion on which it leaves the ground under its own power. The same term is also used for the first launch of rockets. In the early days of aviation it could be dange ...
. The Boeing 747 was the largest commercial passenger aircraft ever to fly at the time, now replaced by the
Airbus A380 The Airbus A380 is a very large wide-body airliner, developed and produced by Airbus until 2021. It is the world's largest passenger airliner and the only full-length double-deck jet airliner. Airbus studies started in 1988, and the pr ...
, capable of transporting 853 passengers. Aeroflot started flying the Tu-144—the first supersonic passenger plane in 1975. The next year,
British Airways British Airways plc (BA) is the flag carrier of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England, near its main Airline hub, hub at Heathrow Airport. The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and pass ...
and
Air France Air France (; legally ''Société Air France, S.A.''), stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the flag carrier of France, and is headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. The airline is a subsidiary of the Air France-KLM Group and is one of the founding members ...
began supersonic flights over the Atlantic. In 1979, the Gossamer Albatross achieved the status of the first human-powered aircraft to fly over the English channel, which had been a dream for centuries.


Digital age (1980–present)

The last quarter of the 20th century saw a change of emphasis. No longer was revolutionary progress made in flight speeds, distances and materials technology. This part of the century instead saw the spreading of the digital revolution both in flight
avionics Avionics (a portmanteau of ''aviation'' and ''electronics'') are the Electronics, electronic systems used on aircraft. Avionic systems include communications, Air navigation, navigation, the display and management of multiple systems, and the ...
and in aircraft design and manufacturing techniques. In 1986, Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager flew an aircraft, the Rutan Voyager, around the world un-refuelled, and without landing. In 1999,
Bertrand Piccard Bertrand Piccard Royal Scottish Geographical Society, FRSGS (born 1 March 1958) is a Swiss explorer, psychiatrist and balloon (aircraft), environmentalist. Along with Brian Jones (aeronaut), Brian Jones, he was the first to complete a non-stop b ...
became the first person to circle the earth in a balloon. Digital
fly-by-wire Fly-by-wire (FBW) is a system that replaces the conventional aircraft flight control system#Hydro-mechanical, manual flight controls of an aircraft with an electronic interface. The movements of flight controls are converted to electronic sig ...
systems allow an aircraft to be designed with relaxed static stability. These systems were initially used to increase the manoeuvrability of military aircraft such as the
General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is an American single-engine supersonic Multirole combat aircraft, multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superio ...
, however they are now being used to reduce drag on commercial airliners. The ''U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission'' was established in 1999 to encourage the broadest national and international participation in the celebration of 100 years of powered flight. It publicized and encouraged a number of programmes, projects and events intended to educate people about the history of aviation.


21st century

21st-century aviation has seen increasing interest in fuel savings and fuel diversification, as well as low cost airlines and facilities. Additionally, much of the developing world that did not have good access to air transport has been steadily adding aircraft and facilities; though severe congestion remains a problem in many up and coming nations. Around 20,000 city pairs are served by commercial aviation, up from less than 10,000 as recently as 1996. There appears to be newfound interest in returning to the supersonic era whereby waning demand in the turn of the 20th century made flights unprofitable, as well as the final commercial stoppage of the
Concorde Concorde () is a retired Anglo-French supersonic airliner jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Studies started in 1954, and France and the United Kingdom signed a treaty establishin ...
due to reduced demand following a fatal accident and rising costs. At the beginning of the 21st century, digital technology allowed subsonic military aviation to begin eliminating the pilot in favour of remotely operated or completely autonomous
unmanned aerial vehicles An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or unmanned aircraft system (UAS), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft with no human pilot, crew, or passengers onboard, but rather is controlled remotely or is autonomous.De Gruyter Handbook of Dron ...
(UAVs). In April 2001, the unmanned aircraft Global Hawk flew from Edwards AFB in the US to Australia non-stop and un-refuelled. This is the longest point-to-point flight ever undertaken by an unmanned aircraft and took 23 hours and 23 minutes. In October 2003, the first totally autonomous flight across the Atlantic by a computer-controlled model aircraft occurred. UAVs are now an established feature of modern warfare, carrying out pinpoint attacks under the control of a remote operator. Major disruptions to
air travel Air travel is a form of travel in vehicles such as airplanes, jet aircraft, helicopters, hot air balloons, blimps, Glider (aircraft), gliders, Hang gliding, hang gliders, parachuting, parachutes, or anything else that can sustain flight.
in the 21st century included the closing of U.S. airspace due to the
September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
, and the closing of most of European airspace after the 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajökull. In 2015, André Borschberg and
Bertrand Piccard Bertrand Piccard Royal Scottish Geographical Society, FRSGS (born 1 March 1958) is a Swiss explorer, psychiatrist and balloon (aircraft), environmentalist. Along with Brian Jones (aeronaut), Brian Jones, he was the first to complete a non-stop b ...
flew a record distance of from
Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region of Japan. It is the list of cities in Japan, fourth-most populous city in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020, and the principal city of the Chūkyō metropolitan area, which is the List of ...
, Japan to
Honolulu Honolulu ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, located in the Pacific Ocean. It is the county seat of the Consolidated city-county, consolidated City and County of Honol ...
, Hawaii in a solar-powered plane, Solar Impulse 2. The flight took nearly five days; during the nights the aircraft used its batteries and the potential energy gained during the day. On 14 July 2019, Frenchman
Franky Zapata Franky Zapata (; born 27 September 1978) is a French personal watercraft pilot who is the inventor of the Flyboard and Flyboard Air, and founder of Zapata Racing. Since 2012, Zapata's efforts have been focused on the development and manufactur ...
attracted worldwide attention when he participated at the
Bastille Day military parade The Bastille Day military parade, also known as the 14 July military parade, translation of the French name of , is a French military parade that has been held on the morning of Bastille Day, 14 July, each year in Paris since 1880, almost with ...
riding his invention, a jet-powered
Flyboard Air Flyboard Air is a type of jetpack/ hoverboard powered by gas turbines. It was invented by French water-craft rider Franky Zapata, founder of Zapata racing. It achieved a Guinness World Record for farthest flight by hoverboard in April 2016 of ...
. He subsequently succeeded in crossing the English Channel on his device on 4 August 2019, covering the 35-kilometre (22 mi) journey from
Sangatte Sangatte (; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Pas-de-Calais Departments of France, department on the northern coast of France on the English Channel. The name is of Flemish origin, meaning hole or gap in the sand. Engineering Sangatte i ...
in northern France to St Margaret's Bay in
Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...
, UK, in 22 minutes, with a midpoint fueling stop included. 24 July 2019 was the busiest day in aviation, Flightradar24 recorded a total of over 225,000 flights that day. It includes helicopters, private jets, gliders, sight-seeing flights, as well as personal aircraft. On 10 June 2020, the
Pipistrel Velis Electro The Pipistrel Velis Electro is a Slovenian light aircraft, designed and produced by Pipistrel of Ajdovščina. The aircraft was EASA CS-LSA fully electric type certified in June 2020 and it is intended primarily for the training aircraft role ...
became the first electric aeroplane to secure a
type certificate A type certificate signifies the airworthiness of a particular category of aircraft, according to its manufacturing design (''type design''). Certification confirms that the aircraft of a new type intended for serial production is in compliance w ...
from
EASA The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is an agency of the European Commission with responsibility for civil aviation safety in the European Union. It carries out certification, regulation and standardisation and also performs inve ...
. In the early 21st Century, the first fifth-generation military fighters were produced, starting with the
F-22 Raptor The Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 Raptor is an American twin-engine, jet-powered, all-weather, supersonic stealth fighter aircraft. As a product of the United States Air Force's Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) program, the aircraft was de ...
. As of 2019, Russia, America and China have 5th gen aircraft. The
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
had a significant impact on the aviation industry due to the resulting travel restrictions as well as slump in demand among travellers, and may also affect the future of air travel. For example, the mandatory use of face masks on planes was common when flying in 2020 and 2021.


Mars

On 19 April 2021,
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
successfully flew its diminutive unmanned helicopter ''Ingenuity'' on Mars, humanity's first controlled powered aircraft flight on another planet. The helicopter rose to a height of three metres and hovered in a stable holding position for 30 seconds. A video of the flight was made by its accompanying rover, ''Perseverance''. ''Ingenuity'', which was initially designed for five demonstration flights, flew 72 times traveling 11 miles in nearly three years. As a homage to all of its aerial predecessors, it carries a postage stamp sized piece of wing fabric from the 1903 ''
Wright Flyer The ''Wright Flyer'' (also known as the ''Kitty Hawk'', ''Flyer'' I or the 1903 ''Flyer'') made the first sustained flight by a manned heavier-than-air powered and controlled aircraft on December 17, 1903. Invented and flown by brothers Wrigh ...
''. ''Ingenuity's'' last flight was 18 January 2024, a span of since its first takeoff (the duration in Martian days, or sols, was ). Broken and damaged rotor blades suffered during its final landing forced the helicopter's retirement.


See also

* Aviation archaeology *
Claims to the first powered flight Several aviators are proposed as the first to fly a powered aeroplane. Much controversy surrounds these claims. It is generally accepted today in the United States and other countries that the Wright Brothers were the first to achieve sustained, c ...
* List of firsts in aviation *
Timeline of aviation This is a timeline of aviation history, and a list of more detailed aviation timelines. The texts in the diagram are clickable links to articles. Timeline ImageSize = width:500 height:2000 PlotArea = left:50 right:0 bottom:10 top:10 DateForma ...


References


Bibliography

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Further reading


Celebrating a History of Flight
, NASA Office of Aerospace Technology HQ, United States Air Force * Bruno, Harry (1944) ''Wings over America: The Story of American Aviation'', Halcyon House, Garden City, New York. * Camm, Sydney (1919)
Aeroplane construction
'', Crosby Lockwood and son, London * Hynes, Samuel (1988). ''Flights of Passage: Reflections of a World War II Aviator''. New York: Frederic C. Beil / Annapolis:Naval Institute Press. * * Includes photos, diagrams and specifications of many c. 1910 aircraft. * Includes photos and specifics of many c. 1908 dirigibles and aeroplanes. * Van Vleck, Jenifer (2013). ''Empire of the Air: Aviation and the American Ascendancy''. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.


External links

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"Alberto Santos-Dumont Est Peut-Être Le Véritable 'Père De L'aviation'"
''Magazine Aviation''.


Articles

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Media

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Aviation History Articles containing video clips History of industries History of science by discipline History of technology History by topic