History of Flight

Though 20 Concordes were built, only 14 Concordes entered commercial service. The other 6 Concordes were used as prototype and development aircraft. The last Concorde was manufactured in 1979.

In 2000, a Concorde crashed in France following take-off. Primarily because of safety concerns, all Concorde flights were suspended for more than a year after the crash, resuming in the fall of 2001. In 2003, British Airways and Air France, citing a decline in the profitability of Concorde service, ended all Concorde flights. No other airlines operated Concordes.

Lindbergh withdrew from public attention. He worked as a consultant to the chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force. President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed him a brigadier general in the Air Force in 1954. Pan American World Airways also hired Lindbergh as a consultant. He advised the airline on its purchase of jet transports and eventually helped design the Boeing 747 jet. In 1953, Lindbergh published The Spirit of St. Louis, an expanded account of his 1927 transatlantic flight. The book won a Pulitzer Prize in 1954.

Airbus make the largest Passenger airplane in the world, the Airbus A380. The first prototype was unveiled in Toulouse  on 18 January 2005, with its first flight on 27 April 2005. Some technical problems then delayed it’s full launch until 2007.

In 2002, Steve Fossett of the United States succeeded in his sixth attempt to become the first person to complete a solo balloon flight around the world. Fossett’s balloon took off from Northam, Western Australia, and landed near Windorah, Queensland, Australia. It traveled an official distance of 33,195 kilometres. The balloon completed its circle around Earth in 13 days 8 hours 33 minutes. Fossett&apos;s flight also set a new record for flight duration by a solo balloonist—14 days 19 hours 50 minutes.

Before becoming a pilot Lady Heath had already made her mark. During the First World War, she spent two years as a dispatch rider, based in England and later France.

She was one of the founders of the Women’s Amateur Athletic Association and was Britain&apos;s first women&apos;s javelin champion. She also set a world record for the high jump though this is disputed. In 1923 she represented the United Kingdom at the Women’s Olympiad in Monte Carlo. During the games she came in third place at the high jump, javelin and women’s pentathlon. In 1924 she participated in the Women’s Olympiad winning the silver medal in the long jump, in 1926 she again represented the United Kingdom at javelin at the Women’s World Games in Gothenburg, coming fourth with a throw of 44.63 metres.

One of Leonardo’s designs from his notebooks.

Cayley also was the first person to create a working glider, which is a plane that doesn&apos;t have an engine; it just glides through the air. He designed many parts for airplanes, but wasn&apos;t able to create an airplane that would fly on its own. A German inventor, Otto Lilienthal, built 16 different kinds of gliders in the 1890s and made over 2,000 glider flights. He&apos;s known as the &apos;&apos;Glider King.&apos;&apos; Lilienthal got a lot of publicity in newspapers, and many others became interested in flying because of him. The word aviation means anything to do with flying in aircraft. This book will take you on the journey we took to get to the skies….and beyond!

Daedalus tried to think of ways to escape. One day, Daedalus noticed birds flying overhead. It gave him an idea. Wings. He needed wings. Daedalus began to gather all the bird feathers he could find. He glued them together with wax. When two pairs of wings were ready, he warned his young son not to fly too close to the sun or the wax would melt.

The earliest known mention of a rotor-powered flying machine appears in a Chinese text written about A.D. 320. The design of this machine may have been based on a Chinese toy called the flying top. Such toys flew by means of feather rotors. In 1483, the great Italian artist and scientist Leonardo da Vinci sketched a design for a helicopter. It had a large, screwlike wing made of starched linen.

In 1919, a New York City hotel owner named Raymond Orteig offered $25,000 to the first aviator to fly nonstop from New York to Paris. Several pilots were killed or injured while competing for the Orteig prize. By 1927, it had still not been won.

Lindbergh believed he could win it if he had the right airplane. He persuaded nine St. Louis businessmen to help him finance the cost of a plane. Lindbergh approached a number of major aircraft manufacturers, but they all refused to sell him a plane. He then selected the Ryan Aeronautical Company of San Diego to manufacture a special plane, which he helped design. He named the plane the Spirit of St. Louis.

Alcock and Brown were knighted for their effort by King George V. They also received a prize of 10,000 pounds that the London Daily Mail newspaper in 1913 had offered to the crew of the first airplane to make a nonstop transatlantic crossing.

Alcock was born on Nov. 6, 1892, in Manchester, England. During World War I (1914-1918), he was considered one of the best pilots in the United Kingdom&apos;s Royal Naval Air Service. He died on Dec. 18, 1919, in an air crash six months after his transatlantic flight. Brown was born on July 23, 1886, of American parents in Glasgow, Scotland. He became a British citizen and served in the Royal Flying Corps. Brown died on Oct. 4, 1948.

Wilbur was elected to the Hall of Fame for Great Americans in New York City in 1955. Orville was elected in 1965. They were the first two individuals named to the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1962.

Orville had sent the brothers’ original plane flown near Kitty Hawk to the Science Museum in London in 1928. The Science Museum returned the plane to the United States in 1948. It is now in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC.The Kill Devil Hills Monument National Memorial in North Carolina became the Wright Brothers National Memorial in 1953.

The Spirit of St Louis can be viewed at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.

The Antonov An-225 was initially developed for the task of transporting the Buran Spaceplane. The first and only An-225 was completed in 1988. After successfully fulfilling its Soviet military missions, it was put out of action for eight years. It was then refurbished and re-introduced, and is in commercial operation with Antonov Airlines carrying oversized payloads.

The following year, Lady Heath became the first woman to hold a commercial flying licence in Britain and along the way, set records for altitude in a small plane. She was also the first woman to parachute from an aeroplane (landing in the middle of a football match). Not one to kowtow to the male establishment, she flaunted her femininity, taking to the skies adorned in a mink fur coat, pearls and high heels.

Because of helicopters&apos; ability to hover in midair and to take off and land in small areas, they can be used for many tasks. They are particularly useful (1) for rescue missions (2) for aerial observation (3) for transportation and construction work (4) for agricultural and forestry operations (5) for military missions.

In March 1937, Amelia Earhart made her first attempt to fly around the world from east to west, starting in Oakland, California. But she changed plans after crashing her plane in Hawaii. The plane was shipped back to California for repairs and adjustments. Late in May, Earhart, her husband, her navigator Fred Noonan, and a flight mechanic took off again from Oakland. This time, they headed east to Miami, Florida. On June 1, Earhart and Noonan flew from Miami to Puerto Rico. Their flight plan then took them to South America, Africa, Asia, Australia and the island of New Guinea. They had completed about three-fourths of their planned flight around the world.

There are two main kinds of balloons: (1) hot-air balloons. Hot-air balloons are used mainly for sport ballooning. (2) gas balloons. Gas balloons are used for sport ballooning, scientific research, and a variety of other purposes.

This accident was the most serious in the Wright brothers&apos; career. Orville reappeared at Fort Myer the next year, fully recovered. He completed official tests with no sign of nervousness. When Wilbur returned to the United States, he made demonstration flights from Governors Island in New York City. He flew around the Statue of liberty, up to Grant&apos;s Tomb in northern Manhattan, and back.

In August 1909, the Wrights reached a contract with some wealthy men in Germany. They formed the German-Wright Company. Later that year, they formed the Wright Company in New York City to manufacture airplanes. The brothers earned some money from their companies. But they were troubled by imitators, infringements on their patents, conflicting claims, and lawsuits.

In 1910, the Wrights established a flying school. The Wright brothers also formed their own team of exhibition pilots. The team demonstrated their airplane all over the country.

In 1927, Lindbergh wrote We, an autobiography that was published that same year. Also in 1927, Lindbergh flew throughout the United States to encourage air-mindedness.

At the request of the U.S. government, Lindbergh flew to various Latin American countries in December 1927 as a symbol of American good will. While in Mexico, he met Anne Spencer Morrow, the daughter of Dwight W. Morrow, the American ambassador. Lindbergh married Anne Morrow in 1929. He taught her to fly, and they went on many flying expeditions together throughout the world, charting new routes for various airlines. Anne Morrow Lindbergh also became famous for her poetry and other writings.

Lindbergh was not only an aviator. He also invented an &quot;artificial heart&quot; between 1931 and 1935. He developed it for Alexis Carrel, a French surgeon and biologist whose research included experiments in keeping organs alive outside the body. Lindbergh&apos;s device could pump the substances necessary for life throughout the tissues of an organ.

In 1978, three American balloonists—Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson, and Larry Newman—made the first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in a balloon. Their helium balloon lifted off from Presque Isle, Maine, and landed about 95 kilometres northwest of Paris. Joe Kittinger made the first solo crossing of the Atlantic in 1984.

Lindbergh traveled widely and developed an interest in the cultures of peoples in Africa and the Philippines. During the late 1960&apos;s, Lindbergh ended his years of silence to speak out for the conservation movement. He especially campaigned for the protection of humpback and blue whales, two species of whales in danger of becoming extinct. Lindbergh opposed the development of supersonic transport planes because he feared the effects the planes might have on the atmosphere of the earth.

Lindbergh died of cancer on Aug. 26, 1974, in his home on the Hawaiian island of Maui. The Autobiography of Values, a collection of Lindbergh&apos;s writings, was published in 1978.

The Blackbird was so fast that its strategy against surface-to-air missiles was to simply accelerate and outfly them.

Finished aircraft were painted a dark blue, almost black, to increase the emission of internal heat and to act as camouflage against the night sky. The dark colour led to the aircraft’s call sign “Blackbird”.

He flapped his arms faster and faster. But it was no use. Poor Icarus plunged into the water and drowned.

Sadly, Daedalus had to continue on alone.

A tiltrotor aircraft combines features of both helicopters and airplanes. It has a wing like an airplane&apos;s and two main rotors, one at each wing tip. The tiltrotor can take off, hover, fly, and land like a helicopter.

But by moving the rotors from a horizontal to a vertical position, the tiltrotor can fly like an airplane. This feature gives the tiltrotor higher speeds and a longer range than a traditional helicopter.

Helicopters range in size from tiny, single-seat models to huge transports that can carry two trucks in their cargo hold. The heaviest helicopter ever manufactured is the Mil Mi-26, built in Russia. It weighs 28,000 Kgs and can carry 20,000 Kgs of cargo.

From this, she progressed to a full-scale glider, which was built from spruce, bamboo and canvas, and completed early in 1910. For months of experiments, she made numerous glider flights to improve the plane. The finished glider had a wingspan of just over 6 metres. 

To test if it would be storing enough to carry an engine she enlisted the help of four Irish constables. Since the plane could lift four men, Bland believed it could carry one English engine. She ordered a light 20 horsepower two stroke engine and brought it to Carnmoney in July.

Landed might be too good a word to describe it. They thought they were landing in a field but it turned out to be a bog.

Concorde was a supersonic transport (SST) airplane that was in commercial passenger operation from 1976 to 2003. It carried passengers and cargo at 2,180 kilometres per hour (nearly twice the speed of sound). Commercial airliners usually fly at between 800 and 970 kph.

Earhart rode as an observer on a transatlantic airplane flight Newfoundland to Wales, in 1928. The flight made her famous as the first woman to cross the Atlantic by airplane. Her resemblance to the famous American pilot Charles Lindbergh also contributed to her fame.

In 1929, Earhart helped found the Ninety-Nines, an international organisation of women pilots. The Ninety-Nines provided professional opportunities to women in aviation. In 1931, she married George Palmer Putnam, a wealthy publisher. Putnam had helped organise her 1928 flight.

Daedalus was a bit amazed at the king&apos;s choice of pet, but a job was a job. Daedalus planned to make the maze a challenge, so complicated that anyone who entered it would be lost until rescued. That way, the king would be happy, the monster would be contained, and the people would be safe. Daedalus had no doubt he could design such a maze. He really was a fine architect.

A Scale model of her plane can be seen in Lilian Bland Community Park, Glengormley.

Flying at 24,000 metres meant that crews could not use standard masks, which could not provide enough oxygen. Specialised protective pressurised suits were produced, similar to the ones used on the Space Shuttle.

Sikorsky came to the United States in 1919. In 1923, he founded a company that produced flying boats and pioneered passenger routes in the Caribbean Sea and across the Pacific Ocean. In 1934, this company became part of the United Aircraft Corporation.

Sikorsky then turned to the design and building of helicopters. He died on Oct. 26, 1972.

It was called the Beluga because of its similarity to the Beluga Whale. What do you think?

<a href="bookcreator://page/wBw4fPoBTFOG_2NTbcRLiw">Introduction</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/RureX-BlRCOaP8Tbyn1iSg">Amazing Airplanes</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/cIkPbsQQTPyiffZ8Vsj3_g">Daedalus &amp; Icarus</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/cObHW3evQMCWyJ8J2677Ew">Amazing Aviators</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/p9wFs3aBQKadtv1KRO3MUQ">Leonardo da Vinci</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/yLChE__BTz6o9kggHxU-nQ">Amelia Earhart</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/RP2d_l4OQw2oER8hRGHYUQ">Montgolfier Brothers</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/aVsteKc9TyWTbpLrD_OcHQ">Charles Lindbergh</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/ltYX5CfwQaapW4q1nTDfPg">George Cayley</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/TI33z-xUSFeb7jdqUnz5JA">Alcock &amp; Brown</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/hRY65l5FT--gLiVTXlfYlw">Otto Lilienthal</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/mtPCsN5QTkiqDjkYkZpqfw">Irish Aviators</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/vyCHTHodSmiM6eZUL5lpCw">Wright Brothers</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/LXr4RC9QTVavpq9ml0NS1Q">Lilian Bland</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/LqLzUHvHQ8-47AB1kdD0pA">Balloons</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/gLVm2olkTketNoCNEO1Ifg">Lady Mary Heath</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/MCZ64eXGRSWlXICTLFMvnA">Balloon Exploration</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/sq6DNmUVTsyEk-QdojTB_g">Helicopters</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/MlyAVU7ZRVaCi1AClalw6A">Richard Crosbie</a>

<a href="bookcreator://page/pO_wdK5aQwWvTwV1hJGoXw">Gliders</a>

In an era when the world had gone aviation-mad due to the exploits of Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart, Lady Heath was more than able to hold her own.[ She made front-page news as the first pilot, male or female, to fly a small open-cockpit aircraft from Cape Town in South Africa to London. She had thought it would take her three weeks; as it turned out, it took her three months, from January to May 1928. It was a perilous 10,000-mile journey during which she battled heatstroke in 100 degree heat and crashed in Zimbabwe. At one stage she was reported dead. A scale model of the plane used by Lady Mary is on display at The Little museum of Dublin.

Just when her fame was at its height, with her life a constant whirl of lectures, races and long-distance flights, Lady Heath (she married Sir James Heat in October 1927) was badly injured in a crash just before the National Air Races in Cleveland, Ohio in 1929. Before her accident Lady Heath applied for American citizenship, intending to remain in the USA where she had made a good living on the lecture circuit and. Lady Heath was never the same after her accident.

The Montgolfiers started their experiments by filling small paper bags with smoke. They at first thought the smoke made the bags ascend. But they later learned that hot air caused the bags to rise. The Montgolfier brothers were actually paper makers by profession so they lined the inside of the balloon with paper to stop the air escaping.

The Montgolfiers made the first public demonstration of this discovery on June 4, 1783, at the marketplace in Annonay in France. They filled their balloon with heated air by burning straw and wool under the opening at the bottom of the bag. The balloon rose into the air about 1,000 metres, remained there for about 10 minutes, and then settled to the ground more 2 kilometres away.

Lilian Bland (28 September 1878 – 11 May 1971) was an Anglo-Irish journalist and pioneer aviator who, in 1910–11, became the first woman in Ireland, and maybe even in the world, to design, build, and fly an aircraft – the Bland Mayfly.

A Balloon is a bag or envelope filled with heated air or a light gas, causing it to rise and float in the air. The air consists of a mixture of gases, mainly nitrogen and oxygen because certain gases are lighter than others.

In addition, a gas that is hot is lighter than the same gas when it is cool. A balloon rises because the heated air or gas inside is lighter than the surrounding air.

Ever since the first Balloon flight by the Montgolfier Brothers people have wanted to go higher and further in balloons. Some of their amazing adventures are shared on the next few pages.

The first Irishman to take a manned flight.

He flew in a hydrogen air balloon from Ranelagh on Dublin’s Southside to Clontarf on Dublin’s Northside on 19 January 1785. 

His achievement occurred just 14 months after the first-ever manned balloon flight by the Montgolfier Brothers in France.

Irish Women Aviators

Wilbur died of typhoid fever on May 30, 1912. He died just as the airplane was beginning to make great advances. Orville worked on alone. In 1913, Orville won an aviation award called the Collier Trophy. He won the trophy for developing a device called an automatic stabiliser that helps airplanes keep balance. Orville sold his interest in the Wright Company and retired in 1915.

Orville continued work on the development of aviation in his own shop, the Wright Aeronautical Laboratory. In 1929, he received the first Daniel Guggenheim Medal, an aeronautics award, for his and Wilbur&apos;s contributions to flight. Orville died on Jan. 30, 1948.

Single-rotor helicopters are the most common type of helicopters. A single-rotor helicopter has one main rotor mounted above its body. Although such an aircraft is called a single-rotor helicopter, it also has a second, smaller rotor mounted on its tail. The main rotor may have from 2 to 8 blades. It provides the helicopter with both lift and propulsion. The tail rotor has from 2 to 13 blades. It is usually mounted vertically on either side of the tail at a right angle to the main rotor. The tail rotor overcomes the tendency of a helicopter to spin in the direction opposite to that of the main rotor and helps control direction.

In 2014, American skydiver Alan Eustace broke Baumgartner&apos;s altitude record when he jumped out of a balloon about 41,420 metres over New Mexico.

The Montgolfiers then traveled to Paris and then to the royal court at Versailles, where they repeated the experiment with a much larger balloon on the 19th of September 1783. The first passengers on this maiden voyage were a duck, a sheep and a rooster. These were the world’s first air passengers. The balloon floated for about 8 minutes and landed safely about 3 kilometres away.

The Antonov An-225 is a strategic airlift cargo aircraft that was designed in the Ukraine during the 1980s. It is powered by six turbofan engines and is the heaviest aircraft ever built with a maximum takeoff weight of 640,000 kilograms. It also has the largest wingspan of any aircraft in operational service.

For years afterward, most people knew nothing of the Wright brothers’ achievement. A few newspapers reported on the Wrights. But the stories were often inaccurate. Many people at the time doubted that flying machines could even exist.

The very first powered flight was captured in this photograph.

Airbus also make one of the more unusual looking airplanes. The Airbus Beluga XL is a large transport aircraft based on the Airbus A330 airliner. The aircraft was built to replace the original Airbus Beluga in the movement of oversized aircraft components, for example wings. The Beluga XL made its first flight on 19 July 2018. It made its first operational flight on January 9, 2020, and by January 20, had entered full-time service.

In 1783 two French brothers, Joseph and Étienne Montgolfier built a huge balloon which became the first to fly freely with people on board.

The “Bumble Bee I” and “Bumble Bee II” were designed, built and flown by Robert H. Starr of Phoenix, Arizona.  Both aircraft are an enclosed single engine biplane style with conventional landing gears. The Bumble Bee I was flown on several occasions from January 28, 1984 – 1986 to achieve the title of “World’s Smallest”.  Mr. Starr then built the Bumble Bee II. It was both smaller and lighter. He flew the Bumble Bee II on May 8, 1988 at Marana Airport just outside of Tucson, Arizona and acquired the title of World&apos;s Smallest once again.  During one of the subsequent flights of the Bumble Bee II, the engine failed on downwind. The pilot Robert Starr sustained serious injuries as a result of the emergency landing.  However, he recovered and the Bumble Bee II was donated to a private collection.

For all its technology though, the Blackbird’s engines need help starting up with the assistance of an external engine referred to as a “start cart”. Basically it had to be jump started like you would a car on a cold morning. On the day the SR-71 became the world’s fastest airplane it also broke the world record for its class flying at 25,929 metres. Several other aircraft have exceeded this altitude in zoom climbs but not in sustained flight. It has also flown from London to New York in 1 hour 54 minutes and 56.4 seconds. That’s less time than it took the fastest person to run a marathon.

The SR-71 is no longer in service and there are rumours that the next version the SR-72 will be able to travel twice as fast. 

Amelia Mary Earhart was born in Atchison, Kansas, on July 24, 1897. She received a modest inheritance from her maternal grandmother. The money helped give her a secure life with considerable opportunity for travel. She became a volunteer nurse during World War I.

In 1920, Earhart moved to California to live with her mother. While there, she became fascinated by aviation. Flying was a new and dangerous sport at that time. Earhart took flying lessons from an instructor named Neta Snook. Snook was one of only a few women pilots in the 1920&apos;s. Earhart purchased her own airplane and set an unofficial altitude record for women. In 1924, she moved to the East Coast. Earhart became a social worker in 1926, but she continued to fly.

In 1804 he flew the first successful glider model of which there is any record. His work culminated in 1853 with the completion of a full-scale glider that carried his very reluctant coachman on the first manned glider flight on record.

Stories about flight have appeared throughout the world for thousands of years. One of the earliest came from the Ancient Greek Myth, Daedalus and Icarus.

They made landfall in County Galway, landing at 8:40 a.m. on 15 June 1919, not far from their intended landing place, after less than sixteen hours&apos; flying time. The aircraft was damaged upon arrival because they landed on what appeared from the air to be a suitable green field, but which turned out to be Derrygilmlagh Bog, near Clifden. This caused the aircraft to nose-over, although neither of the airmen was hurt. Brown said that if the weather had been good they could have pressed on to London.

Alcock and Brown, were pioneering British aviators who made the first nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

Sir John William Alcock (1892-1919) was the pilot, and Sir Arthur Whitten Brown (1886-1948) was the navigator.

On June 14, 1919, the two men took off from Lester’s Field near St. John’s, Newfoundland, in a twin-engine Vickers Vimy, a converted bomber. They landed the plane in a bog near Clifden, Ireland, the next day. The aviators traveled nearly 3,200 kilometres in 16 hours and 27 minutes.

Unfortunately Lilienthal broke his back in a glider crash on Aug. 9, 1896, and died in a Berlin  hospital the next day.

But his ideas lived on and he had two big believers in his work in the United States. The Wright Brothers.

Twin-rotor helicopters have two main rotors. The rotors turn in opposite directions and so eliminate the need for a tail rotor. Two basic types of twin-rotor helicopters are widely used: tandem-rotor helicopters and coaxial-rotor helicopters. A tandem-rotor helicopter has a main rotor mounted above each end of its body. A coaxial-rotor helicopter has one rotor above the other. The rotors are mounted above the middle of the helicopter&apos;s body. The shaft of the upper rotor turns inside the shaft of the lower rotor.

The Wrights continued their experiments at a field near their hometown of Dayton in 1904 and 1905. In 1904, they made 105 flights. The longest two flights lasted five minutes each.

The brothers continued to change and improve the design of their flying machine. Then, on Oct. 5, 1905, the machine flew 38.9 kilometres in 38 minutes and 3 seconds. The Wrights finally believed they had a practical flying machine they could sell.

Immediately after these test flights, Wilbur went to France. He made flights to altitudes of 90 metres and more. The flights captivated thousands of people in France. Wilbur made a deal with a French company to construct his machine there.

Crosbie intended to cross the Irish Sea, but as darkness fell early in the winter evenings, he decided to land at Clontarf. He attempted a channel crossing on 19 July 1785, (defying a ban on balloon flights by the Lord Mayor of Dublin because the population of the city was spending long periods looking at the sky instead of working), but came down halfway across due to a severe storm, and was rescued by the Dun Laoghaire barge Captain Walmitt, which was following his progress.

The moment Joe Kittinger jumped from his balloon.

The Wright brothers invented and built the first successful airplane as we know it today. The brothers were Wilbur (1867-1912) and Orville (1871-1948). On Dec. 17, 1903, they made the world&apos;s first controlled flight in a machine that was piloted, power driven, and heavier than air. 

They flew this airplane—called the Flyer—near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. With Orville at the controls, the plane flew 37 metres on the first flight. It stayed in the air just 12 seconds but history had been made. The brothers made three more flights that day. The longest, by Wilbur, was 260 metres in length and lasted 59 seconds.

While Wilbur was in France, Orville made successful flights in the United States. On the morning of Sept. 9, 1908, he made 57 complete circles at an altitude of 37 metres over the drill field at Fort Myer, Virginia. He remained in the air for 1 hour and 2 minutes. He set several records the same day.

On September 17, however, disaster struck. While Orville was flying at 23 metres, a blade of the right-hand propellor struck and loosened a wire of the rear rudder. The wire coiled around the blade and snapped it across the middle. The machine became difficult to control and plunged to the ground. Orville suffered a broken thigh and two broken ribs. His passenger, Lieutenant Thomas E. Selfridge, suffered a fractured skull. Selfridge died within three hours. He was the first casualty of the new era of flying.

Since 1976, the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird has held the world record for the fastest ‘air-breathing manned aircraft’ with a recorded speed of 3,529.6 km/h. That works out to a staggering 58.83 km every minute. If I had one I would be at work in just under a minute every day.

Hang gliding is an aviation sport in which an individual on a glider flies on air currents, sometimes traveling great distances. Pilots can easily fly 160 kilometres in a single flight. The sport developed in the United States in the early 1970&apos;s and has gained worldwide popularity. Hang gliders consist of an aluminium or graphite frame covered with a fabric sail shaped like a pair of wings about 9 metres across.

In flight, the pilot is enclosed in a harness attached under the glider. By manoeuvring a control bar, the pilot can shift weight sideways to turn, and forward or backward to change speed.

On Nov. 21, 1783, the first manned untethered flight took place in a Montgolfier balloon. The balloon sailed over Paris for 9 kilometres in about 25 minutes. The ballon was beautifully decorated with the royal symbol of King Louis XVI of France as well as the signs of the Zodiac.

The moment Felix Baumgartner jumped from his balloon. Notice the curvature of the Earth in the background.

Charles Augustus Lindbergh (1902-1974) was an American aviator and airmail pilot.

He made the first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean on May 20-21, 1927. Other pilots had crossed the Atlantic before him but Lindbergh was the first person to do it alone nonstop.

Lindbergh&apos;s feat gained him immediate international fame. The press named him &quot;Lucky Lindy&quot; and the &quot;Lone Eagle.&quot; Americans and Europeans idolised the shy, slim young man and showered him with honours.

Daedalus fastened the wings to their arms. They flapped their wings and took to the sky. They left the island of Crete far behind them. Water sparkled beneath them as far as they could see. The sky was blue. The breeze was brisk, more than enough to keep them in the air. It was glorious!

Icarus flew higher and higher. He flew so high that before he knew what was happening, the sun had begun to melt the wax on his wings. Icarus felt himself falling.

Their father was a bishop of the United Brethren Church. The boys attended High School but neither received a diploma. Wilbur did not even bother to attend graduation ceremonies. Orville took special subjects rather than a set course in his final year.

The subject of mechanics fascinated the Wrights even as children. Their mother encouraged them to experiment and to learn as much as they could on their own. Orville started a printing business in 1889. He built his own press. The Wrights later launched a weekly paper, the West Side News where Wilbur served as editor. He was age 25 and Orville 21 when they began to rent and sell bicycles. Then they began to manufacture their own bikes. They assembled the machines in a room above their shop.

Once upon a time, a long time ago, there lived a talented artist. His name was Daedalus. He used his art to make buildings and temples. He was probably the finest architect of his time.

King Minos invited Daedalus to the lovely island of Crete. The king wanted Daedalus to build a maze, a Labyrinth, as a home for the king&apos;s beloved pet, the Minotaur. The Minotaur was a horrible monster, with the head of a bull on a human body. The king loved that awful monster and wanted him to have a lovely home.

Once the Wright Brothers had shown powered flight was possible it was only inevitable that others would want to set records of their own. 

Who could fly highest, furthest, fastest? Many early aviators died attempting these feats. Some became so famous that even today they are still spoken about. The next few pages has information on some well known as well as some not so well known aviators.

In 2012, the Austrian daredevil and former paratrooper Felix Baumgartner broke the altitude record and also became the first person to skydive faster than the speed of sound. After ascending 39,045 metres in a helium balloon, Baumgartner plunged through the upper atmosphere at 1,342 kilometres per hour. Kittinger served as part of Baumgartner&apos;s mission control on the ground.

Wright Brothers First Flight, 1903

While the title of this video says it is footage of the first flight it is actually footage of a flight taken in 1909. Watch how those watching pay close attention to see if it is actually off the ground. Even 6 years later people were not sure the Wright Brothers had actually flown.

Daedalus brought his young son Icarus with him. He was sure the child would enjoy swimming and playing with the other children on the island. Both Daedalus and Icarus were happy they had come. King Minos was happy with his maze. It was peaceful and pleasant on the island. Daedalus was in no hurry to leave.

One day, a group of Greek children sailed to the island. The next day, they sailed safely away, taking with them the king&apos;s lovely daughter, and leaving behind them one dead Minotaur.

King Minos was beside himself with grief. He did not believe anyone could have entered the maze and escape alive without help from someone, most probably help from the man who had designed the maze in the first place. (Actually, the children did have help, but not from Daedalus). King Minos punished the innocent Daedalus by keeping Daedalus and his young son Icarus prisoners on the island of Crete.

Balloon explorations of the upper atmosphere reached new heights in the early 1930’s. Auguste Piccard, a Swiss physicist, invented an airtight cabin, which he attached to a huge hydrogen balloon. In 1931, he and an assistant, Paul Kipfer, ascended in the balloon from Augsburg, Germany. They rose nearly 15,850 metres into the stratosphere, the atmospheric layer above nearly all clouds.

Fun Facts Crew: 6 Length: 84 m Wingspan: 88.4 m Height: 18.1 m Empty weight: 285,000 kg Max takeoff weight: 640,000 kg Fuel capacity: more than 300,000 kg Maximum speed: 850 km/h Cruise speed: 800 km/h

On July 2 (local time), Earhart and Noonan left New Guinea and began the longest leg of their journey. They tried to fly 4,200 kilometres over open water to Howland Island in the central Pacific Ocean. The next day, a US Navy vessel picked up radio messages from Earhart. She reported empty fuel tanks.

Efforts to make further radio contact failed. An extensive search found no trace of the plane or crew. Earhart and Noonan probably crashed into the ocean and died. Their plane likely ran out of fuel after navigation errors took them off course.

But even to this day rumours abound about what happened to Earhart and Noonan.

By the end of 1903, the Wrights had built a powered flying machine for less than $2,000—about the cost of a new car in 1903. It had wings about 12 metres long and weighed about 340 kilograms with the pilot. The Wrights designed and built their own lightweight gasoline engine for the airplane.

On Dec. 17, 1903, the Wrights made four successful flights at Kitty Hawk. Their glider experiments had proved the airplane&apos;s design and control system to be sound. The brothers had also become skilled pilots. Their understanding of flight physics and their piloting ability set them apart from most others who tried—and failed—to fly powered airplanes.

In any case, the Wrights preferred to work quietly, perfecting their airplane and developing flight technique. By 1905, they had created a practical flying machine that could travel dozens of kilometres. Every modern airplane is based on the Wright brothers’ invention and the principles of flight they discovered.

Fun Facts Crew: One Length: 2.7 m Wingspan: 1.68 m Height: 1.2m Empty Weight: 180 kg Max Takeoff Weight: 260 kg Fuel capacity: 11.35 litres Max Speed: 305 km/h Cruise Speed: 241 km/h

Lady Mary Heath (10 November 1896 – 9 May 1939) was an Irish aviator  and began life as Sophie Catherine Theresa Mary Peirce-Evans in Knockaderry, County Limerick, near the town of Newcastlewest. She was one of the best known women in the world for a five-year period from the mid-1920s.

Lilienthal was the most important aeronautical pioneer in the years between George Cayley and the Wright Brothers.

Trained as a mechanical engineer, Lilienthal established his own machine shop and flight factory. Lilienthal began to conduct studies on the forces operating on wings in a stream of air in the late 1870s.

Bland&apos;s uncle Robert had sent her a postcard of the Blériot Monoplane from Paris, inspiring her to take up flying. She studied the measurements of the monoplane during the first official aviation meeting held in Blackpool in 1909, and added her own thoughts into the design of her plane, the Mayfly. The Mayfly had similar wings to Blériot’s design, but it could get off the ground by itself. At that point, no one in Ireland had yet made a powered flight – the first would be Harry Ferguson, in December – and to make an aircraft would involve building it herself.

Her late uncle, General William James Smythe, an astronomer and member of the Royal Society, provided a house with a workshop. After some background reading on the Wright Brothers, and becoming inspired by their achievements, Bland successfully built a flyable model biplane with a wing span of six feet.

Hot-air balloons rise because the air inside the bag is warmer—and therefore lighter—than the surrounding air. Air expands when heated, which makes it less dense—and thus lighter—than an equal volume of cooler air. In a hot-air balloon, the air is heated with a burner fuelled by propane, a relatively safe and inexpensive flammable gas. The burner produces a flame that reaches up into the bag, heating the air inside. The bottom of the bag has a large opening, called the mouth, through which air heated by the burner rises into the bag.

The bag of a hot-air balloon is made of nylon or polyester. The size of the bag depends on the weight of the payload that the bag has to lift. The payload includes the passengers and any supplies beyond those necessary to maintain the balloon’s flight. The heavier the payload is, the larger the bag must be.

In 1999, two balloonists became the first to fly around the world without landing. They were Bertrand Piccard, a Swiss psychiatrist and the grandson of Auguste Piccard, and Brian Jones, a British pilot.

Their craft was a hybrid balloon with separate compartments containing helium and hot air. The helium provided most of the lift, but hot air helped control altitude. Their balloon circled the planet, then continued on, setting official world records for distance and duration of flight. The balloon traveled 40,814 kilometres in 19 days 21 hours 47 minutes.

Gliders can soar upward, gaining altitude by flying in air currents that rise faster than the plane sinks. In this way, glider pilots can remain aloft for long periods. Flights of more than 70 hours have been made. But most flights range from 1 to 5 hours.

On May 20, Lindbergh took off in the Spirit of St. Louis from Roosevelt Field, near New York City, at 7:52 A.M. He landed at Le Bourget Field, near Paris, on May 21 at 10:21 P.M. Paris time (5:21 P.M. New York time). Thousands of cheering people had gathered to meet him. He had flown more than 5,790 kilometres in 33 and a half hours.

Lindbergh&apos;s heroic flight thrilled people throughout the world. He was honoured with awards, celebrations, and parades. President Calvin Coolidge in the US gave Lindbergh the Distinguished Flying Cross. By act of Congress, he was awarded the Medal of Honour.

In 1784, two Frenchmen known only by their last names, Launoy and Bienvenu, built the first model helicopter in Europe that could fly. Based on the Chinese flying top, it had two rotors made of feathers. Throughout the 1800&apos;s, inventors in Europe and the United States experimented with model helicopters. The steam engines and electric motors of that time were too weak or too heavy to power a full-sized helicopter.

Early helicopters were difficult to control, and their flight was wobbly.

Fun Facts Capacity: 50,500 kg payload Length: 63.1 m Wingspan: 60.3 m Height: 18.9 m

Empty weight: 127,500 kg Max takeoff weight: 227,000 kg Cruise speed: 737 km/h Range: 4,300 km at max payload

On May 10-11, 1927, Lindbergh tested the plane by flying from San Diego to New York City, with an overnight stop in St. Louis. The flight took 20 hours 21 minutes, a transcontinental record.

Preparations of the Mayfly started in 1909, and the first successful flight was made at Randalstown in late August in 1910, a short hop off the ground. While perching on a canvas open-air seat, she manipulated controls to maintain the flight in balance after running forward about 30 feet and stayed in the air for about 400 metres. The controls consisted of a bicycle handle bar. Not only did this make Bland the first woman to fly an aircraft in Ireland, but the Mayfly also became the first powered biplane in Ireland.

She continued experimenting with further flights that year but eventually her father convinced her of the dangers and bought her a Ford Model T car instead.

Balloons may be captive, free-floating, or powered.

A captive balloon is anchored to the ground by a cable. A free-floating balloon drifts in whatever direction the wind blows. 

In a piloted free-floating balloon, the pilot can control the vertical movement of the balloon. The pilot cannot steer the balloon but can control its course somewhat by rising or descending to winds blowing in different directions.

A powered balloon is called an airship. An airship has an engine and propellers to power its flight, along with rudders and instruments that enable a pilot to steer.

Late in 1784, Crosbie exhibited his &quot;Aeronautic Chariot&quot; at an exhibition at Ranelagh Gardens in Dublin. Made of wood covered with cloth, designed and built by himself, the Chariot resembled a boat, with rudder and sails, intended to enable navigation in the air, reducing reliance on wind direction. His first flight took place on 19 January 1785 at Ranelagh, witnessed by more than 35,000 people. The balloon and chariot were beautifully painted with the arms of Ireland supported by Minerva and Mercury, and with emblematic figures of the wind. Crosbie&apos;s was dressed just as elaborately in a robe of oiled silk, lined with white fur.

Sir George Cayley (1773-1854) was an English pioneer of aeronautical engineering and the designer of the first successful glider to carry a human being aloft.

Cayley had been fascinated by flight since childhood, Throughout his life he conducted a variety of tests and experiments to learn all he could.

His most important discoveries included the advantages of streamlining, the means of staying steady in the air, elements of wing design, thoughts on biplane and multi-plane wings, and the use of rudders and elevators for control. Throughout his career, Cayley designed a variety of aircraft, including helicopters , airships, and fixed-wing machines.

After reading about the death of glider pioneer Otto Lilienthal in 1896, the brothers became interested in flying. They began studying the subject in 1899 and soon became familiar with all the scientific knowledge of aeronautics then available. The most important problem to solve, they thought, was how to control an airplane in flight. In 1899, the brothers built a kite to test ideas for control. Then they decided to build a full-sized glider.

The Wrights experimented with gliders on a narrow strip of sand called Kill Devil Hills near Kitty Hawk. In 1900, they tested their first glider. It measured 5 metres from wing tip to wing tip.

Crosbie launched several balloons containing animals before attempting the first human flight on Irish soil. One of which, containing a cat, was seen passing over the west coast of Scotland, before descending near the Isle of Man. The cat and the balloon were both rescued by a passing ship. The balloonists of the eighteenth century, pioneers in the first successful method of conquest of the air, were men of science comparable to the astronauts of the 1960s, attracting the same public excitement and receiving similar international publicity.

The brothers returned to Kitty Hawk in 1901 with a larger glider. They showed that they could control the craft’s balance from side to side by tilting the tips of the right and left wings at different angles to the wind. But their wings did not generate enough lifting force.

The Wrights concluded that much of what was already believed to have been known about flying was actually wrong. They set up a 1.8-metre long wind tunnel in their shop. The brothers tested more than 200 model wings in the tunnel. From the test results, the brothers re wrote what was known about air pressure on curved surfaces. This allowed them to design wings that would produce enough lift to support a person’s weight.

The brothers built a third glider and took it to Kitty Hawk in the summer of 1902. With this glider, they solved most of the problems of balance and control in flight. They made nearly 1,000 piloted glides. On some glides, they covered distances of more than 180 metres.

Beyond the first trans Atlantic flight landing in Ireland, our own aviators have also made their mark on the aviation stage.

The first flight of a practical single-rotor helicopter took place in the United States in 1939. The craft was built and flown by Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky (1889-1972).

He was an aircraft designer and manufacturer. He pioneered multiengine airplanes, helicopters, and transoceanic flying boats. He also designed the world&apos;s first four-engine aircraft in 1913.

Sikorsky was born on May 25, 1889, in Kiev, Russia. He was educated at the Petrograd Naval College and at engineering schools in Paris and Kiev. He first attempted to build helicopters but failed because he lacked suitable engines. He then concentrated on fixed-wing aircraft and rose to prominence in Russian aviation, designing one of the most successful bombers of World War I.

Leonardo was born on April 15, 1452 near Florence, Italy. 

He initially studied with a leading painter and sculptor in Florence. He had his own in Florence for several years before he travelled to Milan where he also worked as an engineer. He designed forts, weapons, locks for Milan&apos;s canals, and stages for shows.

Leonardo was fascinated by how things worked. He would study things carefully and made many drawings of what he saw. He studied the human body and the bodies of animals. He also studied plants, the stars and planets, and many other science subjects.

In 1932, Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean alone. She took off from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, and landed in a pasture near Derry in Northern Ireland. She went on to set other speed and distance records. Earhart also became an important figure in the movement to develop commercial aviation.

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was one of the greatest painters in history. However he was also gifted in many other ways as well. Leonardo was one of the most important people in the World at a time called the Renaissance. The Renaissance was a time when the importance of arts, sciences, and many kinds of learning grew very rapidly.

Gas Balloons may be inflated with hydrogen, helium, natural gas, or any other gas that is lighter than air. Hydrogen is the lightest of all gases and so has the greatest lifting power. But hydrogen must be handled with extreme care because it is highly explosive. Although helium is slightly heavier than hydrogen, it is much safer.

The most important kinds of gas balloons include (1) Sport balloons (2) Expandable balloons (3) Superpressure balloons (4) Zero-pressure balloons. The last three kinds are used for scientific purposes. Some can carry instruments that record atmospheric data up to altitudes of over 48 kilometres.

A Glider is an aircraft that resembles an airplane but has no engine. It flies in air currents as silently and gracefully as a bird. Gliders are sometimes called sailplanes. They are used chiefly for recreation and sport.

Airplanes and gliders remain aloft by flying fast enough for the air moving around their wings to produce an upward force. This force is called lift. An airplane&apos;s engine or propellers give the plane enough speed to generate lift. A glider has no power, and so it flies by other means.

Gliders are usually launched by being towed into the air by an airplane and then released. Level flight cannot be sustained without a motor. Therefore, the glider glides downward through the air. In this way, the force of gravity produces the speed necessary for the glider to remain airborne.

Having explored the physical principles governing winged flight, Lilienthal began to design and build gliders on the basis of the information he had gathered. Between 1891 and 1896, he completed some 2,000 flights in at least 16 distinct glider types.

Images of Lilienthal flying through the air aboard his gliders appeared around the globe in newspapers and the great illustrated magazines of the period. Those pictures convinced millions of readers in Europe and the United States that the age of flight was at hand.

He kept notebooks full of drawings, ideas he had written down, and plans for inventions such as flying machines and a helicopter.

While his designs may not actually have flown he was designing his ideas based on the materials he had available to him. However his ideas for manned flight have fascinated us for over 500 years.

The payload of a hot-air balloon sits in the basket, which hangs from strong tapes sewn into the bag. The basket is made of wicker or aluminium. The burner stands on a metal platform above the basket and directly below the bag’s mouth. Fuel hoses carry propane to the burner from tanks in the basket.

On Aug. 16, 1960, U.S. Air Force Captain Joseph W. Kittinger, Jr., ascended to a new record height of 31,333 metres. Instead of remaining with the balloon for the descent back to the ground, Kittinger jumped out wearing a special parachute. He fell for 4 minutes 36 seconds before the parachute opened.