If there is one word that is constantly being proved wrong everytime, it is the word ‘impossible’. Everytime a rational mind hears of something that has never been tried before, there is always a number of people present to say thatit can not be done. However, from time to time, human ingeniunity has proved its supremacy over human reasoning. Man hasbeen able to achieve nearly everything that a mindis able to imagine. The most perfect example in this aspect is air travel. From the very firsteffort of flying via huge feathers to the super secret flying machinein military bases, there is aplethora of moments which gave a new wing in the flight of technologicaladvancements. And the love of flying was not only restricted to a certain class. Today, all of us can revel in the flight as well as flying. Enthusiasts can choose to be air force pilots or commercial pilots. Many flight schools are offering courses such as Floatplane training and float endorsement for leisure flyers.
Flight perhaps is among the most unbelievable prodigies, yet it is also a very common mean of conveyance. It is reallyexciting to see how this unbelievableaccomplishment turned into the business that it is today.
Supposedly, the very first successful effort of making an object fly was the kite which was invented in China during 200BC. However, a very ancient Greek myth ofDeadlus is also considered to be taken from a real incident. It is said that Deadlus tried to mimic the flight of bird by means wax to stick large wings to his back. The truth of this story is debatable, yet it clearly does defineman’s wish to fly from the oldest of civilization.
Even after such unsuccessful attempts, an almost successful effort of flying is said to be of around the ninth century. A Berber man took a short flight on his gliding machine and landed back to where he started. This can probably be the first glider, but the landing was more of a crash. The first recorded and credible event of such flight is found in year 1010th when an English monk Eilmer of Malmesbury hovered about 200 meters in his glider.
In the 18th century, it was Leonardo da Vinci who created designs and illustrations that are said to be the biggest inspiration for what we know as modern aviation. Da Vinci himself was a serious believer in man’s ability to fly in flying machines. He drew many machines which very much look like the planes and helicopters that we know today.
Jean-Francois and Francois Laurent made the first balloon flight in a hot air balloon. The idea of lighter than air flight was nearly a century old, but it was in 1783 when these two gentlemen took the flight. The balloon later was improved as a controlable airship by Henri Giffard in 1852.
Not much later in 1884, the French army made the very first electric powered airship. The Airships were grounded on the “lighter than air” theory, which suggested that an object lighter than air can float on the air like a boat on water. This was successfully achieved by heating the air, however the airships were short lived and insubstaintial. The twentieth century came with a newer idea that was heavier than air flying machines, but that is a completely new chapter in history of flight.
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May 31, 2010
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