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History of Flight
From ancient mythology stories to Leonardo DaVinci’s famous sketches, the idea of flying captured imaginations long before the first manned flights. The dream became reality with the invention of hot air balloons. You probably know that Ohio’s Wright brothers were the first to fly an airplane, but there’s much more to the history! This is the timeline of flight development.
November 21, 1783: The first manned hot air balloon In a paper and silk balloon designed by French brothers Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier, two men made history by rising 500 feet into the Paris sky. They hand-fed a fire to keep the balloon aloft to travel 5.5 miles in 25 minutes before landing safely. Just ten days later, rival balloon engineers upped the ante with a two-hour flight in a hydrogen-powered balloon.
September 24, 1852: Giffard proves powered air travel is possible Decades before the Wright brothers were born, a French engineer made a landmark discovery in air travel. Henri Giffard built an elongated airship that was filled with hydrogen. He flew the airship 25 miles, demonstrating a loose ability to steer that was revolutionary.
December 17, 1903: The Wright brothers first flight The Ohio brothers, Orville and Wilbur Wright, found ideal conditions in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, for the first controlled, sustained flight of a heavier-than-air aircraft. Each brother flew their wooden, gasoline-powered propeller biplane, the “Wright Flyer,” twice, with the shortest flight lasting just 12 seconds and the longest sustained flight for about one minute.
January 1, 1914: First commercial passenger flight On New Year’s Day, the commercial airline industry was born when pilot Tony Jannus transported a single passenger across Tampa Bay for a fee of $5.
June 14, 1919: First nonstop transatlantic flight British aviators Captain John Alcock and Lieutenant Arthur Brown (navigator) made the first-ever successful nonstop transatlantic flight. Their perilous 16-hour journey ended in a crash landing into a bog in Ireland, where both men emerged unscathed.
May 21, 1927: Charles Lindbergh makes first solo transatlantic flight Detroit native Charles Lindbergh completed a solo cross of the Atlantic Ocean at just 25 years old. Flying the “Spirit of St. Louis,” Lindbergh’s remarkable journey from New York to Paris made him an instant celebrity and ignited new interest in the possibilities of aviation.
May 20, 1932: Amelia Earhart repeats Lindbergh’s feat Five years later, the most famous woman in aviation history, Amelia Earhart, became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. A few years later, Earhart’s attempt to fly around the globe ended in disaster as she disappeared over the Pacific Ocean.
July 27, 1949: The world’s first commercial jetliner takes off After World War II, military planes were converted to transport people and cargo, and commercial aviation grew rapidly. The first in the air was the British-made de Havilland Comet, powered by four jet engines. Air travel was still utilitarian — noisy and uncomfortable.
October 13, 1955: Boeing ushers in an era of comfort and luxury flying When Boeing’s 707 jetliners arrived on the aviation scene, a new era of aviation comfort, speed and safety followed. The plane and the subsequent golden age of American flight travel inspired Frank Sinatra’s 1958 hit, “Come Fly with Me.”
December 23, 1986: Around the world, without landing American pilots Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager completed the first flight around the world without refueling or landing. Their “Rutan Model 76 Voyager,” a single-wing, twin-engine craft designed by Rutan’s brother, was built with 17 fuel tanks to accommodate long-distance flight.
— Graceful Living magazine
