HISTORY OF AVIATION A BRIEF LOOK AT A LARGE SUBJECT History of Aviation A Brief Look at a Large Subject

For centuries man has dreamed to soar with the birds. For centuries man has dreamed to soar with the birds

Famous inventors such as Leonardo da Vinci, John Stringfellow, and Lawrence Hargrave have conjured up ideas of how to get some of the strangest machines to fly, long before the Wright brothers' famous first flight at Kitty Hawk.

The first form of an aircraft was the kite, designed in the 5th century BC.

In the 16th century, Leonardo da Vinci studied birds flight, and later produced the airscrew and the parachute.

He envisioned three different types of heavier-than-air craft; the helicopter, glider, and ornithopter (a machine with mechanical wings which flap to mimic a bird). See wb site ( er.net/MediaGallery /Videos/index_e.ht ml ) And watch videos 2 and 3

Another famous inventor was John Stringfellow, who designed a steam engine powered aircraft which was launched from a wire.

Alexander Graham Bell developed a gigantic passenger-carrying tetrahedral-celled kite from 1895 to 1910

On December 17, 1903, at 10:35 a.m., the Wright brothers' (Orville at the controls) made the first heavier-than-air, machine powered flight which lasted 12 seconds and spanned 120 feet.

Their first flight was 102 feet short of the wingspan of the C-5 Galaxy today, yet they did what every man and woman has dreamed for centuries... they flew.

Yet, not all flights were victorious, on September 17, their aircraft crashed, injuring Orville and his passenger (Lieutenant Thomas E. Selfridge). Selfridge later died of a concussion and was the first person to be killed in a powered airplane.

Constructed of silk balloon cloth, pipe, wood, tape and wire, and with a Curtiss 40-hp engine, JAD McCurdy flew the Silver Dart on Feb 23, 1909 at Baddeck Bay, NS

Between 1919 and 1926, some amazing progress in record breaking for aviation took place. Lieutenant John A. Macready made the first nonstop transcontinental flight from May 2 to May 3, 1923.

The Spirit of St. Louis is a custom-built airplane flown by Charles Lindbergh that made the first non-stop solo trans-Atlantic flight on 20 May and 21 May 1927.

▪Advertising ▪Events ▪Trade shows ▪Direct sales ▪Publicity campaigns During World War II, aircraft became a decisive factor in warfare

▪Supplier one, materials provided ▪Supplier two, materials provided ▪Supplier three, materials provided Before World War II only about 193,000 people were employed in the aviation industry, and during 1941 the number increased to 450,000;

In 1947, Chuck Yeager became the first pilot (at age 24) to travel faster than sound in level flight and ascent.

▪Channel one ▪Channel two ▪Channel three But by the end of World War II, a new frontier of flight would take shape, jet and rocket propelled aircraft.

After World War II and by 1947 civilian aircraft orders drastically increased from 6,844 in 1941 to 40,000 by the end of 1945.

Fighter jet technology increased rapidly. These weapons of war became the weapons of choice for many of the world superpowers.

In commercial flight technology allowed for safer flight as well as more comfortable aircraft for the flying public

The Airbus A380 is a double-deck, four- engine airliner manufactured by the European corporation Airbus

Seating capacity: 853

*Length 73 m (239 ft 6 in) *Span 79.8 m (261 ft 10 in) *Height 24.1 m (79 ft 1 in)

Who knows what the future will hold