History

The desire to fly like birds must have been in the mind of man ever since he was born. However, true flight with power and control became reality in 20th century. Mythological stories describing flying machines date back to 1500 B.C. However, a meaningful beginning can probably be found only in the middle ages when men attempted to fly by jumping down the towers trusting their lives to home made wings. Early tower jumpers did not come close to understanding the amount of lift required to support a human body, and they failed to grasp the significant difference between birds and humans. It was not until 1680, after many years of tower jumping, that any one pointed out, it is impossible that men should be able to fly craftily by their own strength. An Italian named GIOVANNI BORELLI said so after serious and detailed study of humans. Leonardo Da Vinci, the genius of renaissance(1452-1519) approached flight in a scientific spirit. He made detailed studies of bird motion, of airflow and air resistance to a body moving through it. However, for leonardo’s advanced thinking, his aircraft designs had one major flaw – they depended on human muscle for propulsive force. For more than 200 years after Leonardo flight progress was stalled.Then, late in the 1700’s, man’s yearning for flight took a new turn. The age old idea of imitating birds was temporarily abandoned in favor of lighter than air aircraft. It was just then that scientists had discovered the lifting properties of both heated air and hydrogen, and inventors began to apply this knowledge in the construction of man carrying balloons. But, this was not the answer to the persistent dream of true, bird like flight. Historically, the accomplishment of true, powered flight owes a basic debt to the genius of four men, Sir George Cayley(1773-1857); Otto Lilienthal(1848-1896); and the Wright brothers, Wilbur(1867-1912) and Orville(1871-1948). Cayley, in the course of his 84 years, investigated such diverse subjects as drainage and reclamation, hot air engines, endless treated tractors and artificial human limbs. He was also a natural philosopher, a promoter of education, a member of parliament and a founding father of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. Cayley laid the ground work for later aeronautical research. He was the first to assemble in theoretical form the many elements necessary for practical flight. He thought of the wing not only in terms of the lift but also of drag, the resistance produced by a body moving through air. In 1804, after years of research, Cayley built his first aircraft, a model glider, which many historians accept as the original aeroplane. Cayley sought to apply power to his glider; but in that respect, he was too far ahead of his time. The available power source then was the steam engine, which was in fairly wide use at that time, but it was far too heavy for use in aircraft. So, he devoted his attention to aerodynamics. Cayley discovered the importance of streamlining and aircraft and he sketched shapes would encounter the least resistance from the air. He devoted additional efforts to studies of movable tail surfaces and theorized about the stabilizing effect of ‘dihedral’ positioning the wings at an up word angle from the fuselage.