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As humans observed flight in animals which
have wings, such as birds, insects and bats, it was only natural that humans began to
wonder if they too could fly. As a result, people began experimenting. One of
the first discoveries made was in China in 400 B.C. when they discovered
that a kite could fly.
Leonardo Da Vinci made several formal studies of
flight in the 1480s, with over 100 drawings that illustrated his theories. Later in 1783, Joseph and Jacques
Montgolfier invented the hot air balloon. It was not until between 1799 and
1850, that George Cayley discovered a way that man could fly. He designed
many different versions of gliders making improvements to them for over 50
years.
In 1891, Otto Lilienthal,
began to study aerodynamics and invented a glider that was able to fly a
person long distances. Part of these
aerodynamic studies was called the Bernoulli's Principle. It says
that increased air velocity, or air speed, causes a decrease in pressure.
Using this principle, scientists were able to create a wing, or airfoil,
that allows a plane to be lifted off the ground.
The wing is designed so that, while the plane is moving forward, the air
moves more quickly over the top than the bottom of the wing. This
creates low pressure on the top of the wing and higher pressure on the
bottom. That higher pressure pushes on the wing, lifting the wing and
therefore the plane also.
Samuel Langley, an
astronomer was the first to realize that power was needed if a human was
going to be able to fly long distances. He built a model of a plane,
which he called an aerodrome that included a steam-powered engine. An
engine is needed to keep the plane moving forward so that the air moves over
the wings and creates lift.
The famous Orville and Wilbur Wright
however, who spent many years learning about the early developments of
flight used all the previous methods to finally develop a method that
worked. They designed and use a wind tunnel to test the shapes of wings and
the tails of the glider, found which one was perfect and then added a 12
horsepower engine to create the first aircraft that would actually make
flight. This aircraft, known as “the Flyer” lifted off the ground at 10:35
am on December 17, 1903. Orville was the brother who piloted the plane,
which weighted 605 pounds.
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