On December 17, 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first successful manned, powered and controlled flight in a heavier-than-air aircraft called the Flyer. They made four controlled flights that day in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, with the longest flight lasting 59 seconds and traveling 852 feet. This achievement marked the beginning of the age of aviation and air travel.

1. History of Flight By Sandra Cash

2. Around 400 BC in China, the kite was discovered. The Chinese used the kites in religious ceremonies. This is important because they got people thinking about flying and they were the forerunner to balloons and gliders. Kites in China

3. On November 1783, the first journey made by man in a balloon occurred. The aerial journey was made over Paris by Jean Francois Pilatre de Rozier who was accompanied by his companion Marquis d'Arlandes. This was the first real invention that could fly in the air and that held people in it. Thisshowed people that humanscould fly. They used the smoke from a fire to blow hot air into a silk bag. The silk bag was attached to a basket. The hot air then rose and allowed the balloon to be lighter-than-air. But if a wind came up you went in the direction of the wind. Montgolfier Balloon

4. 1804 & 1853. The flight of George Cayley’s1804 glider was notable because it was the first design in history that included the principal features of the modern fixed-wing aircraft configuration. It incorporated a vertical and horizontal tail unit attached to a movable universal joint. The entire tail assembly was capable of rotating up and down so that it acted as an elevator. This idea of deflecting the entire horizontal tail to act as an elevator persisted for over a century. According Bernoulli’s principle the air on top of the glider is moving faster then the air below the glider. The pressure difference between the top and bottom makes an upward force called a lift. First glider and manned glider flights

5. Sir George Cayley's 1804 glider

6. Samuel Langley was an astronomer, who realized that power was needed to help man fly. He built a model of a plane, which he called an aerodrome, that included a steam-powered engine. In 1891, his model flew for 3/4s of a mile before running out of fuel. This is important because this gave the idea to the Wright brothers that they weregoing to need an engine to help them fly. Langley's Aerodrome

7. Langley's Aerodrome

8. On December 17, 1903, they made four flights on the sand dunes of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in the aircraft they called The Flyer. It was the first powered, sustained and controlled flight of an airplane. There are four forces which act on an airplane in flight: thrust, drag, weight, and lift. The wing is shaped in such a way that the air above the wing must move faster than the air below the wing: Therefore the pressureon top of the wing is less than the pressureon the bottom of the wing. Hence, the resultant force is a net force in the upward direction called lift. This is how the Bernoulli’s principle is used in flying. The Flyer - Orville & Wilbur Wright

9. The Flyer

10. The first manned helicopter to rise vertically completely unrestrained was constructed by Paul Cornu, a French mechanic, in 1907. Cornu's helicopter had two propellers that were rotated at 90 rpm by a 24-hp (18 kW) engine. This was the beginning in helicopters, and as the years go on the helicopters will get bigger and better, and one day we would use them in our military. In an aircraft that has two propellers, one propeller provides thrust, and the other one provides lift. Cornu's helicopter

11. In 1911, Calbriath Rodgers made the first flight across the United States. He flew from Sheepshead Bay, New York to Long Beach, California. Because he crashed a lot, he had to replace almost every part of the plane before he reached Long Beach. This journey took 3 days, 10 hours, and 24 minutes of time spent in the air. This was the first flight across the United States and it was the longest that a airplane has stayed up in the air at the time. Calbriath Rodgers

12. “NASA Ultra-efficient Engine Technology” How Did We Learn to Fly Like the Birds? http://ueet.grc.nasa.gov/StudentSite/historyofflight.html “aerospaceweb.org” Historic Milestones in Aerospace http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/history/q0154.shtml “Gander Academy” Aviation History by Jim Cornish http://www.cdli.ca/CITE/aviation.htm Sources