Early Flight 1

The dream of flight is fueled by our observation of the birds, and is illustrated in myths across the world (e.g. Daedalus and Icarus in Greek mythology, or the Pushpaka Vimana of the Ramayana). The first attempts to fly also often drew on the idea of imitating birds, as in Daedalus' building his wings out of feathers and wax. Attempts to build wings of various materials and jump off high towers continued well until the seventeenth century.

Hot Air Balloons and Kites in China

The Kongming lantern (proto hot air balloon) was known in China from ancient times. Its invention is usually attributed to the general Zhuge Liang (180-234 CE, honorific title Kongming), who is said to have used them to scare the enemy troops:

An oil lamp was installed under a large paper bag, and the bag floated in the air due to the lamp heating the air. ... The enemy was frightened by the light in the air, thinking that some divine force was helping him.

However, the device based on a lamp in a paper shell is documented earlier, and according to Joseph Needham, hot-air balloons in China were known from the 3rd century BC.

During the Yuan dynasty (13th c.) under rulers like Kublai Khan, the rectangular lamps became popular in festivals, when they would attract huge crowds. During the Mongol Empire, the design may have spread along the Silk Route into Central Asia and the Middle East. Almost identical floating lights with a rectangular lamp in thin paper scaffolding are common in Tibetan celebrations and in the Indian festival of lights, Diwali. However, there is no evidence that these were used for human flight.

In 559, human flight using a kite was documented during a succession wrangle in the Northern Wei kingdom, according to the Comprehensive Mirror for the Aid of Government. After the death of emperor Yuan Lang (513-532), his general Gao Huan took over as emperor. After Gao Huan's death, his son Gao Yang, had Yuan Huangtou, son of the erstwhile emperor, launched on a kite from a tower in the capital Ye. Yuan Huangtou floated across the city walls and survived the landing, but was soon executed. Possibly, the capacity of kites to carry humans, as remarked upon several centuries later by Marco Polo, was known even at this time.

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.