History of Aviation - The Height of Human Imagination

If there is one word that is constantly being provedwish to fly from the earliest of civilization.
wrong throughout history, it is the word 'impossible'.Even after such failed endeavors, a nearly successful
Whenever a human mind thinks of something thatattempt of flying is said to be of around the ninth
has never been done before, there are always acentury. A Berber man took a short flight on his
number of people present to say that it is notgliding machine and landed back to that point. This
possible. Yet, from time to time, human intelligencecan possibly be the earliest glider, but the landing was
has proved its superiority over human reasoning. Manmore of a crash. The first recorded and credible
has been able to achieve nearly everything that aevent of such flight is found in year 1010th when an
mind is able to imagine. The best example in thisEnglish monk Eilmer of Malmesbury flew about 200
aspect is aviation. From the earliest endeavor ofmeters in his glider.
flying via huge birds' wings to the unrevealed secretIn the 18th century, it was Leonardo Da Vinci who
flying machine in military bases, there is a plethora ofcreated designs and illustrations that are said to be
moments which added a new wing in the flight ofthe major inspiration for what we see as modern
technological advancements. Moreover, the fantasyaviation. Da Vinci himself was a great believer in
of flying was not only limited to a certain class.human's ability to fly in flying machines. He designed
Today, everyone can enjoy the flight as well asmany machines which very much resemble the
flying. Enthusiasts can choose to be air force pilots orairplanes and helicopters that we see today.
commercial pilots. Many training centers and schoolsThe first modern flight was of Jean-Francois and
are offering training such as floatplane training andFrancois Laurent in a hot air balloon. The concept of
float endorsement for leisure flyers.hot air flight was nearly a century old, but it was in
Aviation perhaps is one of the most amazing marvels,1783 when these two gentlemen took the flight. The
yet it is also a very common mean of transportation.balloon later was enhanced as a steerable airship by
It is really interesting to see how this unbelievableHenri Giffard in 1852.
achievement turned into the business that it is today.Not much later in 1884, the French army made the
Supposedly, the very first successful attempt offirst ever electric powered airship. The Airships were
making an object fly was the kite which wasbased on the "lighter than air" theory, which
invented in China during 200BC. However, a verysuggested that an object lighter than air can float on
ancient myth Greek of Deadlus is also considered tothe air like a ship on water. This was successfully
be taken from a real incident. It is said that Deadlusachieved by heating the air, yet the airships were
tried to imitate the flight of bird by using wax toshort lived and fragile. The new century brought a
stick large wings to his body. The authenticity of thisnewer concept that was heavier than air flight, but
myth is debatable, yet it clearly does define man'sthat is a whole new chapter in history of aviation.