The Record (Bergen County, NJ) December 17, 2003
Birds of prey
SOURCE: North Jersey Media Group
Gravity and imagination, one might say, are opposing forces. Gravity serves to keep our feet planted firmly on the ground, while the imagination has allowed men to travel among the clouds. Legends and literature abound with stories of men riding on the backs of carpets, mythical beasts, and futuristic machines. Here are some of the most significant steps to the sky:
1000 B.C: The Chinese build large kites to carry a person to scout opposing troops.
A.D. 1488-1514: In Italy, Leonardo da Vinci makes the first design of flying machines, using bird wings for models. Later, the helicopter is based on his idea for a flying machine.
1709: Father Bartolomeu de Gusmao demonstrates a model hot-air balloon to King John V.
1783: On June 4, theMontgolfier brothers, Joseph and Jacques, launch the first unmanned hot-air balloon flight. On Sept. 19, they successfully attempt a second trial, in Paris before King Louis XVI, with passengers: a rooster, a duck, and a sheep. On Nov. 21, their balloon rises 84 feet into the air with the first human fliers, Jean-Francois Pilātre de Rozier and Francois Laurent.
Dec. 1, 1783: Jacques Alexandre Cesar Charles makes the first solo flight in a hot-air balloon. He flies more than 36 kilometers at an altitude of 3,500 meters.
Jan. 7, 1785: Jean-Pierre Blanchard of France and American John Jeffries cross the English Channel in 2 1/2 hours in a hydrogen-filled balloon.
June 15, 1785: The first casualties from ballooning occur when a hybrid gas/hot-air balloon catches fire and explodes while attempting an English Channel crossing. Jean-Francois Pilātre de Rozier and his passenger are killed.
1804: Sir George Cayley builds and flies the world's first heavier-than-air craft, a model glider.
1837: The term "aerodynamics" is first used.
1842: Horatio Phillips constructs a steam-driven vertical flight machine, the first time that a model helicopter flew powered by an engine.
1849: Cayley builds his first full-sized glider. The 10-year-old son of one of his servants becomes the first person in history to fly (on the glider).
Sept. 24, 1852: A steam engine powers the first airship flown by Henri Giffard.
1853: Louis Letur builds and tests a parachute-glider, the first pilot-controlled, heavier-than-air machine to be flight-tested.
Sept. 21, 1861 - Intelligence on Confederate troop movements is telegraphed to Union gunners on the ground from a balloon 1,000 feet above Arlington, Va. Union guns are accurately directed to fire on troops the gunners can't see - a first in the history of warfare.
1884: Horatio Phillips of England designs a wing with a curved airfoil shape.
1889: Lawrence Hargrave builds the first radial rotary engine.
1891: Otto Lilienthal becomes the first person to propel himself into the air, fly, and land safely. His glider takes him a few feet at first. He later glides 80 feet.
May 6, 1896: Samuel P. Langley, the third secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, succeeds in launching large, steam-powered model aircraft on flights of up to three-quarters of a mile over the Potomac River.
Aug. 8, 1896: Otto Lilienthal dies when a gust of wind throws his glider out of control.
July 2, 1900: Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin's first successful flight of the dirigible "LZ 1," a rigid airship that was the first to use large metal structures. It flew 17 minutes at an altitude of 1,300 feet, covering 3.75 miles.
SOURCES: NASA; warbirdalley.com; theaerodrome.com; wfu.edu; blackbirds.net; globalaircraft.org; allstar.fiu.edu; www.army.mil; pbs.org; globalsecurity.org; www.airshipsonline.com; about.com; airdisaster.com; centennialofflight.gov; sprucegoose.org; lindberghfoundation.org; goremeballoons.com; flyingmachines.org; fiddlersgreen.net; "The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Book Of Flight"; American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc.; "100 Years of Flight," by Bill Sweetman.
RESEARCH BY DOROTHY FERSCH, LEN IANNACCONE, MADELEINE NASH, AND PAUL WILDER / STAFF LIBRARIANS
© Copyright 2003, Bergen Record Corporation
