Aviation history

Aviation history deals with the development of mechanical flight, from the earliest attempts in kite-powered and gliding flight, to the demonstration of sustained, controlled and powered heavier-than-air flight, and beyond.

Humanity's desire to fly possibly first found expression in China, where human flight tied to kites is recorded (as a punishment) from the sixth century AD. Subsequently, the first hang glider was demonstrated by Abbas Ibn Firnas in Andalusia in the 9th century AD. Leonardo da Vinci's (15th c.) dream of flight found expression in several designs, but he did not attempt to demonstrate flight. It was in post-industrial Europe from the late 18th century that serious attempts at flight took place, with progression from lighter-than-air (hot-air balloons, 1783), unpowered heavier-than-air (Otto Lilienthal, 1891), and finally, powered, sustained, flight (Wright Brothers, 1903).

Since then, Aircraft designers have struggled to make their craft go faster, further, fly higher, and be controlled more easily:

• Control: Initially gliders were controlled by moving one's entire body (Otto Lilienthal) or warping the wings (Wright brothers). Modern airplanes are controlled with the help of flaps such as ailerons and elevators, and these are stabilized by a computerized system to the extent that it is not possible to fly certain military aircraft without these controllers.

• Power: Aircraft engines have become lighter and more efficient, from Clement Ader's steam engine to piston, jet and rocket engines.

• Material: Initially made of canvas and wood, aircraft materials moved to doped fabric and steel tubing, all aluminum monocoque construction (around WWII), and increasingly today, composites.

• Use: Commercialization kept pace along with technology, leading to rapid progress in civilian, as well as military applications.