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Introduction To Flight Chapter 1 Summary

The document provides a history of important developments in aeronautics from 1486 to the early 1900s. It describes Leonardo da Vinci's early conceptions of flight in the late 15th century. In the 18th century, the Montgolfier brothers launched the first hot-air balloon and in 1799, Sir George Cayley proposed the concept of the modern airplane. The first powered flights occurred in the late 19th century but were not sustained. Otto Lilienthal's glider flights in the 1890s advanced the field. The Wright brothers achieved the first controlled, powered, heavier-than-air flight in 1903, revolutionizing transportation. Aeronautics advanced rapidly after 1908 as the Wrights demonstrated

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383 views1 page

Introduction To Flight Chapter 1 Summary

The document provides a history of important developments in aeronautics from 1486 to the early 1900s. It describes Leonardo da Vinci's early conceptions of flight in the late 15th century. In the 18th century, the Montgolfier brothers launched the first hot-air balloon and in 1799, Sir George Cayley proposed the concept of the modern airplane. The first powered flights occurred in the late 19th century but were not sustained. Otto Lilienthal's glider flights in the 1890s advanced the field. The Wright brothers achieved the first controlled, powered, heavier-than-air flight in 1903, revolutionizing transportation. Aeronautics advanced rapidly after 1908 as the Wrights demonstrated

Uploaded by

GalilaTV
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The First Aeronautical

Engineers:History and
Development of
Aeronautics

1486-1490
Leonardo da Vinci conceives the
ornithopter and leaves more than 500
sketches of his design, drawn from 1486 to
1490. However, this approach to flight
proves to be unsuccessful over the ensuing
centuries.

The Montgolfier hot-air balloon floats

1783
over Paris on November 21, 1783. For the
first time in history, a human being is lifted
and carried through the air for a
sustained period.

A red-letter date in the progress of aeronautics is

1799
1799. In that year Sir George Cayley in England
engraves on a silver disk his concept of a fuselage, a
fixed wing, and horizontal and vertical tails. He is
the first person to propose separate mechanisms for
the generation of lift and propulsion. He is the
grandparent of the concept of the modern airplane.

The first two powered hops in history are

1874-1884
achieved by the Frenchman Felix Du Temple
in 1874 and the Russian Alexander F.
Mozhaiski in 1884. However, they do not
represent truly controlled, sustained flight.

Otto Lilienthal designs the first fully


successful gliders in history. During the
period from 1891 to 1896, he makes more

1891-1896
than 2000 successful glider flights. If he
had not been killed in a glider crash in
1896, Lilienthal might have achieved
powered flight before the Wright brothers.

Samuel Pierpont Langley, secretary of the


Smithsonian Institution, achieves the first
sustained heavier-than-air, unmanned,

1896-1903
powered flight in history with his small-scale
Aerodrome in 1896. However, his attempts at
manned fl ight are unsuccessful, the last one
failing on December 8, 1903—just nine days
before the Wright brothers’ stunning success.

Another red-letter date in the history of


aeronautics, indeed in the history of humanity, is

1903
December 17, 1903. On that day, at Kill Devil Hills
in North Carolina, Orville and Wilbur Wright
achieve the first controlled, sustained, powered,
heavier-than-air, manned flight in history. This flight
is to revolutionize life during the 20th century.

The development of aeronautics takes off


exponentially after the Wright brothers’ public
demonstrations in Europe and the United States in
1908. The ongoing work of Glenn Curtiss and the
1908- ONWARDS Wrights and the continued influence of Langley’s
early work form an important aeronautical
triangle in the development of aeronautics before
World War I.

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