Aviation Development Throughout History

Man's wish to fly is old as man itself. Old myths and legends describe man's wish to fly and rule the air space. The most famous antique legend is one about Icarus and his father Dedale. This is the reason why Icarus stands as a symbol for flying. The oldest testimonies about man's efforts to learn how to fly dates from the time of antient civilizations such as the Sumer, Asir, Babylonian, Egyptian and Greek. Chineese and Mongol army in the old days used to put dragons into the sky and they moved with the force of wind. Today, it's called kiting and it's there to amuse people.

The most famous visionar of aviation whose ideas were from before his time was Leonardo DaVinchi, a famous renaisance paintor. With his interest in anathomy of birds he developed drawings and scetches of flying devices, something that he imagined a man could fly with.

With the lack of technical knowledge aviation went in the way of developing first flying devices that were lighter then air, so called Aerostats (greek: aer (air) + statos (standing) or populary called baloons.The first flying baloon was constructed by 2 brothers, inventors Joseph-Michel Montgolfier and Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier. and they tried it out on 5th Jun 1783. The baloon was made out of paper in a shape of a ball andfilled with warm air.

"A man was made for the ground and flying creatures for air" said famous astronomer Lalande, "dont try to break the laws of nature"... but a man using his mind made flying devices not to bend or break the Nature's law, he made it for the needs of mankind and its development.

The movement of a balloon depended on the wind power and its course and therefore its use and safety was bound to it. Man tried to find a way to control flying devices so eventualy frenchman Henri Giffard made an engine-powered flying device - dirigible. On 25th september 1852 he made a first flight with it. After him there were many tries to build a stable flying machine, even ones made out of metal. In 1900s a german aircraft contructor Ferdinand von Zeppelin made a zeppelin flying device which still carries his name even today.

Otto Lilienthal, a pioneer of aviation also was known as "Glider King" constructed a flying device called glider. A glider was a device heavier then air but without any self power or engine. It's design enables the device to climb up using air and then glide for some time and until a next source that will lift it up in the air again is found. To try it out Lilienthal made his first glides from artificial and natural hills in Germany and made it a breakthrough for all brave and inventive men.

The Wright brothers, Wilbur and Orville made a mark in the history of aviation with the invention of the world's first successful airplane. On 17th december 1903 in USA they made the flight with the first powered and controlled heavier-than-air human device which put baloons and dirigibles into the shadow.