HOW HUMANS LEARNED TO FLY
Discover the evolution of human aviation, from our first forays into flight to the jets and rockets of today
WORDS AILSA HARVEY
DID YOU KNOW?
The first passengers of the Montgolfier balloon were a duck, a sheep and a cockerel
Leonardo da Vinci – one of the first people to study flight – is quoted as saying: “Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the Earth with your eyes turned skyward.” Since the very first human flight over two centuries ago, aeronautical engineers have continued to scan the skies as they attempt to make each aircraft faster, safer, more comfortable and more efficient than the one before.
While many of the first people to study aviation were inspired by the natural flight of birds, the first substantial contributions to the field came when aircraft designers turned their focus away from the flapping motion of wings and towards more rigid structures. The first person to focus his experiments on fixed-wing aircraft was British engineer George Cayley. Before the first aeroplane was built, Cayley explained that for machines to operate successfully in the air, they would need separate systems to propel, lift and control them. He also designed the first passenger-carrying glider in 1853.